I try to keep at least enough miles for 2 on international J. Since I don't travel for work much any more and am cutting back on spending (or so I think), I don't earn fast enough to exceed more than an international trip each year. No hoarding issues here.

In the absence of devaluation, that is true. However, how many airlines still have one flat 20,000 mile redemption level for domestic? Or even the 25,000 they all raised it to several years ago. I used to travel on those all the time. Now I can travel for 25K if I want to go to Peoria, on a Tuesday, in June. Want to fly somewhere that I actually want to vacation? 50,000 90% of the time. Or 35K, or 45K - everyone has 2, 3, or more tiers where there used to be one. I would call that explicit devaluation, along with the "co-pay" upgrade amounts, "award ticketing fees", etc., etc. I believe the actual cost to redeem an award has gone up significantly in the last 3 years, at least on the airlines I use.

For me, I don't see the sense in frittering away a large balance, just because it is large.

Devaluation may occur, but to redeem on poor redemptions, or flights I don't really want to take, just to burn points would actually be devaluing the points immediately. So I do not see the sense in that.

I am seeking to keep flying my family of 5 on long-haul international J holidays as long as possible, and upto twice a year.

I am currently on about 2.5 million in various programs. It is slowly drifting down as I am now a regular J flier for holidays. But I am content that this rate is slowed as I continue to earn points by various means. When it dips to about 1 million, I will probably drop to one rather than 2 family J holidays per year. Hopefully that will not be for many years yet.....

In recent years, as my knowledge has grown, so has my point earning ability and despite virtually all my points now coming from my own private endeavours, I now earn annually substantially more points than back when I used to have a large work provided travel budget.

I cannot imagine that, except for temporary "sales" on the number of miles required to redeem for a given trip, there will ne no changes which make miles more valuable.

BUT, if there is a "change" in that Y, C, and F fares keep going up, the value of the miles will become more valuable. Hope seat availability remains decent.

I too am surprised that more flyertalkers don't realize this; or maybe they just don't acknowledge it.

But there is a problem related to the OP's question. In my family there is a fixed amount of vacation time per year, and I've found that once we've picked a place, I can find points for tickets about 60% of the time, and buy tickets the rest. Recently I have been getting points at a faster rate, while spending them at the same rate. Thus the number is growing and the marginal value of the points is decreasing. If/when my job has me traveling less, the marginal value will go back up.

Not sure I agree with this. Yes they may loose some value, but I find the flexibility is well worth it.

"Sitting" on over 1.3M in various programs. My rule of thumb is to have enough in different programs for 2 J/F TPAC seats at all times. If I only had 50,000 in one I don't think I'd sleep at night - what would I do with those redeem for a $200 coach ticket?

By having at least 250k in a program within each alliance I can essentially go anywhere I want in the world at a moment's notice - and in comfort.


Even Skypesos now (at least for the near term) have a floor under them with the ability to redeem for straight cash at 1cpm (via Amex gift cards in SM Marketplace). So I see no reason to waste miles when they could be much more valuable for my needs in the future.

I like to use my AA miles for OneWorld awards. Usually, 20K flown miles in J, which cost 130K RDM, work out nicely for us. So that's 260K for my wife and me. I also want to be prepared to buy an occasional positioning trip or a ticket for a family member. So I would feel fine with our accounts totaling to at least 350K-400K. Right now we have a little more, but not to anxiety provoking levels. :)

My ex personally has over 1.3 million AAdvantage miles, the last time I looked at his account.

He would rather fly revenue rather than redeem. And he is not nearly savvy enough or have the patience to redeem anything on CX F. Even when it made sense to redeem, he would fork out cash.


Lets just say he lives for American Airlines. He's keeping them and I quote " just to have", and goes through extreme measures to earn them. Including : Flying when he is sick, crazy routes, and flying (LAX->NYC) via LAX-DFW-ORD-EWR, all on an MD-80, LAX-DFW a red eye C.C . Crazy.

At that point, I turned my United First p.s seat into a fully flat bed, and bid him adieu....

I personally use and burn, frequently, and rarely have over 300K Onepass miles at any one time. Though, I have had times when I've only had 5K.

Key words. :D

I just ticketed a one-way off peak Europe to North America award CDG-MIA-LAX-LIH, with MIA being a long stopover (home airport) for a measly 20K AA miles. ^ Would have redeemed a J seat but it is not available for my preferred date(s). I can tough out a western Europe to East Coast trip in an exit row seat.

I too, like the idea of having at least 250K in each program we participate... At this moment, one program has significantly more, like 5 times more, one program is still lacking quite a bit, while 2 other programs are smack dab in that range. I am working on the lacking program diligently this year. ;)

I typically keep a couple hundred thousand banked in case something fun comes up (like the DFW/SYD in J I booked today for the Thanksgiving holiday week for 125k miles) but I'll often end up giving them away to help family and friends. It also lets me bring friends along on trips that they might not otherwise be able to afford -- good for both of us!

Really, you'd be hard pressed to come up with an "emergency" that required hundreds of thousands of miles so why bank them?

This is something I just can't understand...why build miles just for the sake of building miles?

My wife is from China so 100k is always there, for a trip, in each of our accounts.

Using your logic then you burn your money also as fast as you earn it. USD has been devalued by over 97% since 1913 and it wont stop but would you burn every nickel as fast as you earn it?

In judging such a person, I would need to know how much he flies every year. For example, it is not hard to see why someone's first priority might be to maintain status. Therefore, up to 100K miles/year, the temptation to resist using awards is not as bizarre as it may appear at first.

We also have to remember that meFIRST has presented us with the viewpoint of an Ex talking about an Ex, and even more importantly the two are loyal to different airlines. :D

Future use

I build far more than I can use at this time but there's no reason to NOT continue to accumulate the miles whileit's so easy to do so. There very well could come a day where it's no longer as easy to do so, just as there could come a day when we can use more than we do now.