groovyfly

I'm looking to book an SK flight to the Canary Islands which I will credit to A3 and am unsure of whether to go for PE or Y.

In a similar vein I wanted to know what is considered a good cents/mile ratio for A3? The best I can find on a quick search is 3,1 euro-cents/mile on SK TATL in PE.

Wondered what other people here consider good value for money?

irishguy28

This is a false [and very American!] measure.

Your route is fixed. Therefore, all you can worry about is booking the cheapest ticket you can find on this route...which is the default concern of most passengers.

If "cents per mile" is ever a legitimate reason for booking - and I don't think it is - then it would require you to have the flexibility to book to whatever destination offers the best price/distance ratio...though LPA is probably one of the better candidates for this.

groovyfly

Thanks for the input.

I follow that it probably is a very American measure, but I'd still say it's a relevant factor when booking a ticket. Isn't it exactly the factor FT'ers in this forum consider when asking for advice on how to renew their A3 Gold?

On many routes out of Scandinavia, SK and DY compete head to head and personally i'd always consider spending an extra 100 euros on SK PE (over DY) flying to southern Europe if it includes luggage, lounge, onboard food/drinks and 3-5000 miles on A3.

irishguy28

It's one mechanism, I guess.

A better one, though - and one I've used over the past few years - is to take one (or even two!) sub €1,000 J trips to the US on a Star Alliance carrier (AC and TP have been good in recent years for such deals - and earn at 200% in all business class fares); in many cases, no need for the 4 A3 sectors at all!

My next such TAP ticket comes in at 3.75c/mile.

My next such AC ticket comes in at a less impressive 7c/mile - but these are two trips I had to make, and between them I will far exceed the total required to requalify for Gold next year

palcsaky

Have a look at this closed thread: Aegean Mileage Runs & Deals

The best deal, albeit on A3 metal, not on SK, was LUX-ATH-TXL 1734 miles for €16.99; 0.98 cent per mile

jerry_greece

I would find more useful, a measure of comparing a miles / ticket price ratio. So how much would you pay for the ticket (excl. taxes) and how many miles you spend on that. Am not sure though, how objective it can be. Any ideas?

E.g. I want to spend 10.840 miles (+33 euro taxes) on a ticket that otherwise costs 190 euros. Is the ratio: 10840 / (190-33) ~ 69 miles/euro good?

Xandrios

Cents per mile is very useful when you are planning a mileage run. Then it makes sense to purely look at the cost vs the miles earned - as the purpose of the trip is to earn miles.

When flying for other reasons, the trip itself is the purpose. You could compare the different options for that route and look at the additional mileage earning possibilities of the more expensive fares - but if the price difference does not warrant the extra miles, then I would suggest to take the cheaper fare.

It's always good to know how much a mile is worth to you though. For these kind of things I like to be conservative, so I personally value the miles at around one cent each. So only if the additional miles will be less than one cent per mile (based on the price difference) I'd say it is worth it.

headingwest

It's a shame the other thread was closed.

The LUX-ATH-TXL tickets were a steal! I'm sure the drink and food that I consumed on that ticket (in the lounge at LUX and ATH) cost at least 3 times the price I paid. And I actually got miles for it too!

Generally though, I think the best value is when you earn miles going somewhere that you actually planned or want to go to!

I'd much rather earn say 50% on a trip that I'd usually take, than earn 100% on a flight just to earn miles.

Knobbgb

Or a lucky combination of both. My recent hop from DUB-ATH-TLS for 53.40 Euro earned me 2267 miles which is 2.04 cpm. Now, I had never thought to visit Toulouse before - I booked it purely because I wanted to go somewhere, knew I may be a little short on miles by renewal date and it was the cheapest cent-per-mile I could find (within my budget and time constraints). In the end I was happy to discover that Toulouse is a really cool, interesting yet relaxing city, and it turned out to be the highlight of my trip! The only downside - all flights were Y-only so no upgrades this time.

headingwest

Well this got me in the mood again for another LUX deluxe A quick search on the OTAs and I found LUX-ATH-LHR for a quite respectable 30.29€. That's 1.5cpm and 2016 miles in total on a trip back home and requalification miles for next year.

palcsaky

You first need to work out the average price you have paid to earn your airmiles. That's your 'buy' price. When you redeem for an award ticket that will be your 'sell' price. You want to buy low and sell high. In your example above the price per mile would be (190-33) / 10840 = 1.44 cpm
This seems poor value from purely mathematical point of view as the costs to obtain A3 miles are higher than that but on the other hand I have done similar redemptions to yours as I would rather lose 10000 miles than 157 euros. So if you're comfortable with the value you're getting and you're not saving for a special long haul ticket in First or you have tons of A3 miles then go ahead and book it.

palcsaky

Thanks for the inspiration headingwest. Managed to book this for June 2018 for humble €18.82
2419 award miles at 0.78cpm

headingwest

OMG....I've been ripped off!

Which OTA/Search are you using to find that?

palcsaky

PMd you

Knobbgb

Wow what is it about LUX? Luxair are currently offering LUX-LCY for 7.75 EURO one way most days from 3rd January right through until at least April. (It's off-topic but I thought it might be useful for anyone positioning for a LHR-ATH-LUX with A3)