Originally Posted by
RTW1
Putting such an exact figure on what a (purchased) mile is worth is all a bit silly....
People tend to forget about the little details like a negative correction for the fact that:
- you pay now and you (maybe) book later with all risk that entails like devaluations etc.
- award availability is limited, sometimes severely so when booking more than one ticket.
- you are limited to certain routes and specific carriers.
- missing out on the miles for status
And then there are things that can go both ways but also can have a major impact:
- the flexibility you have to cancel for a small fee vs paying for a flexible ticket, but also the US DM restriction that you cannot change once the first flight is taken.
- the sometimes very different prices depending on time or location when paying vs the standardized pricing for awards.
In general valuations need to be substantially less than what people come up with. But we all like to think we get a good deal, and sometimes we do...
Yes, I agree with all that in general. To that can be added the comment that people use miles in different ways, including upgrades, always in J, never in J, etc. I think in the end the value you get for miles is very opportunistic. But then if one has the opportunity to be opportunistic
, the value can be marked up. That may offset some of the downsides. In my little set of examples the range was a high of $.060/mile using Avios on AA on a particularly unfavorable date and city pair to a low of $.012 which turned up several times. To be fair I have used ticket prices from Orbitz for the cost to make the trip and not the actual cost on the carrier that would have provided the FF ticket, and I exclude FF options that become silly, such as two stop trips when a non-stop is available, and so on.
To repeat, though, your comments are certainly valid.