Originally Posted by
guv1976
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)
The point that the OP needs to understand is that when you use your points as cash to buy something, you pay whatever the price is at that time. If a DFW-MCO-DFW Coach roundtrip is going for $400, you would end up paying more points than if you could get the same trip as an award for 25,000 BA miles. That's why you have to see if there is award availability for your desired dates of travel, and then determine whether it would cost fewer points to redeem for award travel (using BA miles), or to use the points as cash and just purchase a regular ticket.
Breakdown should be on the difference of base fare.. Fees are still needed to be paid by the customer upon redemption.. So a round trip of $400, there may be $80 in fees.. so the base fare would be $320.. divide that by 25,000. and ends up 1.28 cents per mile.. so not bad..
I would try to find redemptions that are more or less around 2 cents for coach fare.. I understand when you start getting into first class some FTers value their miles as high as 5 or 6 cents or more per mile.. Great value!