Worth it to Pursue Miles?
 

A few years ago I looked into mileage programs, how to accrue miles, how many miles can be used for a flight, and signed up for a bunch of frequent flyer programs. The issue was that I only traveled a couple times a year and so it didn't seem worth it to pursue things.

Now in addition to the 2-3 times/year I fly for personal reasons I am flying to 2 conferences this year, might make another business trip, and have an international flight later this year. I flew first class (business class?) on Delta once a couple years ago and it was an amazing experience compared to coach, and have flown in first class on Airtran a couple of times which is basically the same as coach, but it occurred to me that I would really like to fly business class more often as the ride is much more pleasant, productivity is higher, I can save time in airports, etc. I looked at business class tickets online over the next many months and was shocked to find them starting at $900 each which I would rather not pay and the thought occurred to me to try to accumulate miles.

The issue was that I didn't find in the past that it was beneficial to pursue miles because with credit cards, the better airline ones have an annual fee, and if I don't continue to fly frequently in the future it might not be worth it and to cancel the card would be even worse due to the hit to the credit which is probably worth much more than I would save with the card. In addition when I compared credit cards the best I found was a 2% cashback on everything + Discover's 5% back in certain categories which is far more than what I could get in miles. Also with redeeming miles it seems that x miles = UP TO x dollars to book on a particular website but the flights I can find online are always much cheaper than the upper limit, so essentially I am wasting miles. I have joined other special promotions like getting extra miles to eat at certain restaurants but if I wouldn't have eaten there anyway I am just wasting money and there are a lot of deals to buy things online but it is always more expensive than if I did a search on the Internet or bought something in a store.

I have generally not flown with any one carrier as I just look for the cheapest deal each time (the idea being that I would save more this way than what I would receive in extra miles) and recently I have flown with Airtran and Jetblue but in the past have flown Delta, AA, United, Continental, Air Canada, Skybus, some international carriers, etc. I have miles in quite a few programs but I would have to check to see how many.

Am I thinking about this correctly or should I try to consolidate with 1 carrier or try something else? Appreciate everyone's thoughts/discussion!

Dude! Are you seriously asking this crowd whether it's worth using a FF program? Really?

If you expect to continue flying 6-7 times a year, including internationally, and you'd like at least some of those to be in business/first class, then I suggest you sign up for a FF program (or two) and try and be loyal to it (or both) for at least a year or two.

As for other ways of earning miles, I've never eaten out, or eaten at a particular restaurant, just to get miles. But when I do get miles for eating out, or renting a car, or staying at a hotel, or buying my wife a present, I'm happy to take them.

I'm not asking whether it's worth it to join a FF program. I am a member of practically all of them. I am asking whether it is worth it to PURSUE miles. Eg, is there a credit card that will give more return than the 2% cash back (or 5% in certain categories) that I can currently get? How do you think about paying a lifetime annual fee (given the credit score issue) for an airline card? How much extra are you willing to pay to fly on 1 airline rather than compare everyone for each flight?

How should I be thinking about this, eg, should I try to get to Silver on a particular airline? Which one?

You mention that when you eat out, rent a car, or stay at a hotel, it's nice to get miles, but wouldn't you be better off getting 2-5% cash back?

Thanks for the clarification. I am sorry I misunderstood the original posting.

I don't know the answer to your question, frankly. I've never had a cash back card and so have nothing to compare my experience too. But I fly a lot at this point of my life, most of it on very long flights. So the ability to use a lounge, to board first, not to pay a checked bag fee, to upgrade to first class, to be fed and given drinks on flights: all of that is considerable. And when I stay at hotels, to get a slightly nicer room is a similar perk of a life spent on the road much of the year.

But your point is well-taken and I personally am not "all in" the miles game. I have just one credit card (linked to an airline) and one debit card because I am still slowly rebuilding a credit history damaged by irresponsible college behavior. :( I choose hotels mainly for their convenience and cost rather than miles potential (though if those are equal...). And, if a competitor gives me a vastly better price/route than my preferred airline (DL in my case), I take it (for instance, when I fly to Chicago, I use Southwest; just makes sense to do so). But if the difference is just $50 and I know I'll get upgraded to first, I'll fly DL. That's worth it to me too.

