Originally Posted by
sbm12
Check out Scott McCartney's
latest post on awards in his Middle Seat column.
It is just awful. There are some pathetic nuggets like this one:
Oh, and his "analysis" of award availability depends only on the carrier websites and doesn't bother with partner availability. So he ignores two of the best ways to get value from points in a post titled: Getting the Most Out of Your Frequent Flier Miles.
Ouch.
I really only fly to a few specific locations on miles, and I never have gotten less than 1.5 cpm on domestic bookings. Perhaps it is different if one has easy access to hubs, but even my flight from ORD-SNA using Avios will exceed 1.5 cpm. MLI always has been 1.5 cpm or better. When I fly out of CID, it's usually closer to 2 cpm for domestic coach. The only exception was when I used Capital One Venture "miles" to fly on Allegiant, as Capital One Venture "miles" always equal 1 cent when used to reimburse self-booked travel.
In terms of full disclosure, though, I've never redeemed SkyPesos for anything, nor Southwest Rapid Rewards for anything other than gift cards, so my experience with those airlines' programs is limited. My experiences booking with miles mainly have been with BA, AA, UA, and Continental.