I know there have been plenty of threads regarding the value of a mile. However now I am asking the question with a twist. Pretend that their is absolutely no increased benefit to you the flyer for sitting in an upgraded class. I know this may be hard for some of you, but for me its a fact of life. I am just a lowly student who is young and can rough it. I would rather save the miles and sit in coach than spend the miles for C. Consequently I will never be able to claim that my ticket would have cost $7000.

For me its hard to go much higher than 1 cent. I mostly travel on well planned domestic tickets and rarely spend over 250. If I go to Europe I am not likely to spend more than 700 even in summer. Asia can be done for 800 or so and India for 1200. In all these situations I think I am far more likely to get my preferred dates and routing with those cash figures than with miles. In a real pinch, I might need a last minute domestic ticket for an emergency, but that raises the value on the last one or two free tix. I don't foresee 20 emergencies in the near furture. Plus you can generally find a LCC for not too much money.