assuming your buying something that has no value to you just for the miles (through your carriers "store"), at what point is it a no brainer for the purchase. if you value your miles at 1.X cents per mile then obviously its less that but, how low do look for before you load up on miles, er I mean purchases?

Came across a deal that lets you "buy miles" at 1.6 cents per mile and I dont see the value of it at that price but, was curious what others see when they look at miles purchases

Let's say you purchased 100k miles for $0.016 each. You would have spent $1,600 but now have enough miles to redeem for an international business class ticket on quite a few airlines (depending on availability). Buy 125k at the same price and you now have a First class ticket for $2,000. Hard to beat that.

here is a recent blog post written by chris gillibeau who's goal is to visit every country within the next couple years. I think he is a FT'er actually.. This is a clear example of when it is worth it to pay a chunk of money for the miles and in return get a $7000 business class seat to the S. Pacific.

What's the deal?

I had 65,500 AAdvantage miles. I paid about $80 to buy 2,000 extra miles, and was able to use 67,500 miles for a one-way JFK-NRT in First and NRT-SIN in Business. Those legs are currently selling on Kayak for $6,733.

Can you tell me, in short, how you have earn so many miles and flown so few?

There are lots of ways to earn miles that are much easier than flying. Some deals come and go (like US Mall Xmas specials), while others are around all the time (credit card sign up bonuses).

I pulled in around 400k (including Chase BA, which hasn't posted yet), plus $2,000 in Expedia money (TYP) and a handsome DL voucher (also TYP).

lots of ways..signing up for credit cards.. bonus miles for shopping with partners, taking surveys..the list goes on and on and of course the most infamous of all buying coins from the us mint.

I have never set foot on an American Airlines plane and have earned over 2 million miles. All from credit card and bonuses.

Just out of curiosity, what do you plan to do with them?

Back on topic as an avid points collector it is not just cost of the point in $ but in time as well.

For each of us the trade-offs are different.

I will not aquire points for the sake of it, but look for value.

I now redeem for long-haul internationals and so value points at say 4-6 cents. However if I had to pay full-price for J I probably would not as to me the money would be better spent on other aspects of my travel: theatre, food, accommodation etc...

So even though my redemptions are nominally worth the 4-6 cents in another way they are only worth say 2 cents or so (ie the price that I would pay for a ticket).

So in my case I would be willing to pay a cent or so. However fortunately there are many opportunities to get points for little cost $ wise and so normally I would not. However situations arise such as surcharges on CC payments where I make such assesments about whether to pay the surcharge and use the CC (or often which CC as my Amex earns at 1.5 and my VISA at 1.0) or pay with cash or direct deposit. Cash may of course sometimes ebable a healthy discount in which case I will forgo the points.

Or for example I might shop at a cheaper store which will not accept payment by Amex as the saving is worth more than the points gained.

However time is also a factor and so for me for example the play for points schemes are not worth my time (for others it is worth it). So I also consider time in my aquisitions.

BMI is an example for me where apart from one car hire it is only time. I have aquired about 80,000 points for no money, but have had to spend say about 2-3 hours all up to build those points over a couple of years. To me this is an excellent investment in time.

I don't buy something I don't want just for the miles.

I will consider buying miles to top off my account for some goal.

Of intrest last year US had a sale on miles, a cost of two for one. (something like that) That was a bargin when you consider that you could have topped off your account and then fly J on LH to Europe. Almost pulled the trigger on that one!

Working on a pool of miles for retirement. More like an ocean of miles.

One of the keys to this whole discussion is that you didn't buy the miles for the trip. You bought a few miles to top up your account so you'd have enough for the trip - but you had almost enough before you did that. Every airline mileage purchase program I'm aware of has an annual purchase cap to prevent people from "buying" all but the least expensive awards (e.g., domestic U.S. or intra-Europe economy travel) this way.

Topping off an account is, IMHO, the best use of these programs. For a small purchase, the high cost per mile isn't a biggie, and the time/etc. required to earn the miles another way can be a barrier.

I've done that, but...

At the end of 2008, for example, United increased the price of most international business class saver tickets from 80,000 to 105,000 miles. That 25K difference is obviously the price of a domestic saver! And Delta did a sleight of hand with its new three-tier scheme in which they vary the availability of the different "buckets". Others have done similar. In these cases, one has to act quickly to book several tickets at the new "old" rate (before the price goes up) as there is no juncture in these programs when a "deal" is more obvious. That's, ironically, "deal" vis a vis the new baseline. Even when there's a small devaluation, out over millions of saved miles, that will be several - perhaps many - free trips vanished in one swell foop.

Suchlike is inevitable. If you haven't felt like you've "earned" them in the sense of deliberately working hard for them, no problem. But if you have, there's one good word for it: "Amputated."

And there's another factor at work. The taxes and fees have been going up geometrically in the last couple of years. In particular, flying from/through London on a "freebie" has become terribly expensive. With some airlines such as BA, that charge their own "fuel surcharge" on award tickets, the era of "free" award tickets is over. Indeed, "free tickets" are now "award tickets".

[Parenthetically, and hopefully it stays so, a couple of airlines have shifted to a directly price-related earning and spending scheme. Meaning that not only are points earned in proportion to spend, but the redemption price in points varies according to the price of a revenue ticket at the same moment of "purchase". One never knows what one's earnings are worth until that moment. God help us. "Well, at least they're being explicit - explicit." (That echo is the income tax services...)]