265,000 award miles for $4,786.88; worth it? (to merge)
Mar 31, 2017, 9:53 pm
#16
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: SNA
Programs: AA EXP, UA 1K (until it expires then never again), *wood Plat, Marriott Gold
Posts: 9,239
If you intend to book an award flight right now or in the very near future and you're short some miles for the award then, and only then, would any promotion for buying miles make sense. Otherwise if you don't need to topup your account for a near term award then buying miles seems like a bad choice IMO. The only corner case would be if you are someone who doesn't actually fly much and need to earn miles for awards outside the normal method, flying on airplanes, which since this is flyertalk after all I'd assume most people here do that...
Mar 31, 2017, 11:34 pm
#17
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: NYC
Posts: 27,230
A few years back I was able, using Alaska miles to scarf up two RT first class tickets from LA to Australia on Cathay Pacific. Those ran me 160K miles for each of the RT tickets. But the Cathay Pacific price for those tickets was **$24K** each. I figured 15 cents on the mile was an excellent deal.
Go check out the good deal premium fare forum -- first call long-haul fares aren't really considered by most people until they get down to the $5k r/t range, and sub-$4k is considered a good deal. Valuing your miles based on a $24k ticket just seems foolish.
Apr 1, 2017, 9:53 am
#18
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: DCA
Posts: 7,769
But that's what's silly about some of this. Would you really have ascribed a different value to the miles if the ticket was only $10k? What about $35k? On paper, sure. But those ticket prices are pretty much monopoly-money irrelevant since it's probably safe to say that you (and most of us here) would never shell out that amount of cash for a ticket.
Go check out the good deal premium fare forum -- first call long-haul fares aren't really considered by most people until they get down to the $5k r/t range, and sub-$4k is considered a good deal. Valuing your miles based on a $24k ticket just seems foolish.
Go check out the good deal premium fare forum -- first call long-haul fares aren't really considered by most people until they get down to the $5k r/t range, and sub-$4k is considered a good deal. Valuing your miles based on a $24k ticket just seems foolish.
J fares these days can be a little tougher because the barriers to entry are lower as we see more and more affordable J, and the mileage-earn side of things is majorly non-negligible.
Apr 1, 2017, 12:05 pm
#19
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,386
Yeah, I agree. With international F tickets I just consider it a go/no-go calculus. What I'm paying is what I'm paying - whether it's bought points, earned points, whatever - and what I'm getting is something that I simply never woulda bought, period, barring a mistake fare. So I'm paying whatever for an experience that I never would have otherwise had.
J fares these days can be a little tougher because the barriers to entry are lower as we see more and more affordable J, and the mileage-earn side of things is majorly non-negligible.
J fares these days can be a little tougher because the barriers to entry are lower as we see more and more affordable J, and the mileage-earn side of things is majorly non-negligible.
Apr 1, 2017, 12:52 pm
#20
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: DCA
Programs: UA LT 1K, AA EXP, Bonvoy LT Titan, Avis PC, Hilton Gold
Posts: 9,658
This is where I show my ignorance of mileage buy rates.
AA's latest promotion is offering 265,000 miles (150,000 base plus 115,000 bonus) for $4,786.88 - all other considerations aside (e.g. buying miles is always a bad idea) - is that a good price for air miles, I make it 1.8 cents a mile ?
AA's latest promotion is offering 265,000 miles (150,000 base plus 115,000 bonus) for $4,786.88 - all other considerations aside (e.g. buying miles is always a bad idea) - is that a good price for air miles, I make it 1.8 cents a mile ?
Depending on how much income taxes you pay, charging your taxes is still a better deal. With a 1.87% credit card fee on taxes, 265,000 would cost you $4955.50. Slightly more than the $4786.88.
BUT if you have the Citibank Exec card and the Barclay Silver card you can get 10K + 10K EQM and $6K EQD by charging the required amount of $40K and $50K, respectively.
