wdinner

I'm on the fence and need some assistance.

We are flying in Sept from Rome to Katmandu and back from KTM to JFK in Oct. I can book Qatar business for $2278 each (plus get the 5x points from amex and reg points) or use 112500 AA miles for each of us to fly bus from FCO to KTM and Etihad bus back from KTM to JFK (these flights are reserved for 5 days)

If you think the miles are worth about 2 cents then it might be a toss up. What do think?

Thanks
Bill

kaaria

To me, if it is a toss up, then you can earn the miles for a future trip as long as they do not devalue miles more than they currently already are.

Duke787

Depends on what you can do with the miles you earn. If you are near a status level with AA/BA that could push this to making more sense to pay $$ vs. miles or if you have another trip in mind worth banking miles - but in today's miles climate holding onto miles for the purpose of holding onto them is a fool's errand if you have a good redemption in front of you.

Word of wisdom - depending on what your trip is, I would not use the AMEX Plat. It does not include any trip insurance so if anything goes FUBAR you are out of luck (found this out the hard way on my last trip - where between "just" going to Europe and not thinking things through I booked with AMEX Plat and of course our canceled flight and girlfriend's delayed baggage weren't covered by anyone).

Of course this can be mitigated by purchasing separate travel insurance but just something to be aware of.

wdinner

Thanks for the comments. I just booked the mileage flights. No question that using miles is better than letting them sit and devalue. Second point that swayed my thought process is that if for some reason I need to cancel or change the tickets - it is much easier to do so with milage tickets.