Originally Posted by
GagaPilot
As a datapoint, tonight I booked ANC-CDG for travel 6 months out: 340,000 miles for D1. Assuming 1 cent per mile, that’s a value of $3400. Had I paid cash, the ticket would have been $7600, thus over the twice the amount of the mileage ticket. So, I was overall happy to redeem miles for a J award (well, technically OZ).
The problem with these comparisons and CPM numbers is that you can often get much cheaper J fares simply by changing departure or return by a few days. In this case, there are Z fares on ANC-CDG for $4448 with a 7-day minimum stay requirement. The $7600 roundtrip fares look to be ones that don't meet the 7-day min stay requirement. It's likely if you extended the stay a bit, you could meet the 7-day min stay of the cheaper Z fares and save over $3000. Most people will have the flexibility to add a few days when it means saving that much money on the airfare.
