Flying for Fun

Even with promo sales, has the cost of a BMW ever reached as low as, say, a Pony? "Stellar" comparison. lol

flytoeat

This is an interesting change in AAG strategy: clearly they had an acceptable ROI on mileage sales, and for years were the outlier in not having a cap. Something changed, whether higher cost for partner awards, a growing mileage exchange imbalance in favor of partners, or the cost of managing fraudulent transactions. Perhaps some interesting strategy with the elite exception that could cause certain frequent flyers to switch to Mileage Plan.

DrAlex

...and causing some mileage brokers to book 4 transcons a year...

Flying for Fun

Not particularly easy or cost effective if you are brokering from outside North America. Wouldn't that eat into the profits not withstanding the time commitment to resposition to Alaska's network and fly another 50 hours? I suppose one could fly partners but it still will damper some.

James

DrAlex

I hope it DOES damper most of the brokers! But, MVP isn't too hard to come by, even on partners.

frisbfreek

If the limit is 150k per account, what is limiting prospective travelers from opening multiple accounts?

Flying for Fun

How many phoney addresses coming from the same ISP can you create before the association of the same IP triggers an alert? Are you going to have a separate credit card for each account too?

James

frisbfreek

Flying for Fun

Same name on multiple MP accounts, that should raise a flag. While possible to have multiple credit card accounts, they are still associated to the same individual with the same billing address. I suppose it is plausible if creating additional accounts under the names of family or friends. Synergistically, however, one vat of points is vastly more efficient than having dribs & drabs here and there.

With the 150K annual limit, you cannot purchase the 40% bonused maximum 60K per transaction more than once per account per annum. You could purchase 60K, 45K and 3K (no bonus) for a total of 150K. If you are booking a JL F TPAC return you are "on the mark." A CX F TPAC return will have 10K remaining which, from a broker's perspective, are pretty much useless.

James

frisbfreek

GrayAnderson

So, is the cap on "Miles paid for plus bonus miles"? Or "Miles paid for" with bonus miles falling outside the cap?

I'm presuming the latter, but I also recall that on many past purchase limits over at Amtrak the limit was on the "base" miles and I think bonus miles didn't count towards that (it's been a long time since I purchased Amtrak miles...basically, since the one time they did a 50% offer).

As to how low the cost of AS miles has gotten, I think the lowest I've ever seen was something like 1.92cpm (which, IIRC, was that time they did a 60% offer).

Edit: In the tradition of "deceased" benefits getting votes in the FT awards, I think I'll be writing in the old policy for next year's awards.

pbd456

There were other source of cheap miles. Almost 2 years ago, spg had a target promotion for 50% off. I know people who did over half a million of SPG. And transfer to virgin , and then 30% bonus to Alaska..

joelpat

I've bought miles to make up a deficit for an award, but I can't imagine spending a couple grand on miles and then have to jump through hoops to get a seat. I know how much time I'm spending trying to get seats now, just to use the 400k miles I've banked.