Originally Posted by
hydrogen
So a short haul AE reward that works out to ~1.7 cpm is good value? Doesn't a redemption have to be north of 2 cpm to be good value?
True that these can be of good value. My point remains, this is only the case if you have use of these. Additionally, such a high valuation only makes sense if you get a reward on a relatively short notice, not if booking nearly a year in advance.
Not long ago, my wife (who usually travels on rewards on my account) more or less cleaned up hers for a one way BOS-YYC in J for 25 k miles (a promotion). I paid around $850 for a Z fare on the same leg. A bit over four months ahead of time. I still would not use the value of my ticket as a reference. But if I would, it would yield
$800 (ticket - Aeroplan taxes and fees)=25k miles +3255 (miles accumulated on revenue ticket). Around 2.8 cents. But that's still too much because the reward is still more restricted.
So I guess I'm dreaming if I were to say 5 cpm to 10 cpm redemptions are possible?
Afraid so.
I would say for SE types with access to much "enhanced" IKK, 2 cents/mile ought to be a good figure. But only for SE types.
I use Europe latitude passes. My wife could use them too. They come up a bt over $2800 round trip, plus a few upgrade credits with zero marginal value. Our last trip ended up with a value of around 1.6 cents/mile.
OTOH, a trip to Canada initiating in Brazil, where "surcharges" are illegal, yielded an excellent value. Now, do we often get such opportunities? Averaging, I don't think I get much more than 2 cents/mile.
Without "enhanced" IKK, much much less.