Putting a value to frequent flyer awards is like trying to determine how many angels can dance on the head of a pin...

I cringe when I think about the early days of awards, and how "cheap" they once were. Up here in Canada -- before discounted domestic travel was credited at half the points that full-fare was -- you could get 4 J-Class tickets anywhere CP Air (as Canadian was then known) flew, including Asia and Australia/New Zealand, for just 140,000 miles! A pair of F-Class tickets across the Pacific went for 125,000, if memory serves. And 100,000 bought 2 F-Class across the Atlantic.

Today, it's 100,000 for a single J-Class to the South Pacific. And it takes an awful lot more traveling to earn the same 100,000 miles (though using upgrades on discount fares at least earns mileage on a 1 to 1 basis, rather than 1/2 to 1).

Certainly couldn't calculate the value of all my awards over the past 15 years, but I have since day one taken the view that international F or J were the only worthwhile awards, since Y-Class travel is so heavily discounted. (And who wants to sit for 6-plus hours in the back cabin unless you have a large family to bring along with you?) And with a few exceptions, I've had little trouble booking space in either front cabin, using the logic of knowing when they're most likely to be heavily booked with paying customers.

Generally, I do think that both Air Canada and Canadian have less-costly awards in the front cabin (theirs being J-class only), than do the US airlines -- though discount domestic flights in US programs still get 1 to 1 credit, unlike up here, and so accumulation is easier -- and I suspect most international carriers. Though Air Canada has just (today) raised the price of J-class awards across the board. And its Star Alliance partners are pretty pricey when compared with those in oneworld using Canadian Plus miles.

In fact, some awards are so good on oneworld partners, I don't like too many people to find out lest they get raised. As already noted by one writer, F-class on BA -- surely one of the finest inflight experiences extant -- between North America and Asia (i.e. India/Sri Lanka) or Southern Africa (both via London) goes for a mere 125,000 miles. J-class is 100,000. In both cases, this is just 25,000 more than the same class flights across the Atlantic.

Although Air Canada itself does fly to India for 100,000 miles in J-class (an award that did not rise in "price" today), The Star Alliance doesn't come close to these oneworld awards. To get to Africa (using either Lufthansa or Varig) you have to "buy" two separate award tickets: the first to either Frankfort or Soa Paulo (at 100,000 miles), and the second to Johanessburg (at 110,000 miles on Varig, or 140,000 miles on Lufthansa).

And Thai asks you to "pay" 130,000 in J-class and 170,000 in F-class for the privilege of flying free with them. Even Air Canada and United "charge" just 100,000 in J-class to cross the Pacific, and United 120,000 to do it in F-class. Canadian and Cathay also "charge" 100,000 for J-class across the north Pacific (and Cathay 150,000 in F-class, somewhat more than United -- a "win" for the Star Alliance!)

And there is also Qantas in oneworld which covers the south Pacific as competitively as United.

So, aside from the generally poor inflight service quality of American Airlines -- the real weak link in oneworld when compared to the quality on offer from Cathay, Qantas and BA, not to mention poor little Canadian -- what's so "bad" about oneworld? Or what's so "good" about Star Alliance?

As to providing a more universal -- IRS-type -- value for award tickets, a judge up here in Canada did just that about two years back when our version of the IRS decided to tax award tickets in the course of an audit. While it is still not the norm to declare awards, it is expected when they are used for personal travel, but earned through business travel. There has been no great crackdown by Revenue Canada, but the precedent is now on the books.

I can't recall the exact formula the judge used (it's as complicated as trying to figure out the small business deduction on our T2 corporate returns), but the value of a seat even in First and Business is much lower than we'd think. The judge argued that because there are so many discounted fares, even in J and F classes (known variously as C, D, A, etc.), it was not fair to put the value at the "unrestricted" level as Revenue Canada had sought, nor at the "highly restricted" level of most discounts (as the defendent had pleaded).

The judge's formula had something to do with subtracting the lowest discounted fare from highest non-discounted fare and multiplying the result by some fraction relating to load factors or some such arcane benchmark. In the end it worked out to be about 1/3rd the highest fare in the respective class of service.

So much for the value of award tickets...