Originally Posted by seoulmanjr
The target I shoot for in accruing my miles is to have around 60,000 for a RT to Asia from DC since its the ticket I'd be purchasing in any event. For where I want to go in Asia, it'll run me about $800 - $1200 in Y to get there if I buy the ticket outright. I just do the math.. $1000/60k = 1.67 cents per mile. Just my basis for starting. For one, in buying my ticket at that price, I have a lot more flexibility in terms of availability / dates / etc. On the other hand, the intrinsic value of whatever I'm consuming that earns me miles needs to be taken into account as well (like Kellogg's cereal that I'm eating for breakfast).
All said, if I could outright buy miles, I'd spend a maximum of 1.2 or 1.3 cents per mile if it were on a program a prefer.
peace,
~Ben~
I have redeemed 110K FF miles for a business class ticket on Singapore Airlines whose J/C ticket prices averages is about $3K-4K. If you can redeem your miles for business/first class ticket for international travel, then your mile value is going a long way.