In addition, I think it's difficult to rate a program as having cheaper awards than another. It all depends on one's status, travel patterns, the type of award, methods of earning rewards, etc.

If you're going to rate a program based on cost of awards, it would make sense to calculate how much $$ you spent to achieve that award. It would be different for everyone.

For example, I could say that US Airways Dividend Miles has cheap awards. If I were to fly a YYZ-PIT-LAX r/t next week, I would earn:

5,260 Actual Miles
5,260 Gold Preferred Bonus
+10,520 Amex Triple Miles Bonus
--------
21,040 Total Miles

At the current reward sale, that would be enough for a free ticket to Mexico/Caribbean at a cost of CAD$450 (using your example), with 1,040 miles leftover.

But then for someone else, they might do a lot of full-fare travel within Canada - which makes the Dividend Miles program useless for them.

So I think it's really hard to compare programs on an equal basis.

[This message has been edited by FlyerAl (edited 10-05-2001).]