Booked a $17k biz class flight for 125k miles?
Jul 17, 2017, 5:49 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 12
Booked a $17k biz class flight for 125k miles?
Hi,
I booked a flight for 2 people which has 2 segments (SFO>CDG>VCE). It was 125k miles + 443.36 EUR.
Out of curiosity, I looked up what it would cost normally, and it's over $17k. Wow, over 13 cents per mile? Is that right?
Thanks!
I booked a flight for 2 people which has 2 segments (SFO>CDG>VCE). It was 125k miles + 443.36 EUR.
Out of curiosity, I looked up what it would cost normally, and it's over $17k. Wow, over 13 cents per mile? Is that right?
Thanks!
Jul 17, 2017, 8:53 pm
#2
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Los Angeles
Programs: UA 1K, AA Plat Pro, Marriott Plat, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 1,048
It really depends on how you look at it, but I would argue that you did not get $17k worth of value.
1) For starters, you booked a one-way ticket. One-way international business prices are artifically high because you get penalized for not booking the round-trip. Assuming that you are going to be returning from VCE-SFO at some point, then I would argue that you should look at round-trip fares, and assume you received 1/2 of that value
2) You are only comparing AF prices. You may only care about AF in which case AF prices are correct. But if all you care about is getting from SFO to VCE in business in 1-stop, then I found fares on LX for $3,500.
So in this example, I would assume 1/2 of the $3,500 airfare is the outbound, and that cost me 125k miles, so $1,750 / 125k = $0.14 / mile. But that is a bummer and your way is more fun! Also, your circumstances could be totally different than the scenario I laid out above
1) For starters, you booked a one-way ticket. One-way international business prices are artifically high because you get penalized for not booking the round-trip. Assuming that you are going to be returning from VCE-SFO at some point, then I would argue that you should look at round-trip fares, and assume you received 1/2 of that value
2) You are only comparing AF prices. You may only care about AF in which case AF prices are correct. But if all you care about is getting from SFO to VCE in business in 1-stop, then I found fares on LX for $3,500.
So in this example, I would assume 1/2 of the $3,500 airfare is the outbound, and that cost me 125k miles, so $1,750 / 125k = $0.14 / mile. But that is a bummer and your way is more fun! Also, your circumstances could be totally different than the scenario I laid out above
Jul 17, 2017, 9:04 pm
#3
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: New York, NY
Programs: AA Gold. UA Silver, Marriott Gold, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt (Lifetime Diamond downgraded to Explorist)
Posts: 6,776
I did a similar calculation of an average of the cost of 5 randomly selected J class RT fares on AF coming to $4527.00 USD. Award tickets can be a good value booked early on as the price is generally lower and availability is generally wider. Later on price is generally up and availability can be low or open.
Awards are what you make of them and the value you place on them.
Awards are what you make of them and the value you place on them.