While these ‘one off’ recommendations are useful, I wanted to share a rule of thumb general framework that I use when thinking about whether to buy vs. use miles for an award ticket. It is to compare the ‘Net’ Price of the ticket to the equivalent cost of the ticket using miles.

Step 1. Calculate Price Net price of ticket of ticket: price of ticket - miles that I would gain by paying for ticket

Let us use a JFK-SFO trip that is on sale for $266.70 RT

2556 x 2 = 5112 x 2 (for Platinum Bonus) = 10224 + 1000 online booking bonus = 11224 miles earned

A rule of thumb I use is 2 cents per mile, so 11224 *.02 = $224.48

That means that my real cost is $266.70 – $224.48 = $42.22

Step 2: Compare this to the ‘equivalent cost’ of the miles: 25000 x .02 = $500

In this case, I would definitely buy the ticket and save the miles.

To sum, take the equivalent cost in miles (miles it takes to redeem x. 02) and compare to the net cost (after miles earned). Any ticket that is less than the equivalent cost in miles is not a good use of miles.

This implies that one should be using miles for tickets during peak times, and for flights where you aren’t accruing huge miles (e.g. transcons)

As a Hawaii native who has been living in London, NY and Chicago, I’ve found that using miles to go home for Christmas has been a good use (35000 x .02 = $700). As tickets to Hawaii around the holidays can run in the $1400 range, I use them then.

I tend not to mind not upgrading on this, because I just imagine being on the beach! (This year, I booked early, so found a ticket ORD-HNL for $820, so I paid for it this year and am trying to upgrade!)

Of course, it has been argued that the value of a mile is steadily declining, but I think this general framework should help.