btgm

I am planning a trip to London 15 Sept to 25 Sept 2010 (last minute, I know, but that's work for you.) I can get the flight for $967 or with 60,000 FF miles. However, with the FF miles I have an extra connection in RDU on the way over and have to come back 2 days earlier due to flight availability.

I have about 175000 FF miles that I've never used any of because I can never get decent flights. I looked at going to Rome this trip, but it was 120000 miles RT (or $1200).

Do people think it's worth using the miles, or should I just pay the money? I think it comes out to about 1.2 cents/mi this way, which doesn't seem great, but not horrible either. I think it would be $1500 to buy 60000 miles.

Thanks for any advice.

britenbsas

You can make your miles go further than this but only you can decide if it's worth it for you. There is a consolidated thread here discussing how people value their miles which may give you some food for thought.

I would pay cash in your situation but I have the luxury of being able to book far in advance so can get the cheapest AAwards - last year I used 40k miles for a return trip from Buenos Aires to New York. The fare was almost $1000 at the time.

hindukid

Where do you live? You can get some extra value for your miles if you use stopovers to your advantage. For example if you lived in DFW, you could tack on a free ticket from DFW-hawaii. This would make the miles much more valuable. but you need to be flying to a north american gateway which could be Chicago, DFW, JFK, BOS, LAX, RDU or MIA.

btgm

I live in central IL. Usually I fly from PIA through ORD. The paid flights are PIA-ORD-LHR and LHR-DFW-PIA. The award flights are PIA-ORD-RDU-LHR and LHR-ORD-PIA. What do you mean by tacking on a free ticket? I'm new to this redeeming thing. The most I am likely to be able to book in advance is about 4-4.5 months as we can only have vacation approved at work 145 days in advance and I can't book until then. I will probably be going to Europe next summer, but I suspect award flights then will be hard to come by, and the plan is to go to Germany where the flights seem better on United, so we may not even use AA then.

NM

I had to make this decision just today. Mrs NM and I are flying BNE-SYD in October and had to choose between:

1. Cheapest fare was A$101 each way, so A$404 all up. It is non-earning fare for AAdvantage but will earn each of us 2000 QF FF points.
2. Pay for O class fare at A$139 each way for A$556 all up. This would earn AAdvanatage miles and EQPs.
3. Use AA miles, at 10,000 miles each way or 20,000 miles all up plus a small cash amount for taxes.
4. Use QF FF points, at 8,000 points each way or 36,000 points all up plus a small cash amount for taxes.

In this case I chose option 1, posting flights to our QF FF accounts. The QF FF points are better used for an international upgrade and the same number of AA miles could get me to PER, AKL etc redeeming better value.

So I don't tend to just use a flat miles/points per $ rate. I look at factors such as:

• Can I afford the cash payment?
• Am I likely to get better use out of the miles/points later?

hindukid

30K miles gets you LHR-ORD one way. 30K miles also gets you LHR-ORD and ORD-Hawaii with stopover in ORD. So you book both for the same price. You can guess the date that you want the trip to hawaii but remember that it is changeable. So maybe book for next summer and you can change the date for whenever you want it when you decide your work schedule.

I booked my ticket home from hawaii and decided I might as well book it all the way to london. I booked that for june 2011, but will change the date when I determine what I want. Only rule is that is would have to be after the first segment and within one year of when the ticket was issued. It doesn't have to be hawaii. Anywhere in 50 states, caribbean, canada or mexico should work. Do a multi city award search for LHR-ORD and ORD-HNL and you will see what I mean.

Remember that it will work for ORD but not PIA. Stopover must be at the north american gateway which means that you need a nonstop from LHR-ORD. You would have to drive or bus from home to ORD.

If you are going to be somewhere before your europe trip like LAX for example, then you could book LAX-ORD-LHR with ORD stopover. Even better is that the first segment is what determines off peak pricing so you can fly to ORD in winter or spring and fly to LHR in middle of summer and pay only 20K miles. I got hawaii-ORD-LHR for 20K miles and I am flying to LHR in peak season.

tkelvin69

If I understand this correctly you'll need a positioning award or paid flight?

Ex:
Tkt #1
1. April 1 - ORD-HNL
2. Oct 1 - HNL-ORD

Tkt #2
1. April 15 - HNL-ORD (stop); May 28 - ORD-LHR
2. June 15 - LHR-ORD (stop); Sept 15 - ORD-HNL

Two awards, three trips. Sound right?

fpm

International trips up front.

hindukid

your understanding is correct. But if you string together 10 one way stopover awards then it will be 11 trips on 6 awards. Every other trip will have to be intercontinental and every other will have to be north American. I may sometimes not get the best value and have to combine Europe with something simple like IAH, but I will at least get the free IAH ticket.

trojanman

My thoughts exactly!

btgm

So from reading aa.com, it seems you can change the award flight for no charge if you don't change the destination, but if you change where you want to go you have to pay the $150 change fee. So I could book a trip in say, December or Jan and then change the dates to June? And I could book it for a day where the only available flights require more miles?

Gamecock

Ain't no way I'd use 55K miles for a $490 ticket. (Pardon my Southern speak)

Seriously, 50K miles will get you a TATL in J. I tend to use my miles for long haul (% hours plus) premium travel.

paulTX

My simple formula -

1. Look at the fare and see how expensive it is
2. Decide if I can afford it or not
3. If not, use miles

skiflyer

At 1.5c per mile I consider using miles. I know I can get 2.5 - 5c for international travel in F, but I rarely have the opportunity to take those types of trips.

pilotchrisg

My formula is to use the miles for the family (wife & 2 kids), and pay for my ticketwhenever possible. I also book well in advance ti lock in reasonable airfare. This Dec we'll be going from LAX-MCO. I've locked in 3 tix for them at 25K each, and am purchasing mine for $360. A bit steep for Orlando, but would rather earn the miles and better position myself for a shot at the AAdvantage Elite Reward level of 125K.