VegasGambler

If you stay at hotels when you travel, Hyatt points probably provide better value than the portal. Redemptions in the 2.5-3.5c range are common, even at less expensive properties.

If you ever have to book last minute domestic travel, you can definitely find much better value. Saver space can be available on the day of travel, but cheap fares have advance purchase requirements. For example, I'm flying SFO-PHX on UA next Saturday (in 7 days). I bought my ticket weeks ago so I got it for under $90 each way. Saturday is a light travel day so all the fare classes are wide open (9+ in each bucket). But, to buy that ticket today would be $240 each way due to advance purchase requirements on cheap fares. There is also saver space so I can get it for 10k miles + $30. That's a savings of $210 for 10k miles, ie, 2.1c per mile. Also, this is 7 days out -- we are not talking about walk-up fares here. Anything inside 7 days is $360 (3.3c/mile). This is not a contrived situation -- it's extremely common. Any time you are booking a flight less than 21 days out (when the cheapest fares often expire) you should always check for award space and see whether it's a better deal than cash.

So, while long-haul premium-cabin international flights tend to be the best value, there are plenty of other options that, while not as good, are still better than 1.5c and match most people's travel plans.

milypan

Interesting, I'll have to check it out next time. But TPG only values Hyatt points at 1.7 cents, and they have every incentive to overstate, not understate, the value of points (it's literally in their name).

Agreed, but most people don't (unless flying for business, in which case the employer/client pays).

Mauibaby2008

NYC Flyer

Sound like UR's contract with AS does not permit the waiver, which is unfortunate. However, the rationale provided for charging you the fee was flat out wrong--AS provides a tool for travel agents to verify whether a customer qualifies for a free exchange.

eap

I wish I had seen this thread last week. I use UR to book cheap, non-work tickets. I was hoping to shift a ticket I booked last week by a day, but can't.

Fortunately, it was a rather cheap one-way. I'll book the flight I want, and decide later which one to take. This seems pretty sub-optimal.

jhurwitz

Are you Premier Gold on United? The cash co-pay for that flight should be about $80 for general members, due to the $75 close-in booking fee. Brings it down to 1.6c per mile, which is competitive with using the UR portal for 1.5cpm. If you value having United (or other Star Alliance) RDMs, that could make the UR portal the better option, since the UR portal purchases a revenue ticket that would earn you another ~1000 RDM on UA, so you're net talking about saving $160 for 11k (net) miles, which is 1.45c per mile.

I realize that was all about UA, and this is an AS forum and thread, but my point is not to knock the OP for wanting to cash out UR at 1.5cpm on Alaska.

VegasGambler

Yes, I'm Gold (matched from AS!) It was $30. Comparing apples to apples here (Gold with both programs)

I'm not knocking anyone. I'm just saying that for most people, there is better value to be found if you know where to look. It's very general advice, and I think it's good advice, and also a big part of the point of FT (maximizing the value of pts and miles)

williwaw

I'm well known in my household for satisficing (vs. maximization) behaviors.... no slight at all.

chrisl137

Has anybody used UR points for an AS ticket and dealt with changes since change fees went away? I'm sitting on a pile of UR points and am starting to look at booking with them. With the dummy booking I started with it looks like the Expedia engine doesn't show as many flights and flight combinations as the AS engine to start with. When you get to the end it gives a notice that you can make free changes, but you can't cancel (even for F tickets) past the 24 hour window. Presumably the free changes to differently priced tickets will lead to additional points charges/refunds, but they don't state it clearly.

And another kind of trivial question about the UR booking - with as far as I went, it didn't have a place to put a mileage plan number. Is there a point in the engine where you do that or do you have to do it post booking?

mtofell

Ever since Chase introduced the "Pay Yourself Back" which allows 150% redemption (statement credit) on many purchases I don't redeem points for travel any longer. Too many hassles and problems getting batted back and forth between AS, Expedia and Chase. I get the same 1.5X value on my points in a few clicks. fwiw, this thread and most posts were prior to this Chase promotion.

chrisl137

I didn't even notice that there was a 1.5x bonus on some pay yourself back categories- thanks for pointing that out! I just did a bunch of them, but still will be sitting on a pile of points to spend.

mtofell

Yeah, it's a killer deal. I run two Chase cards - one for my business, one for personal. I accumulate far more points on the business card and can xfer them over to personal and get the 1.5X on top of the great % I already got on the business card purchases. I've always been surprised Chase allows that.

I do kind of miss having a pile of points to splurge on travel but I don't miss the Chase/Expedia travel portal.

Mahogany

I had a chance fighting against some UR call center agent who insist I cannot get my ticket value back. It was so frustrated so I hang up and called Alaska instead. Got a great agent and she processed everything refund in under five minutes.