best use of 25,000 miles
 

What is the rule of thumb? I can book a skysaver trip in Oct from TPA-BOS_LGA_TPA for $260. Should I use miles or pay for the ticket?

$260 for a ticket on Delta is pretty reasonable. Depending on how you earned the miles might help determine what's the most practical for you.

Elite status matters too.

If you've got a bunch of miles (more than you need), it might be a good use of miles for booking travel for a family member who has no elite status.

If you are the passenger, and you are working on elite status, you may prefer to spend the $$ (instead of the miles) to help get to a threshold for status.

I would pay for the ticket if it was me - but if you don't earn many miles and take a long time to accumulate the 25,000 miles, perhaps you should use miles.

Personally, I value Skymiles at about 1.2 cents per mile. So a ticket needs to cost more than $300 to use miles instead of cash. Don't forget to factor in the miles you won't be earning when you fly (free tickets earn no miles). If you have status (bonus miles) or are approaching a different level, or if the trip is across country instead of across the state, those earned miles mean more.

By the way, I am new to this board, but I have been flying Delta since '99 - I have been Platinum 6 years and Gold once, Silver once plus had status on several other airlines. I'm not trying to pat myself on the back, just saying that even though this is my first post, I'm not as green as it may seem.

I plan on watching the Delta and American message boards mainly. Any other boards that are particularly good and general? I guess I got off subject. oops.

I used 25k for a trip from ICN to PEK. That fare was pricing at over $750.

And less than 600 miles.

Don't forget that you are also allowed one free stopover. I have redeemed 25K miles for ATL - SLC (stop) - YVR and got to ski in both Utah AND British Columbia using only one award ticket. ^

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

USAGamecock is on to something. I think the best value for 25K miles is ICN or NRT to SE Asia. NRT-ICN-HKT or BKK with stopover in ICN.... there are any number of intriguing routings and multi stop capabilities. For 25K miles... quite a bargain, assuming you can figure out how to get to NRT or ICN.

Welcome skymutt and stayl13!

I would hold onto the miles unless they are near expiration. Do you ever fly out west from TPA? Delta (via SkyWest) has pretty good coverage to a lot of smaller airports out west which are normally expensive to fly to. I don't usually spend miles on domestic flights, but when I do I use them for trips to Montana. These flights are usually $400-500, maybe $350 if you catch a deal. So I consider them to be a good value for my miles. I would recommend saving your miles for a more expensive ticket.

stayl13, Welcome to flyertalk! I lurk all over the place, What board is best for you also depends on your interest. I tend to check out the Communitybuzz board as well as the MilageRun boards in addition to the airline specific boards. The more I lurk around the more boards I find I like.^:)

I am planning to cash in 25k for a couple tickets TUL-YYG (Charlottetown, PEI). The flights haven't been loaded next year, so I'm only hoping I'll be able to get Skysaver, but the ticket is pricing at over $1k the last time I checked, so it's WELL worth it!

I wouldn't use the miles in this case unless they are about to expire.

I must agree with yorock. I recently cashed in 25k for a trip into FCA and out of JAC. It was pricing out around $700 which is more than I want to spend on a domestic ticket. For $260 however, I would grab that before the price goes up!

As someone who is a convert to the practice of "earn 'em and burn 'em," even I would find $260 to be too low of a threshold. The only caveat may be if you're in a situation where finding a Skysaver on any of the routes you take has been virtually impossible. In which case....