WWYD with your points/miles if you found yourself in suddenly reduced circumstances?
Oct 22, 2013, 4:03 pm
#31
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: MCI
Programs: AA Gold 1MM, AS MVP, UA Silver, WN A-List, Marriott LT Titanium, HH Diamond
Posts: 52,593
In the big picture, 1.3 million total miles/points isn't such a huge amount that I'd stress too much about it. It's a nice stash but not so large that I'd alter my usage behavior too much.
If the 2014 aspirational trips were to high-cost locations (for food, ground transportation, etc.), I might defer those plans. Perhaps replace with equally-good flight/hotel redemptions to lower-cost locations. Or focus on using the miles for less-than-aspirational awards, instead just monetizing them at 1.5 or 2 cents per mile on simple trips where you would have been forced to pay cash.
I also like the idea of pairing up to travel with someone else who doesn't have miles but would cover the on-the-ground expenses. (Although airlines bristle at members' selling of miles, they'd never question people flying together on the same PNR.) Only catch there is that it sounds like it you + spouse, which kind of implies another couple, which then implies finding 4 award seats and 2 hotel rooms for a trip. That could easily burn more than you have in any one account, but it could be worth a look if you have another couple you like to travel with.
Starwood and HHonors devalued this year. Marriott is probably next up for a devaluation. I *might* therefore burn Marriott first, although that's purely a guess on my part.
BA/AA have simply become hard to use in terms of finding availability on AA metal. (Coming from the U.S., you're mainly looking at AA to some parts of the world, EI or AB to Europe, a little bit of AS here and there, and potentially one or two other palatable options to Asia.) I consider that sort of a devaluation from a few years ago when AA was a much more generous program in terms of availability. US is potentially flipping alliances if their merger goes through; I might be tempted to use them first on Star Alliance metal since there tends to be more overall availability. The catch there is it has to be round-trip and there are high fees if you are not US elite.
If the 2014 aspirational trips were to high-cost locations (for food, ground transportation, etc.), I might defer those plans. Perhaps replace with equally-good flight/hotel redemptions to lower-cost locations. Or focus on using the miles for less-than-aspirational awards, instead just monetizing them at 1.5 or 2 cents per mile on simple trips where you would have been forced to pay cash.
I also like the idea of pairing up to travel with someone else who doesn't have miles but would cover the on-the-ground expenses. (Although airlines bristle at members' selling of miles, they'd never question people flying together on the same PNR.) Only catch there is that it sounds like it you + spouse, which kind of implies another couple, which then implies finding 4 award seats and 2 hotel rooms for a trip. That could easily burn more than you have in any one account, but it could be worth a look if you have another couple you like to travel with.
Starwood and HHonors devalued this year. Marriott is probably next up for a devaluation. I *might* therefore burn Marriott first, although that's purely a guess on my part.
BA/AA have simply become hard to use in terms of finding availability on AA metal. (Coming from the U.S., you're mainly looking at AA to some parts of the world, EI or AB to Europe, a little bit of AS here and there, and potentially one or two other palatable options to Asia.) I consider that sort of a devaluation from a few years ago when AA was a much more generous program in terms of availability. US is potentially flipping alliances if their merger goes through; I might be tempted to use them first on Star Alliance metal since there tends to be more overall availability. The catch there is it has to be round-trip and there are high fees if you are not US elite.
