Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Mostly living in the basement
Programs: Newly minted free agent; MR LT(!)TE, HH SE, BA SECM, DL MM, UA PS, 2V Fanboi, CBP GE
Posts: 5,110
I decided to play around with the numbers on the TCON routes, since I've done a fair number of mileage upgrades on these.
Let's assume a one way (T) fare is $250 and a one way (K) fare is $400. Previously, I'd need 12,500 miles to upgrade the (K) fare, which at the Mileage Booster rate of 3000/$60 is about $250, or about $650 total. This to me was pretty competitive with B6 Mint @ $599.
Now, it would be $250+45000 miles ($250 + $900) = $1150 or $400+35000 miles ($350 + $700) = $1050. These totals are of course completely absurd, only now AA has also gotten into the game at $1198/rt (with a lot better availability than either DL or B6)... so why would I ever do this? Oh, and with mileage upgrades I would of course have to play dumb games with availability.
So, in summary, new mileage upgrades = BIG FAIL. But we knew that already.