Originally Posted by
rusrocket
One would assume that the "crowdiness" factor of the clubs should have no effect on valuation of the miles, but I guess everyone is different.
Agreed. Some comments in this thread don't seem to make much sense to me.
Originally Posted by
agarc
I paid for my SC membership...but I would've totally used miles if I had the chance (I didn't have enough as I was new to DL). Clubs are too crowded to justify paying actual cash IMO...
FWIW, I only use my miles for flying friends and family - if I'm flying, I'm earning. My $0.02.
Whether clubs are crowded or not shouldn't make a difference as to how you pay for them. Only using miles to fly friends and family also shouldn't make a difference. You only have a limited number of miles. So if you use miles for a club membership, that means you will have fewer miles to use for friends and family, so someone would (theoretically) have to end up paying cash for their flight since you used miles for the club.
Originally Posted by
CarmenOM
I've purchased my SC membership with miles for three years in a row. I rarely use award tickets for myself (I need to be earning miles), only for family, and can afford to spend the miles more easily than dollars. I usually have at least 200,000 SkyMiles in my account, so it doesn't make a huge dent in my supply.
If one is cash-strapped I can see the reasoning to use miles vs. cash. But as stated above, just because one uses miles for family doesn't mean using miles for a club membership is a good deal. Also, using 40K miles for membership is 20% of your "supply." Whether that is a "huge dent" or not is subjective. Some people would say it is in fact. Obviously you say it isn't.