Originally Posted by
skycrab
Generally, I would earn the 20K miles through flying, and pay the co-pay, so for me, it saves me (in 2015) the spending of 20K miles which cost me $1818 to earn and it saves me the co-pay of $550.
That's not the "value" of miles. A good portion of that expenditure is going to air transportation.
An accurate current value of UA miles is between 1.7 and 2.1 cpm. Under that approach, a GPU is worth around $950 when applied to a discount TATL fare, less when applied to a more expensive ticket.
This figure should probably also be discounted by the limitations on R availability - you can't necessarily use the GPU on the flights you want, and that reduces its value.
They could also be valued by the delta between the fare purchased and the cheapest available business class fare. This results in a much higher valuation.
But these are personal valuations. As others have noted, the market values them lower. Likely because of the limitations on R availability.