Originally Posted by stevens397

I know there needs to be some form of calculation in order to determine when to use points and miles but my take it very different. I'll be 65 in one month and will probably retire about 5 years or so from now. Until then, I can generate lots of points paying office expenses with my credit card.

Those points enable me to experience a level of luxury that is far above my what my finances could pay for. To wit, in less than two weeks we will fly RT in First on Cathay Pacific from JFK to BKK. 135,000 American miles each versus an insane ticket price of $26,000 each! I really don't care how anyone calculates my return because to me, it's all the memories I will be creating. Flights, hotels, suite upgrades - we can work the numbers any way we want. In the end, you figure out why you play this game and act accordingly.

Here's a link to a thread I wrote years ago on point value that got the best feedback of anything thread I ever started. I pretty much stand by everything I said back then;

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...int-value.html

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.

Originally Posted by lkar

I agree you have to have a rudimentary sense of the value of points to figure out which credit card to use, or whether an Amex transfer bonus makes transferring worthwhile. Etc.

I also agree there is a fair amount of irrational behavior out there, like using a southwest card to earn 1 RR point worth 1.7 cents instead of 2 percent cash back (barring working towards a companion pass or something). Then agan, it's easy to get 2.66 cents toward plane tickets for $1 of spend using a citibank thank you card, but stll people use 2 percent cash back cards and spend cash on plane tickets (or, hopefully, use their Amex gold cards which reduces the problem slightly). So go figure.

All that said, I still get confused about valuing a mile when I can't otherwise afford to purchase the ticket or purchase the miles. I want to fly 4 people to Europe in C. Even if I could get unlimited miles for 2.1 cents, I don't have $8400 to spend. How do I value 400k miles? It feels to me like they are worth more than $8400 in terms of allowing me to do things I otherwise couldn't. But maybe that is irrational.

Originally Posted by hindukid

The price you would pay for that F ticket is a real world decision. I can give you a concrete example. I just redeemed a marriott travel package in which I received 120K miles. I could send those miles to Southwest or United or AA.

If I send them to Southwest I get 120K points which is redeemable for $2000 worth of flights. I also get a companion pass which is valid until Dec 31, 2014. I estimate that the companion pass will save me $2500 over the two years. So in all I estimate that the 120K southwest points will save me $4500. This is cold hard cash that I would have spent on various domestic trips over the next two years.

I could instead redeem for 1 F ticket to Europe had I transferred to UA and AA. I am making a calculated decision that the F ticket is worth less than $4500 to me. Without figuring out how much those miles are worth I would not know whether to redeem my marriott points for United or for southwest. You have to look at things in terms of what they are worth to you, not what they cost on the retail market.