Originally Posted by
lkar
Hmmm. Food for thought Although I'm not sure that I would ordinarily redeem 50k miles, if they were in my account for $1020 worth of travel. 2 cpm is ok from my account, but not great. There are enough miles in my account for F or Buisiness travel abroad, and I will probably use them for such within the next 12 to 18 months.
I suppose what I'm saying is that if there were a way to transfer 50k from her account to my account for free, what I would do for the upcoming travel is buy the tickets with cash and keep the miles in my account. I would value the 50k in my account as worth more than the 2cpm, but not really in her account. By using her miles to book the travel, and getting miles in my account for an additional $85, I've essentially done exactly that. Haven't I?
The point you've raised though is a good one, and I suppose I must consider what I'd do with $1105 more in my pocket for future travel if I simply use my wife's miles for the tickets.
Well it sounds like you may actually value your miles at 2 cents a piece. So then I guess if you are buying 56K for $1100 it is a wash. But if you are going to buy miles why stop at 56K. You could buy 100 or 200K.
I think you should redeem the miles from your wife's account because as you said those re worth less than 2 cents each. The question then becomes, irregardless of the trip you are making does it make sense to purchase miles from AA at the current cost. IMO, the trip you are making and the miles you are taking from your wife should have zero impact on this decision.
How are you getting 56K anyways? isn't it 40K plus 12K bonus for $1000 plus $30 plus $70ish in taxes. So I see 52K for $1100. I haven't done the math but I suspect you would have been slightly better off buying SPG and converting those to AA when they had the 35% bonus.