Originally Posted by
tangfish
Yes, I am not understanding the using points for just a portion of the ticket either. I'm not saying there's not an advantage, I'd like to know if there is, I just don't see it yet (I could be dense too).
I've been using my MR points w/ 50% back as long as the ticket is equal or less cost vs. booking directly and figure I will do this until I exhaust my points.
I'm glad I just hoarded MR points for so many years, as they didn't seem to be a very good value compared to the 2.64% cash back I was getting on a Visa. However once the 1.5X plus 50% back came along, I now value MR points at 3 cents each for purchases of 5K and above. This was a good move and has made me shift some spending, AMEX.
Everyone is different - for me, I want to maintain a large float of points so I have them available in case an opportunity arises where I need to use more of them for a trip. Also, I am evaluating them in a different way. United miles are earned at 1m/$ via credit card, and redeemed at 20,000 each way for most upgrades, which rely on usually non-existent R space.
If I buy a domestic F ticket using all points, the net cost to me after my 50% refund is about 25,000 MR - the same as just getting a F award ticket. That's no advantage to me. If I do the buy-down with partial points and partial $, I am paying no more than a coach ticket on my chosen flight, and my "upgrade cost" to F is using generally 12-15,000 MR which is a significant savings vs using United miles, and now I don't need R space for the upgrade, and can earn double PQM and incrementally more RDM.