Originally Posted by tommyleo

I think that's a bad comparison. A reasonable comparison would use the amount that US would have to pay the *A partners for those award tickets, not the retail value of those tickets.

US often sells miles for less than the retail value of the award tickets booked with those miles. For example, I bought 90,000 US miles from US in 2010 for about $.009/mile (just over $800). I could use those miles to book a biz class ticket to North Asia from the United States, although we know the retail value of that ticket is many multiples of $800.