How much would you pay for miles?
 

What do you think is fair price to pay for miles? The idea is not to buy them from airline, If i create a scheme to make miles what is the justifiable cost.

At the present time, I would pay 0. I can get them for the cost of a few credit inquiries and most of us can get enough to cover our travel plans.

That's the ideal case. Lets say you want some more miles so that you can travel in First. Then what do you think?

I can get enough miles for my family of 4 to take two international trips in F plus a bunch of domestic trips. So, again 0. :p

Thanks for not going negative.:o

No more than $0.01/mile

i don't need any, but....i think that there would be a high volume market @1 cent & the market would stall at 2 cents...

if i needed 1k mi for a 100k j award immediately, 10-25 cents would be considered...but this wouldn't generate enough volume...

that's my 2 cents worth....

Do some searches for "what is a mile worth". Everyone's idea is different. It depends on what you'd use them for. I only redeem in coach international, so very roughly I would be willing to pay $600 for 40,000 (off peak to Southern South America on AA) so that's 1.5 cents per mile. Even at 1.5 cpm I would not buy unless I was in a bind and ran out of my stash of miles, or had an immediate need for a specific trip. However, most people on FT redeem in J or F so they value miles a lot higher than I do.

I agree. What i am trying to find out is actually the lowest value of a mile. I will not pay 1.5 cents even if the airline offers me the miles.

For economy class i think the real value of mile is about 1 - 1.5 cent.

I value my miles at the following:

United 1.6 cents/mile
Hilton .6 cents/point
SPG 2.5cents/point

I will buy them at 40% of this value. Keep in mind that the Airlines and Hotels will routinely charge you double the listed price (i.e. one r/t airfare for 50K instead of 25k), so you should pay much less than their face value.

Good Luck,
Bald Army Guy

i'm confused!...are you answering your ?....or, you are saying the scheme must cost less than 1.5c?...

I agree with learningtime's posts above.

I would not pay anything for miles since I am able to get more than I can use at the cost of a few credit pulls and filling out a few credit apps.

And, maybe, placing a mint coins order.

Also, you never know when miles can be rendered more or less worthless by an airline. I'm talking about you, Delta.

I pay as high as $.008 which is about the cost to gen a virtually unlimited amount with GC/DC. Like to pay $.002 which is about gas and baggies for DCs. Overjoyed to be actually paid to haul the miles away with rebates in a GC/DC transaction, but that gig is over until fall.:D

I am trying to validate my opinion about the value of miles. Just want to make sure that i am doing it right.

Coming back to the scheme i think it should not cost more than 1.1 cents leaving at least 25% - 30% margin.

Whats GC/DC? Wanting to know how I can generate miles at .008!

GC/DC transaction:confused:

I know GC is Gift Card. What is DC??

Thanks,

I am starting to think that its not worth doing anything other than applying for credit cards and getting the bonus as long as possible.

Everything else ...buying coins/buying GC/etc take lot of time and energy and the output is minimal.

FT is wildly inconsistent on this subject. Here nobody will pay anything. But go on the UA or AA board and tell them you can't decide whether to purchase a ticket for $400 or use 25,000 miles. They will all be appalled at the thought of using 25,000 miles instead of $400.

a bird in hand is worth 2 in the bush

hindukid, excellent observation. to each their own!

I'm a $0 man myself. I'll earn them from travel or various promotions but I cannot foresee a reason for an outright purchase of any. In a perfect world if I did need them I'd pay between 1 and 2 cents per mile, however.

Dollar Coins

Well it again depends on what you want the miles for and what kind of miles. For EQM, I'd be willing to pay more, for RDM, 30% of that. If I expect to get say 2.5 cpm, I'd be willing to pay 2.5 cpm assuming I can at least get the credit card percentage back.

0.03c for F class awards
 

We earn 35k to 55k flying + 20k to 30k on cc per year(each) Then pay 0.03c to make up missing miles for First Class mini RTW awards @ 120,000mls :D this will be our 3rd F Award and pos last as ENHANCED up to 175,000mls as of july15th.:mad: BUT worth the 0.03c to get the route n dates n Class we want eg.YTZ-YUL-ZRH-CDG-BKK-HKT..HKT-BKK-KHG-FRA-MUC-YUL-YTZ x2 (spent about $1650 on missing miles)this trip.last 1 spent about $1000, and first F award about $300. all well worth it .

Anyone who uses a credit card that gives miles, rather than cash back, is "paying" for miles in the sense that they are placing some value on the miles. I don't value miles very highly, so that's why my go-to card is the Amex Fidelity card -- it gives 2% back as cash, with no annual fee. In my opinion, if you use a miles credit card as your go-to card, you're valuing miles at more than $0.02.

questions:

is the OP either a troll airline employee looking to bait people in here??

or

is the OP someone who thinks he or she could start some sort of award brokerage biz whereas the customer gets a ticket at a reduced rate and the broker makes money because the award seller is willing to part with large chunks of miles for anything between 1.3-1.6 cents per mile?

either way, someone's getting busted! I say just keep applying for CCs, get their bonuses and get coins. Stay safe. trade only with those you really get to know well and who freely disclose everything in any trade with you in so doing.

:)MM

Neither. Just want to know what everyone thinks.

I was searching to know how much businesses pay airlines to buy miles from them and i saw this website

http://www.themileageclub.com/ This is exactly your second idea (broker buying miles and selling tickets to someone).

Another
http://www.travel-enterprises.com/home.html


Disclaimer: I absolutely don't have anything to do with it.