Originally Posted by
Andy2
I agree with you Stevens397, the "value" is in the opportunities that miles / points create that would otherwise be unavailable. I can't figure out why everyone feels a need to try to quantify them and even try to consider them an asset. As I have said in other threads, to me the miles / points are a coupon system that are worthless from an economic standpoint; they simply allow me to purchase travel at a substantial discount. At the end of the day, their existence will probably cause me to spend more overall on travel than I would have spent if I did not have them, so I hardly see how they have value. On the other hand, if I was not able to purchase premium class international travel at a discount using these coupons, I would simply never be able to obtain the corresponding experiences from the international travel. So to me the benefit is psychological satisfaction that cannot be quantified. So, in my opinion, people should stop trying to quantify the miles and points.
Disagree. You have to have some sort of value to make logical rational decisions. I might need to fly to California and it might be 25K miles or $600. Only way you can possibly decide what to do is if you have some sort of value on your miles.
I suspect that we all have some sort of value in our heads as that is the only way to make any sort of decision. If you are not considering using your miles on a domestic trip than you still have a value for them. Its just a value that is fairly high.
If you have ever had to decide whether to use a paid ticket or miles than you have had to make a decision on the value of a mile.
To me this debate is important because it affects everyday decisions I make. Should I buy the ticket or use miles, should I take 2% cashback or use miles, should I collect SPG points with a credit card or United miles? These are all decisions that cannot be made without having some sort of value of a mile.