Hi All,

I am trying to get a handle on when it is best to actually pay for airfare, VS a long term churn/high spend strategy to create points and fly on those.

I understand therefore that timing could be an issue - if you simply MUST fly without owning the right number of points then you buy, but what price is the right price otherwise?

Looking at MR Threads I see people value getting points at under 5CPM.

I'm taking Y as the example as I feel many F/J bought options are too expensive to be a viable alternative to using miles for the average Joe/Joette. Personally when I fly with points I would upgrade to J for long haul.

An example of my predicament is a flight to Japan I am thinking of taking.

From NYC to Tokyo May 22nd- May 29th C on AA I would pay about $1200 and earn about 14.5K Miles RT.

If I route through BOS on the Dreamliner (assuming its up) I would get to take advantage of Double Miles... the flight is about $60 more, and then I would need to get to Boston ($400 on AA $200 on JB) so I could earn 29K miles for $1460.

I could also expense the trip for business, so could take a third of the price off (roughly) so say $1050 for 29K Miles on AA.

Or I could fly from NYC to NRT for 40K Miles RT with some fees (they say $271 but I have never seen it that high when redeeming in the past)...

I currently have enough miles to redeem 40K with ease, but should I be spending them, or earning them?

I ask humbly for your thoughts, as my gut is telling me that it is better to redeem than earn, but maybe I am not taking the second trip into account properly (where I would use those 29K miles).