Originally Posted by
JustineG
Just trying to book a nonstop flight on economy from CDG or LHR to LAX. Don't have much flexibility with dates as my vacation time is just slightly over a week.
It's 22,500 miles for an economy seat on Air Tahiti Nui which I believe includes 1 checked in piece of luggage and you need to call them to select your seat (do you pay an additional fee in economy when booking an award seat with ATN as your partner though? Anyone know? Nothing listed on the website). That said, there's an additional fee of $130 in taxes and fees I would have to pay in addition to the 22,500 miles.
The alternative right now if I don't use miles for the same or similar flight is $500.
So here's the calculation to determine how many cents per mile you'd be getting when you redeem miles:
$500 (cost of cash ticket) less $130 (cash component of award redemption) equals $370. $370 equals 37,000 cents. Divide 37,000 cents by 22,500 miles and you end up with 1.64 cents per mile in value in redemption. However, this is not a true apples-to-apples comparison:
1. AAdvantage flight awards are fully refundable if cancelled prior to scheduled departure time. What are the cancellation rules on the cash ticket?
2. Does the cash ticket include a free checked bag?
3. You could earn AAdvantage miles on a cash ticket, but only if you booked the TN flight as the AA codeshare; if you booked the flight under the TN prime number then you would not earn AAdvantage miles.
Whether getting 1.64 cents per mile on an AAdvantage redemption is good or bad value depends on whether you typically get more or less value than that on your other AAdvantage redemptions.