Originally Posted by
jamesteroh
I don't see 20K miles being worth anywhere near $200.
It depends on how you use the miles. For example, I recently booked DTW-PVG-HKG-NRT-DTW in BE for 120,000. The cheapest I could find this routing on Delta.com was $11,116. Or I could use other mix of airlines in business class and get it down to around $8000. That would mean those 20,000 miles are worth about 1/6 of $8,000 or about $1,300. Granted, I won't earn MQM or redeemable miles on that flight so maybe that takes off 25% of the value...still worth about $1000.
If you are going to use them for that type of travel, the miles are worth a lot more than the $200 e-cert.
Last year when I hit platinum for the first time I took the e-cert. Not next year now that I realize the value of the miles. I am going with the miles.