Originally Posted by
joer1212
What kind of savings could I have gotten if I opted to buy miles in 5k and 2k increments, instead of just topping out my award with miles?
You said you paid $381.15 for 12,000 miles correct? Any taxes or fees included in that amount?
Normal price is 33USD per 1,000 mls, but the price per mile for the option to buy miles during the booking process improves when you move towards buying 50-60% of the needed miles for the trip and comes down to 1.5cents per mile that way.
In this sale, you could have gotten the required 12K mls by buying 5k mls and getting 140% bonus (ignore the 145% option floating around for simplicity) for 1.375cent per mile. This sale was the first one where getting the high bonus, e.g.140%, was offered even for small amounts of miles starting with 1,000 mls. Usually the highest bonus only triggers when you buy 101,000 mls or more. YMMV.