Originally Posted by
sbianco
MDtR-Chicago - I forgot to state that (good point). My goal is to bank miles with both airlines not only for commuter flights but also 12hr emergency flight(s) (example: elderly parent/in-law events). My choice of airlines is based on cost (Yapta) and I'm buying flights in May 2013 ($150-$200). I'd like to build a reserve of ?0K miles and then anything above that use for my RIC-BOS-RIC inbound/outbound flights.
Is this a good strategy? Is there another strategy other then churning?
Let's build an overly complex model to analyze your two flight options, if you want only non-stop flights. You can fly in a B6 (Jetblue) E190, which is essentially a full-sized jet, or a US CRJ-200, a tiny, tiny jet. Perhaps there's a value to you in that.
But from purely a financial standpoint, let's look at your actual trips. Let's say you pay $200 when the flights are cheap and $400 when they are expensive.
If you fly on Jetblue and use their credit card for the ticket, you'll earn 6 points per dollar on the base fare plus 2 pt/$ from the credit card on the total fare.
If you fly on US and use their credit card, you'll earn 948 miles per round trip plus 2 miles/$ spent.
Thus, for the cheap ticket, you could earn either ~1300 B6 points or ~1300 US miles. When the ticket is expensive, it's either ~2400 B6 points or ~1700 US miles.
When you redeem, they have differing values. B6 points act like a currency tied to the ticket price, with each point valued in a range of roughly 1 cent to 1.5 cents. US miles act like a completely separate currency not tied to ticket price, with one roundtrip on your route costing a fixed 20k miles for credit card holders, if there is availability at the low level.
Thus, if you redeem for the cheap ticket, it would cost something in the neighborhood of 12000 B6 points or 20000 US miles. When the ticket is expensive, it's either 23000 B6 points or 20000 US miles.
Therefore, the B6 points have a value
to you of about 1.3 cents whereas the US miles have a value of 2 cents, if you use them only to redeem for expensive flights.
Using those numbers, when you BUY a cheap ticket, your payback from B6 is about 9%, whereas US is about 13%. When you buy the expensive ticket, your payback from B6 is about 8%, whereas US is about 9%.
In summary, the best payback seems to be from US on your route. But at the very least, it's to buy the cheap flights on US and the expensive flights on B6, while redeeming for cheap flights on B6 and expensive flights on US.
And, obviously, if you're flying often enough to earn elite status on either, that would change the numbers, as well.
I hope that was more helpful than confusing. And you'll want to re-check all of those numbers, as they are grossly oversimplified. If you have the background, this would be great to put into Excel and plug in real numbers you find from your purchase history. You'll also want to look at the availability from US on your route - low level awards are not always available.