tige

I'm going to Hawaii 3/23 - 3/30 DFW - OGG. It will cost me $848.28 to purchase the ticket or burn 90,000 advantage miles. If I buy the ticket I can use Capitalone card to pay for it, and will cost me 84,828 Capitalone points but since I get two points for every purchase it only cost me 42,414 spend dollars or 21,207 spend dollars, based on each way. Plus I will get my FF miles for the trip and flight mile status for upgrades. I don't know what value for the FF points and upgrade status is for upgrades? The other caveat is I go on a direct flight when I want to go.



Am I missing something? It seems like a no brainier

virmaior

well, you're comparing apples to oranges.
your capital one points are worth a near constant 1 point = 1 penny.

aa miles are widely variant in value. 100k aa miles substitutes for $10k business class ticket to japan including stopovers in both directions. right now, elites also can get a pretty good deal on a hotel or car booking...

in your situation def. use your capital one points. but you are also comparing the peak aa miles buy an seat price with a bottom of the barrel economy ticket.

biggestbopper

Personally, I'd pay for the ticket and get the AA miles before I'd use 90K AA miles for a ticket at that price.

rrgg

I would burn those Capital One points if you have them.

I'm not sure why Citibank has anything to do with this. 90k AA miles is not the "saver" price, so you'd be paying a premium to use miles in this case.

jeelele

For 99% of FTers, this is an easy decision. Burn Capital One points and save on those more precious AA miles. No point paying out of pocket when you have already banked those Capital One points.

Capital One points is altogether a different entity than miles on any airlines including AA.

tige

The reason I posted is because it seems I can never use the base mile rate on AA anymore. I have the AA Citi Bank card. AA always wants me to double up on miles for trips, and I usually go at last minute. I have had the Capitalone card for some time now now.

So with 30,000 in purchases (2 X 1 ) 60,000 points I can buy an AA gift card and use the money when I see fit. Last September AA had a trip for $80 each way from DFW to Lake Tahoe so I took my wife on a weekender for a $160 pp. Thats like 9,5000 points per RT ticket (2 X 1) Plus I get my FF miles from AA and flight status credit for upgrades, and could have used points to upgrade if I had wanted to.

For me I really dont want FF miles (show me the money) and I can take advantage of deals or go at the last minute and don't feel like I have been taken AADVANTAGE OF.

rrgg

I'm not sure how anyone's taking advantage of you. If you need last-minute trips with little to no advance planning, then burning miles in most any program might not be the best for you. Something like Capital One or US Bank FlexPerks might suit you better. If you can do some advance planning or you're interested in business/first or upgrades, then miles can have more value.

If you're having trouble burning the miles you have at all, then maybe also look at the fairly new AAVacations awards. That will give you something closer to the 1 cent per point value you're getting with Capital One, http://www.aavacations.com/use-aadvantage-miles.asp

tige

It's not all last minute. Last May 2010 I needed two tickets using FF points for March 2011 DFW-PDX on same flight to play golf at Bandon Dunes, not avaliable. I could get one but not two on te same flight. Thats 10 months in advance to Portland, tell me thats not being taken AADVANTAGE of. Go look at the flight load and it is 1/4 full.

jeelele

Your approach and thinking makes me say that perhaps you are among the few FTer for whom Capital One points or Flexperks US Bank programs work best.

Good luck!

rrgg

That sounds bad if you couldn't find DFW-PDX 10 months in advance. Since flights have been reduced over the past few years, award availability has declined a lot in several programs I use, not just AA. In fairness I just looked for DFW-PDX and see the 1st and 3rd weekend of March are available right now on AA at the saver rate of 12,500 each way.

mia

All frequent flyer programs have these anomalies where award seats are not available at "saver" levels even though low fare seats are available. It must be based on the airline's projected load factor on the flight, which may bear no particular correspondence to availability on the day we try to book. (It's also important to understand when the carrier releases award inventory. Booking ten months in advance isn't always optimal.)

Diversity is critical - you need the ability to redeem on several airlines. This is where Membership Rewards, Club Rewards and Starwood shine, but cash (or cash equivalent points) programs are also good unless you want to redeem for premium cabins (or use an airport served only by high-priced commuter carriers.)

Citi's cards are not the best way to earn AAdvantage miles (see SPG credit card). It's not worth paying an annual fee for a card which earns only one mile per dollar.

tige

Its not that I dont have points, for me it is to get the best rate of exchange.

Starwood 490,000
AAdvatage 240,000
Cap one 1,200,000
AAgiftcard $2,700

It just seems to hard to use AADVANTAGE miles any more. And based out of DFW American makes sense. I have been doing this a long time and it just gets harder and more time consuming. So I figure if I can get the same or close to equal value just book withh AA gift cards and go when I want to go.

jeelele

As mia pointed out, if you are primarily interested in domestic coach tickets, frequent flyer miles most of the times are not the best value on most occasions as compared to points based rewards programs that offer a real $$$ value for such domestic coach ticket redemption.

FTers generally value miles highly because of the attractive redemption for international premium class travel.

ramz003

It might show 12.5 for you, doesnt that depend on your AA status??
That has happened to me where i have no status but friend with AA status looks at the same flight and gets a different answer..


Thats the answer I was looking for yesterday

tige

jeelele, You may be right. I want to get there pretty much free and than live like a Rock Star. From DFW the longest flight for me is maybe 3 hours so class of service for 3 hours is no big deal.

Now for my rooms at resorts and hotels, now that is a diffrent story. Being PLATINUM with Starwood is of the utmost importance. That is were class of sevice gets it for me. It cost me no more miles or money to be upgraded to first class. (except a big gigantic tip if it the Presidentual Suite upgrade, which can happen more than you think)

Thanks