Having accumulated miles and points on both airline and hotel programs, and usually unable to book an airline ticket on a saver fare, I spend miles more on hotel rooms.

We've used miles on both domestic and international flights. However, the best example is giving 2 free first-class tickets to Europe to my husband's father and his wife. As I am the milechaser in the family, I take credit for having helped accumulate the miles and I set up the open-jaw itineray between the US and Europe. This was the last major trip his father took before he passed away.

We use miles primarily for creative international business routing. We try to balance the miles used to position us for a long trip, with purchased fares to supplement mileage accounts as well as status.

international upgrades. Life is too short to travel in Y on long haul flights.

premium seating on pAArtners
 

SWU's on AA get me to a lot of places in comfort without using the miles for upgrading. I'm hoarding miles towards premium seating on routes my fAAvorite airline doesn't fly.

ultimately want to fly self and Mrs benzguy80 in F to Australia on QF, but also hope to do some travel to Africa (also in F). hoping the miles don't get too devalued before I have a chance to realize these dreams.

Magazines & WSJ...

I went from 25K RDMs to 275 RDMs in a little over a year. With the AA bonus I will claim 50K miles and will earn another 50K RDMs with scheduled trips this winter/spring taking me to 375K and a lifetime of 430K.

PLT (mid-tier) and then moving up to EXP on AA gives me double RDMs when I fly. I did 4 TRANSCONS in 4 days last spring earning quad miles. That coupled with 2 full fare Y BA longhauls and 7 AA TATLS got me to where I now am.

No credit cards, but I did have a few purchases on AA Mall and a couple of surveys got me that got me 1.5K, max. I will be moving to the States this summer and hope to take maximum advantage of banking schemes to get points. My goal is a RTW in F with DW.


My question to you is do you have status and who are you flying with?

With my CO miles, I've only used them once to 'gift' my stepson & his family a trip to FL during peak season. Other than that I use them for mileage upgrades internationally. I've currently got 1,300m+ miles in my OP account, and have no upcoming plans for spending them. A couple of years ago, I had approximately 400,000 UA miles, and as I fly out of EWR and do not relish connecting international flights (ortravelling on UA in general)... I used just about all of those miles on merchandise (2 flat screen tv's, camera, tools, household goods, leather goods etc). Unlike my CO miles, the UA miles would have expired, so rather than lose them-- I 'spent' them:p Other than that, I do have about 114,000 US miles, not sure exactly what I'll do with them-- but most likely will gift them to my godson, who recently got a job as a NOAA observer in Alaksa (fishing boats off of Dutch Harbor). He'll be travelling back & forth between CT and his job, and could use them for a quick vacation.

I average roughly 250K BIS miles a year, all business travel, about even mix, segment wise, of domestic and international. With elite bonuses that gets me up to 500K. Usually around another 50-60K from CO MC and other sundry bonus miles.


I use my miles for big RTW trips every year at this time. For example this year, I spent last week in Europe visiting friends, then flew on to Langkawi, Malaysia, where I am right now, staying at the Datai resort (which is stunning, by the way!). Then back home via TPE and LAX.

I also try to be fairly generous with my miles, getting friends into F or C/J, which they otherwise wouldn't be able to do.

I am a big believer in burning my miles, and try to use them as fast as I earn them. I have over 2MM lifetime on CO, but right now have less than 500K in my account. My philosophy is, why wait around for the airlines to devalue this currency even more? As I get closer to retirement, perhaps I will try to hoard more, so I can travel more frequently, but for right now I just like to use them.

I use all the miles for international upgrades. Me & the wife went on a RTW trip this year in J, so that burned 260,000 miles and I just got J upgrades for MAD-JNB, so there goes another 150,000. Now currently trying to save enough to upgrade flights to Europe to catch those flights to South Africa.

I think it's pointless just to let them sit when it seems every year they are worth less and then it costs you more money in the long run to reach levels for awards. As soon as I hit an area, I use them, same as the poster stated above.

I'll never use them for domestic, and honestly have a hard time using them for J upgrades to the EU now. The overnight in the exit row isn't bad, and you're sleeping anyway.

For me, it's about a 50-50 mix of long-haul premium cabin and short-haul coach. The coach mix has increased now that we have two kids...first class is sort of lost on them...

I hate spending miles on narrowbody F/C. So for all of my North America or Central America travel, I'd rather spend 25k-35k per ticket and keep more miles for good C/F seats later. If I'm getting a "real" 2 cpm on a short-haul coach ticket, I'll redeem. If I'm in the 1.5 cpm range but the award allows me to select a more optimal flight time or routing, I'll still do it.

I usually redeem on routes that are naturally high priced - that's why using an award sometimes opens up more options than the lowest possible fare. MCI to many Canadian cities via ORD or DEN, for example. Also some Central American destinations, as long as you stay out of peak award demand periods.

Finally, when UA does its periodic 20k R/T sales, I look for an opportunity to book something. MCI-ORD-BDA for 20k R/T - available for five seats on the same flight - was pretty sweet. (Sadly, I don't think ORD-BDA survived long. I never see it anymore.)

I recently cashed in 40k for a flight to visit Taiwan!

I use my miles for Aruba once a year and Italy every few years, once in a while I will use the for a domestic flight.

SW short for long. UA long for longer.
 

I fly all my short flights on Southwest, and use the freebies for longer domestic flights. Southwest Rapid Rewards earn at an accelerated rate, and earnings for the ancillary expenses - rental cars and hotels - typically feed that account faster than they would others.

I fly United for all my longer hauls, and use Mileage Plus freebies for international business class for me, and sometimes for my son and me. I use the other few airlines' freebies for transcons during the very off-peak times. I mainly mean DL, which has just about closed out opportunities for redeeming awards. Wish I'd used them up before.