CMK10

Booked GSO-PHX r/t for 45,000 x3 in Y for July 4th Weekend. Not a great redemption but my SM balance was 220,000 and they wanted $1700 cash for the tickets. I think I'd rather have the cash.

AntonS

ZRH-AMS-EZE (one way), KL business 90K miles + about 200 CHF taxes in September. Would have preferred AF, but only KL was available on my dates.

yoyo

gifted to a friend: RT RDU-SYD 60K in Aug. main cabin. not bad.

ebayj

Purchased in early March 2022:

SFO-ATL-SCL on 02/01/2023
47,000 miles for SN (Comfort+)
Then paid USD $499 for D1 for ATL-SCL (promotional upgrade on Delta.com)

Same for return leg ten days later except D1 upgrade for SCL-ATL was USD $599.

ATL-SCL-ATL is on the older 2-2-2 A350s (from LATAM) but value was well worth it for me.

bmh3s

Purchased mid-May: 134K SkyMiles X 4 MCI-ATL-AMS-DTW-MCI for August (purchasing PremiumSelect with confirmed suites on A359 on transatlantic flights using 8 GUCs for early August. Actually going to BGO, but no award tix AMS-BGO available at booking (very odd--can pay cash all the way through to BGO, but couldn't book cash or miles tix via DL for AMS-BGO legs). A few weeks later, could book (via DL app only; not via DL website) 4 X AMS-BGO and BGO-AMS in J at 25K Skymiles/flight)--so per person, it was 134K RT miles (plus 2 GUCs) to AMS in J, then another 50K Skymiles per person roundtrip AMS-BGO. No Y awards available on DL app; only J for AMS-BGO legs, but Flying Blue wanted 75K per leg in Y (don't really care about J for the 90 minute flight in Euro"Business" but was only option other than using FlyingBlue points to pay triple price in miles for Y). And not horrible redemption compared to $10K/ticket cash option....

Kerrirdh

I’m calling this a success, not sure if I posted already, LOL.

original ticket R/T EWR-ATL-MBJ July.
22,000 miles plus $147.36 taxes(Jamaica high)

Schedule change(minor) allowed change to
JFK-MBJ same 22,000. Nonstop:-)
Then I upgraded to comfort plus for $39.
cash price $1800+ and comfort $2200+

strickerj

I'd call 22k for any roundtrip a success even before the change; I can't even find a domestic award ticket for that anymore.

xliioper

They can be found during slower periods (when fares are cheaper). Normally, there's a fair amount of correlation between revenue fares and award rates. EWR-MBJ is just a weird route as it appears there is only one award level for both Coach and First. Currently, YSY100 (10K) and CSY500 (50K) each-way with no roundtrip booking requirements. The Y in the third letter of fare basis code represents the "class" of the award and the Y-level awards are generally the most expensive on routes. Most routes will generally have 6 - 12 different coach award levels with different advance purchase requirements (and often roundtrip booking requirements for cheapest levels). Awards with roundtrip booking requirements will have an 'R' in the middle of the fare basis code.

KRUXED

I saw a few weeks ago there are several of the 22k fares to the Caribbean from EWR. Turks and Caicos, Jamaica, Saint Maarten, etc. hurricane season normally brings less demand

strickerj

I've actually got a trip to Cancun for September - it's off-peak for Hyatt awards, but being hub captive (DTW), airfares weren't great. (We booked cash tickets to use up some credits. Buy up to C+ was only $99 though.)

LostInAmerica

In early May I booked IND-ATL-AMS, AMS-DTW-IND for 10 days at the end of June. Main cabin for 80,000 skymiles plus $70 for what was, at the time, a $1300 fare. I was then able to chose Comfort Plus seats after booking. So a redemption of about 1.5 cents per mile, better than the pay with miles options. Fares for summer travel, both dollars and miles, have gone up since then.
When I booked I was hoping the testing requirement would be lifted before going, so that worked out.

sonkie23

I booked a one way a few days ago - LAS to JFK in first for 45,000 miles. Fare was $684 I think. Schedule change Saturday hit yesterday and they got rid of the flight I had just booked earlier in the week. They put me on a later flight which I actually prefer which is inexplicably pricing at $1,680 and 145,000 miles as of today. This is the first time schedule changes actually worked in my favor.

They also changed my outbound from JFK - LAS to lie-flat seats but not sure that will hold. We had several flights to Vegas this year where the planes started out with lie-flat seats and all went to 737s. So i'm not banking on that one.

beachmouse

I did a some speculative booking last Christmas and ended up with booked Main Cabin plus instant PM C+ upgrade for-

VPS-ABQ for 22K each round trip. Cash price was $800+ 21 days out for Main Cabin
VPS-DEN for 25K each Round trip. Main Cabin was $1,000+ 21 days out
VPS-MUC for 86K each round trip. Current fares for 21+ days out are topping $2K for main cabin.

rtpflyer

Just booked Ms. rtpflyer MCO-JFK-ZRH / AMS-DTW-MCO in Premium Select on to transatlantic segments for 128K. Had to find dates on October that worked with our river cruise..
Edit, rebooked with date change and saved 4k.
Wished I had waited for the recent Delta One sale though.

CMK10

A graduate of my law school needed a ticket from RDU to DFW to sit for the Texas Bar. Being the soft touch that I am I donated 39,000 Miles for a ticket. AA wanted 42,000 miles and the cash price was $569 so it wasn't an awful redemption and maybe I'll get lucky and they'll throw a case my way.