Plus for smaller amounts you just only pay 1.87%. The 265,000 miles rate only applies if you spend that much. You can get a better rate and CC benefits by charging your taxes for smaller amounts.
Apr 1, 2017, 5:00 pm
#21
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: DCA
Posts: 7,769
Of course! Which is why, as always: 1) DO YOUR RESEARCH (caps mandatory!) and 2) have that award on hold before you even THINK of buying those points!
Apr 1, 2017, 5:22 pm
#22
Join Date: Dec 2004
Programs: UA-1K, MM, Hilton-Diamond, Marriott-Titanium
Posts: 4,431
As someone sitting on more AA miles than I care to admit I would say NO. I have realized that I will either have to fly on BA if I want a 57.5 tkt (and pay 300.+ to fly from Europe as I will never book an award from LON with their ridiculous APD) or look to use 110k miles for an AA J award as that seems to be the only ones available.
I will also burn on 1 CX F seat to Asia and 1 J seat and hope that another F clears.
I'm really hoping to get rid of mine and my DH's stash in the next few weeks and then i'm breaking up with AA. Sorry AA, it's not me, it's you.
I will also burn on 1 CX F seat to Asia and 1 J seat and hope that another F clears.
I'm really hoping to get rid of mine and my DH's stash in the next few weeks and then i'm breaking up with AA. Sorry AA, it's not me, it's you.
Apr 2, 2017, 9:31 pm
#25
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: RNO
Programs: AA/DL/UA
Posts: 10,770
The only time I bought AA miles was when I needed a trip to Chile which was $1,000 r/t in coach. I bought the needed miles to get an award ticket (around $300 I think) and ticketed that award ticket in one phone call.
edited to add: my budget was not quite that much hence the mileage purchase
edited to add: my budget was not quite that much hence the mileage purchase
Last edited by Kevin AA; Apr 2, 2017 at 9:42 pm
Apr 2, 2017, 9:39 pm
#26
Join Date: Sep 2005
Programs: Northwest, United
Posts: 3,256
Welcome to the club, you have lots of company - over 1.6 million gathering dust here. They are generally useless. Occasionally I can find some way to use them that doesn't make me want to just shoot myself, but thats very rare.
Apr 2, 2017, 9:42 pm
#27
Join Date: Sep 2005
Programs: Northwest, United
Posts: 3,256
I would not speculatively buy AA miles at any price, because there's a significant risk you will later end up complaining in this forum that your miles can't be used, and your complaints will end up moved into this thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...iscussion.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...iscussion.html
Buying AA miles is a sucker's bet. Go try to find a booking that works for you.
Nobody works harder to f*ck over their frequent flyer members than AA. Nobody.
Apr 3, 2017, 8:55 am
#28
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: DCA
Posts: 7,769
Apr 3, 2017, 9:23 am
#29
Join Date: Sep 2008
Programs: A3 *G, AA exePlat, AS MVP 75k Gold, JL sapphire, UA silver
Posts: 4,035
i redeemed around 350k aa miles last year to fly J. asia to doh rouns trip for 60k miles each and more. i just earn them faster than i spend and i dont get to spend much because i have too many paid J ticket. even when i travel on award ticket, i could use ua, delta, as, ba miles. my last redemption is hnd hkg (stop) jfk in march for 50k as miles in J. my next redemption will be 90k in ua J for using excursionist perk, and some short haul on ba miles. i have a threshold on when to redeem miles, only use it when it is the best deal among all currencies i own subject to my personal valuation.
Apr 3, 2017, 11:20 am
#30
Join Date: Aug 2012
Programs: AA PLT, SPG Gold
Posts: 2,405
Maybe it's just me - but here I find myself wishing I had a 100K-200K more miles. Burned off a bunch recently on CX J awards (still worth it IMO) and EY availability is pretty good for some upcoming trips we have planned. With the reduced earnings (no more 100% PLT bonus), AA miles are much harder to come by. I'm sure as hell not paying 1.8 cpm though.