Need assistance: comparing miles between programs for FT DO
 

First, I am not looking for any $ value of miles. There are plenty of threads on that subject with varying formulas.

I'm looking for an expert assessment of the value of miles from program A compared to program B. The major U.S. airlines are of particular concern but I welcome foreign programs as well.

I'm not qualified to compare programs because the bulk of my travel & miles are with Delta. Often in various threads someone will say something like "I'd rather have 2,000 AA miles than 3,000 DL miles...blah blah blah."

The information I gather will be used for a presentation at the Chicago FT DO in October. Using the hypothetical above I'd like to have a chart that says something along the lines of "The value of DL miles to AA miles is x-to-y so if you have the choice of getting a car rental bonus of 3K on DL or 3K on AA choose the AA coupon code. AA miles are x% more valuable than DL miles." Get it?

I could never come up with these kind of stats myself. Example of why: I would be too easy on DL because as a Diamond I rarely have trouble redeeming miles for domestic itins at the Low redemption level... and I have never used my AA miles for anything. IOW, my knowledge of the ins & outs of the many airline programs is not very extensive.

Currently the big car rental miles bonuses (from various agencies) are for WN, CO, DL (so-so right now), AA, UA, US, AB (airberlin topbonus), CA Aeroplan, and Lufthansa Miles & More.

If anyone knows of a web resource that already compares miles with "currency conversion rate"-type numbers that would be great!

Thanks in advance.
Evan!

You might start with the data in the "successful trades" thread in CC. At least that would give you some comparison based on the trades that have happened.

That's a great tip. Thanks :)

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9630/5.0.0.591 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

I'm not entirely sure why using dollar values isn't what you are looking for. If you want to produce a master table of the value of points in various programs then you need a baseline to compare them all to. Whether dollars, yen, pesos or NUCs (I think that's what they're called) a baseline value system should be something simple and reasonable that folks can relate to and that can be reasonably converted to all the other things you are comparing.

The other place I'd condsider looking is on accruw.com. They have a "buy or redeem" calculator that lists point values in dollars for most north american programs. The data is a couple years old but it is a good starting point as it is still accurate for most the programs listed IMO.

First of all, price != value, so determining value is hard to impossible except on a case-by-case basis. For example, an airline could offer a First Class ticket from YZF to THR for $20,000, but my personal value for that flight would be $0 since I don't care about that route.

I would really like to see this comparison. But to compare value in a meaningful way, it seems to me you almost have to estimate (guess) future changes in the measured programs.

For example, if I measured the value of the AAdvantage program today without taking into account the likely change due to the current miles giveaway via Citi, I think I would be kidding myself and producing a false value. And, while I think the impact of the giveaway will be profound, I would only taking a wild guess on what it will be, much less what the resulting change in value of AA milieus might be.

Easy to sense but almost impossible to value.

Have you see Lucky9876coins' post? I would consider him an expert.

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/onemil...r-point-worth/

I think his airline numbers are a little high, but the comparative rank is about right. He doesn't include WN, though. I value each Southwest credit at US$15, which would be about $240-250 for an award. I would also be roughly ambivalent between taking 1 WN credit and 1500 carrier miles (not Delta), so on his scale 1 WN credit is 2000-2400.

I think you mean acruw.com correct? ;) You're right about the calculator being a little old.

Wow. His post is very near to what I was looking for. Thanks bunches.

The combination of these two resources is quite helpful.

Edit: This is going to be tougher than I thought. The calculator at acruw.com gives a $ value per mile of the below values. AC ranks last. Yet the boardingarea.com URL ranks AC as the most valuable.

AA $0.0155 / mile
DL $0.0146 / mile
NW $0.0142 / mile
CO $0.0142 / mile
UA $0.0139 / mile
AS $0.0138 / mile
US $0.0136 / mile
AC $0.0133 / mile

I think there might be too many variables (some of which are subjective) to assert confidently that when given the choice of 3K on XYZ Airline or 3K on ABC Airline choose _____ Airline. This goes back to many many times someone on FT starts a thread titled "which program is the best?". The answer is always "It depends.......".