Originally Posted by CO FF
Cast my vote for only using miles for premium long-haul (transoceanic) service. Last summer, LAX-TLV, was either $1500 in Y or $3400 in CO BF -- the 200k miles (Sleazypass) per BF ticket was well worth it, since paying $10k+ for 3 tix was a nonstarter.
Similarly, for next summer, it's LAX-Italy in AA F & BA J -- but I booked earlier and got them at 125k miles per. When I priced the tix, given the super-high fares ex-LHR, it was $11,380 per -- that's a 9 cent mile. Again, it's not really worth that much -- but when my wife (who thinks we're "only" flying in J) gets pointed toward the Flagship Suite at boarding...
Yeah, its nice to say that one should only use miles for premium transoceanic service. But you gotta have the miles to do it! You just used up 400,000 miles and 250,000 miles, respectively, on the two trips you mentioned. I, on the other hand, just surpassed 50,000 UA miles after about a year of collecting. So I just will never earn enough miles to spend them on the kind of trips that you say they should ONLY be used on. Unless I save for years and years and years, and what's the fun in that?
I use mine, typically, on expensive coach tickets within North America. Often for California to Montreal, which tends to be expensive compared to most transcontinental routes.
Ed