Originally Posted by
hindukid
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.
I've started to realize that there are quite a few people who simply don't care about the "cost" of a frequent flyer plane ticket. They've decided they're going to earn it and they just do whatever it takes to earn it.
If that means diverting 60k of credit card spend and losing $1200 of cashback, that's fine to them.
To me, the value side of the equation is less important than the cost side. In other contexts, this would be the difference between an "investment decision" and a "financing decision". Clearly the investment is a good idea, since it nets me a dream vacation. But that's independent of the "financing decision" of how to make it happen.
Knowing the cost of my miles is how I stop myself from making poor financing decisions. But there is definitely a large portion of the FT population who simply don't care about cost, in lost $ or lost time. So be it.