Originally Posted by
ricktoronto
If you can get business and the cost is lower then it's fairly simple math. It's either available and cheaper or it isn't. I am betting on not available very easily given the loads of miles they sell constantly which overloads the inventory of miles and makes them less valuable.
Availability does not depend on the number of Lifemiles on issue, but on whether the airline partner will release inventory to Lifemiles. Partners such as SQ who are stingy towards their other *A partners will be stingy towards Lifemiles - that is not a function of how many miles LM is selling. TG on the other hand seems willing to hand out award seats to LM like lollies on most (but not all) of its routes, and that's also true for TG making inventory available to both United and SQ (I belong to both so can check inventory). I'd have thought the greater risk is that LM's partners say that LM will have to "pay" more in points because their inventory is devalued by the number of points on issue