brg

He needs to watch where he goes for sure.
Going to Qatar after several critical posts on the head of Qatar Airways and staying in a country that imprisons people for their orientation is asking for trouble.

cruisr

He actually seems to be purchasing more and more airline tickets so his bio saying he flies mostly on points is not completely accurate. He is certainly not a travel blogger, much as he tried to defend that position on his blog last year, he is a product reviewer and credit card pitch man.

miamiflyer8

Nicaragua on a mileage run.

kokonutz

Yes, and very good at both, IME.

FallenPlat

A few of you actually read the blog.

A few of you don't actually read the blog much and so come up with stuff that's often a little strange.

And a few of you don't read the blog at all, comment here anyway (?), and yet somehow come up with great observations nonetheless.

Here's proof positive of the latter phenomenon. Today Ben posted the following:

"We’re constantly seeing the gap narrowing between the cost of cheap business class tickets and economy tickets, to the point that I’m finding myself sometimes outright paying for business class rather than redeeming miles."

My guess would be that that's the way things will continue to head generally . . . though if I really could predict the future I wouldn't be wasting my time here . . . .

ctownflyer

When you're buying the miles from the airlines, that's undoubtedly true.
When you're manufacturing the miles on the cheap, there's no way that will ever be true.

kokonutz

Yes, many of us have been making this point and living by it for years now.

But there is far less money to be made from advising people to buy business class tickets.

But kudos to Lucky for being among the first credit card pitchmen to admit the obvious.

Perhaps next he'll realize that he can book a suite in a non-chain hotel for not much more than a regular room at a P&M hotel where he might or might not get a status upgrade. Or that paying for luxury is worth it. The comments to that post might lead him there if he doesn't read about it here first.

Last time I was in Cape Town we stayed at the Cape Grace. Worth every penny. ^

paynea

Actually, I disagree with you about MSing miles always being the cheapest way to get a ticket. For this specific instance, a cash ticket is better vs using MSed miles.

Let's say you have a 1.5x anywhere card (Chase Freedom, Amex Everyday). In order to get 150K miles for the redemption, you'd need to charge $100K on the card. That same $100K charged on a 2% cashback card will get you $2K cash back. I'm disregarding the fees involved, since it will be the same for both earning points or cashback.

If you buy the ticket using cash, you will end up earning ~40-50K miles as well, depending on the program you credit it to. In this specific case, the ticket is ~$2.2K, so a bit more than the $2K cashback you earned. However, even at a really low valuation of 1 cpm of the miles you will earn for the ticket, the paid ticket is still overall a better deal vs using miles from MSing.

There are also the 5x Ink cards, but even in that case, it is better to pay for a ticket. 150K UR points = ~$1875 credit towards airfare, and plus you will be earning ~40-50K miles for the paid ticket.

Finally, I'd note that using cash is a lot easier vs the time needed for MSing.

Of course, if the discount business class fare was a bit higher, using miles would be "cheaper" vs the paid ticket. Plus, if every single airline program goes to revenue based accrual, that will also change the equation.

josephstern

This also assumes that the entire end goal is this isolated transaction (miles and dollars in, miles and trip out).

But often there is the elite status component.

kokonutz

When you always buy business or first you are always treated like an elite. Better, actually. ^

ctownflyer

I bought $12K in VGCs from OM for $11,617 on my IP card. Buying took 20 minutes, liquidation took a bit more.
Please explain your disagreement again.

Adam1222

I think the risks and merits of manufactured spend are best discussed in other threads.

ctownflyer

It was a rhetorical question. Lucky's game has been about buying miles on the cheap, not MS. When it comes to buying miles, then yes, paying for business can make sense.

Personally I've flown around the world with my wife and kids many times in J and F and have only done it through dirt cheap MS and churning, but to each their own.

Astrophsx

There are probably several reasons why Ben isn't using MS. I don't know the guy, but if you are dating someone who lives off a trust fund and hang out with that crowd maybe there is a potential risk of being looked down upon? Also, it's probably easier to list purchasing miles as a business expense. When you live out of a hotel I assume you have no car and it would probably not be easy to get to your local CVS/WM/Bank.

ctownflyer

Actually, none of the major bloggers MS.
It's definitely easier to buy miles, and once you come to that conclusion it's even easier to buy J class when it's on sale.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but eventually you get out of touch and officially jump the shark like TPG: https://twitter.com/thepointsguy/sta...93632668459009