erp2863

I'm not a rookie, I didn't use miles, I bought the tickets. And of course I checked the 45k selection and called AA.

This post was about what the miles are worth. So in my situation, when I wanted to use them, they were worth less than a penny each. I didn't think this was a good deal at the time, so I didn't use them. Of course I could be holding onto 300k miles that'll be worthless in a year if the economy does indeed tank.

mvoight

I wouldn't judge the value based on there being no milesaver seats available for a particular destination withing a window of a few days. There are some cities you can find last minute MS availbilty for and others where you need to book 11 months out to even have a chance at an MS seat. I think we booked SFO-ORD-CDG 8 or 9 months out to get 40K tickets with weekend travel days during Spring Break 2009. People might spend 50K for a $400, but most FTers probably wouldn't

erp2863

Again, the only way you can assess value is at the point of using them for the trip you want to make. Being flexible certainly helps increase the value.

brp

Actually, I'd think just the opposite. If the economy does (continue to) tank, fewer people will be traveling places and there may well be more award inventory available...at least for a while.

Cheers.

Kneel

Since according to program rules miles cannot be sold or bartered, the point of this question is determining when to use miles for a ticket, and when to pay cash. A 2 cent per mile valuation is a general threshold. There are other factors though:

1) Miles earned on the paid ticket. The more miles earned on the paid ticket, the lower the value per mile when they are redeemed. Elite bonuses make it harded for EXP and PLAT to redeem tickets effectively.
2) Redemption fees for the free ticket. Again, EXP status eliminates these fees, making it more desirable to use miles.
3) Flexibility in flight schedule. Since dates on FF tickets can be changed without a fee, a FF ticket can be a benefit here. And people with status go to the top of the standby queue.
4) Available cash. If there's a desire to not spend cash, of if it's not available, what beats an (almost) free ticket?
5) Confidence in the airline's future. If confidence is low, then miles should be used quickly.
6) Upgrades. Elites can upgrade paid economy tickets for domestic travel. However, international travel on partner airlines are a good use of miles for J tickets.
7) Need for status miles. Only paid tickets earn miles.

Here's a few examples:

1) I would always buy economy tickets DEL-TUL-DEL. I would earn 16,136 status miles, and around 33,500 total miles, which includes 1 point per mile on a credit card. A free ticket is 75,000 miles. A paid ticket cost cost about $1,300, not including taxes. So, if I redeem miles, my benefit is $1300/108,500 or 1.2 cents per mile, which isn't even close to the threshold.

2) We wanted to use miles to visit family near LAX. To increase the value, we added a second stop in PHL, traveling TUL-LAX-PHL-TUL. In this way we got 2 trips from one FF ticket, with a value at the time of about $750 if the ticket were purchased. We also wanted flexibilty on the LAX-DFW-PHL portion, which we ended up changing to avoid Hurricane Ike. I would have earned 12,000 miles, but my wife only 6,000. So our benefit was about 2.0 and 2.4 cents per mile. Since I am EXP there were now rapid redemption fees.

3) After that trip we were going to Florida and wanted to go first class. So we found good fares to TPA and bought the tickets, using upgrades to move forward. Had we used miles, our benefit would have been $437/(100,000 + 8,500) or only 0.4 cents per mile.

4) My wife flew to meet me in DXB in ecomony. Less 2 weeks later she flew to meet me in BKK. Since the trips were so close, and the departure date was Valentine's Day, I used miles to fly her business class trip to BKK. Value of these miles... Priceless!

hillrider

Based on redemption success and the extra fees the value of miles has dropped to about 1c to me. 25,000 miles give you the privilege to pay taxes and bag check fees on a trip that would go for $400 if purchased--if you're lucky. Add the fact that their value is rapidly declining, and they're not worth much.

Gandhi90s

Again, it depends on what you use them for. OW premium awards are an amazing value. I hope to have enough miles soon to redeem for a OW150C or OW180F trip. You can't tell me those are not worth substantially more than $1500-$1800.

pauleeepaul

They are worth to you what you would be willing to pay for the related seats. The MSRP is meaningless.

qqqgnss

interesting facts:
How many AAdvantage Awards were claimed in 2007?
A: The number of awards claimed in 2007 in each AAdvantage mileage redemption category were as follows:

AAdvantage MileSAAver® and AAnytime® Awards
(valid on American, American Eagle and AmericanConnection only)

2,621,638
Upgrade Awards

843,894
Product Redemptions
(American Airlines Vacations, Magazines etc.)

419,371
Special Mileage Awards / Other Airline / Other

953,118
Total Redemptions - 2007

4,838,021

Gandhi90s

Of course that goes without saying. I would never compare the value to full retail. But who would not be willing to pay substantially more than $1800 for a well-constructed OW180F itinerary? I've paid $1200 for a LGA-CHS RT (1284 miles total).

pauleeepaul

Given the discussion I assume you are referring to a ticket where you are paying the fare out of your pocket. It is routes like this that are frustrating when your miles are tied up with AA.

KD5MDK

I wouldn't. Spending that large a fraction of my annual income on one trip is completely infeasible.

Gandhi90s

Yes. Pretty much all my travel is personal. This was when DL had a near-monopoly on the LGA-CHS nonstop route. In the last year the fares have come down because of increased competition.

I daresay you are in the minority on FT. I'm relatively poor, and I could easily envision paying 5x that amount for a trip in F (with long-haul segments in QF/CX) covering South America, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore/Malaysia, and parts of Europe. It would still represent a gigantic discount over "retail."

I would guess that a mile is worth much more to me than it is to you.

Hammertoad

Recent trip to LGA, 5 days out, list price 980 +/-. Award availabilty for 25K miles so took that option & paid the $105.00 award fee.

As with anything & everything, it is all relative. Worth is a subjective term.

super-mileage-fan

For AA, I value mine at about $.011.

But I generally don't use AA routes and my status on other airlines makes AA less desirable to me.