Originally Posted by
Raffles
DO NOT REDEEM FREQUENT FLYER MILES FOR ECONOMY TICKETS, IT IS A TOTAL WASTE.
Can we have this as a sticky phrase, please mods?!
I cannot even imagine for a split second why you would want to redeem 50k for a 34 inch pitch economy seat when you could redeem 100k for a 6 foot long flying bed.
I've flown both economy and business across the Atlantic, so I understand the difference. Here is my thinking: a coach ticket costs roughly $1k to the UK. If a reward ticket wasn't overwhelmed with fees, then 50k points would be worth $1k.
Thus if a business class ticket was 100k points, the incremental cost would be about $1k. If you were to give me $1k for sitting in a small seat versus a larger seat for 2 8-9 hour periods, I would probably take you up on that.
(and yes, I know the other differences, like the lounges, better food, better drinks, getting on and off the plane first, etc)