Originally Posted by
handspring088
Hi!
Between my college-age kids doing study in Europe, my parents needing to come home from their "snowbird" condo and my wife now thinking that her time to explore the world (with me, of course, on my business trips) has arrived, I am seriously redeeming the miles that I have accumulated. I'm wondering how many FTers make these decisions on cost per mile (CPM) or on cost of relationships (CPR). How do you calculate the value of your use of miles?
Spending of miles is something that has to be decided personally.
I would speak out against crazy uses, but there are countless ranges of frivolity, between being a mileage miser or spending as if there was not tomorrow..... giving the number of mergers, I predict values will decrease.
It is nice there are often last minute milesaver opportunities, BUT I think most people would rather have the ability to plan aahead. When I have tried to do this, the availability is not as good as it was in the past, and I am noticing more and more last minute availability. The same is true with upgrades. If planned in advance, the opportunities seemed almost limitedless. My recent 77W flight from LAX-LHR bears this out. There were no upgrades when I looked days before the flight and the choice MCE seats had been taken. Hours before the flight, a bunch of these seats became available. In fact, row 16 had 4 people and I snagged 16J (the aisle seat in the starboard section). I assume the seats had been held by last minute upgraders, as the agent at the counter offered to sell me an upgrade (25K +$350). As I now had the exit row, with an empty seat next to me, I declined.