Flying for Fun

If you not concerned with status, why not just buy AS miles, often as low as $0.0197 per mile with bonus. I would never spend $1844 just for AS Miles for a five night stay (you didn't mention currency) for 38K AS miles when USD $1680 + Taxes can buy you 90K. For a couple hundred more, 100K will give you enough for a CX return in J between Noth America & Asia.

Even better, actually fly enough to reach MVP (not difficult) and buy unlimited amounts.... Ultimately with Rocket miles, you are paying dearly for your AS Miles.

James

Johnny O

James, you are correct if I only wanted to get miles. I have bought miles before to reach a ticket price if I was short. but as I wrote these are trips we are already taking where we can earn substantial points while staying in the locations we wanted to stay in. I used them as examples for discussion but they are real world trips for us, with Alaska flights on one of them as well. If I just bought the points, it still doesn't get me to our 5 day trip to Vancouver, CA. This was just another way to earn points during other travel. We also use the Alaska Mileage dining program to earn miles, but at restaurants we want to eat at. I earn 4X on AMEX Gold, plus 5X in Alaska miles as a VIP in the dining program for ever dollar spent at the restaurants, but it would be cheaper to buy points and not eat at those restaurants. I would still be hungry.... These are strategies to earn while eating and traveling to places we wish to go, not just to earn miles, that is all just a bonus. I might not have been clear in explaining that. We have only used Rocketmiles in cases where it matched or was very close to hotels best rate.

Traveling with Alaska is only one part of our overall travel, but I value their miles highly so look for ways to earn their miles while doing other forms of travel or entertainment.

Flying for Fun

Fair assessment and happy if it works for your travel patterns. Enjoy YVR, my hometown. I love the City, hate the traffic.

James