YMMV.

my DH and i were discover people getting 2-5% back according to what was purchased. then i started playing the FF miles game very actively and we went to italy First class for $90 each. then i figured out how much we would have had to spend on cash backs to pay for the trip and it came to over $300,000. no way did i spend even close to a sixth of that. i don't get my points from just using the CC, i eat, shop on line and everything else to get points.

i am teaching a class this week on how start flying for free.

so my DH converted to use the credit card i tell him to use if there is a promo(like now AA getting 50% more )

i would continue to pursue.

This is going to sound kind of weird. A "perfectly rational" economic actor would make decisions about miles vs. cash back based on their economic needs and what value the miles are. Of course, there's no easy way to assign value to miles (this has been debated ad nauseum).

What I will say, is that for me accruing miles has a lot of value because I ONLY redeem them for travel. In a way it forces me to get out and see the world. It's so easy to just take that cash back, sock it away in a retirement account or buy the latest tech fad (iPad 2). But having miles makes me travel, and for that alone I love them. In the end that is much more valuable than the cash.

I have about 400,000 miles now, and I'm in my late twenties. I dream about the vacations I will take and where I want to go. Sure that could be $4,000 or so in cash, but I know that I would spend that money on car payments, or gadgets, or other stupid things. Miles are an investment in life experiences, and they give very good return on investment.

And even from an economic perspective, many here redeem miles at LEAST at 2cpm, often as high as 8-9cpm. Effectively that is as good as a very good cashback card, plus huge signup bonuses are common.

Not to detract from the ongoing discussion or my original questions, but let me ask another: I am flying Turkish Airlines this December and the total miles of all legs including stopovers is just over 15,000 miles. I don't know if the conversion from trip miles to FF miles is the same but I recall them asking on the form about a couple of American FF programs that I think I can get miles on instead of Turkish, I will find out which they are. I have 2 more roundtrip domestic flights to book this year.

As far as I can tell to qualify for various elite statuses, all the travel has to occur in 1 calendar year. Is there any way I can make something of these miles I will be accruing? I think this is the goal, right, I want to try to get some kind of elite status in a FF program?

Not to detract from the ongoing discussion or my original questions, but let me ask another: I am flying Turkish Airlines this December and the total miles of all legs including stopovers is just over 15,000 miles. I don't know if the conversion from trip miles to FF miles is the same but I recall them asking on the form about a couple of American FF programs that I think I can get miles on instead of Turkish, I will find out which they are. I have 2 more roundtrip domestic flights to book this year.

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US based FF programs are, generally speaking, the most generous. US, CO/UA are the 2 American programs that you can credit your Turkish Airlines flight to. Careful though. Depending on the fare bucket, you might not get 1:1 credit.


US based carriers are on a 1 JAN-31 DEC qualifying year. One goal is to have status. The other is to have enough miles to get seats in a premium cabin. You might use the miles for a free ticket in F/J, or use them to upgrade. If you travel in a premium cabin, you get many of the benefits of status, such as priority check-in lines, lounges on certain flights, priority baggage handling. Of course award tix don't earn miles.

Yes, one calendar year.

Elite status is one possible goal.

However, if you are simply looking to fly one premium class trip per year, you can accomplish your goals with only credit card signup bonuses. For example, right now, sign up for the two AA credit cards and you'll have 150k+ miles, plenty to ride in business/first class. You could probably do something similar 3 or 4 times with the bonuses out there now. When you can use points to go directly to the front of the plane, elite status matters much less.

But you shouldn't ignore the possibility for elite status. If you're flying 15k miles on Turkish, that will get you well on the way to elite status in Star Alliance. If you can make it to 25k this year, you'll have Premier status. The major perk is unlimited space available upgrades on domestic flights and nearly guaranteed Economy Plus seating on all flights. Makes flying much, much more pleasant.

Take some time to learn about United's Mileage Plus. Also, on the United site, there is a list of which fare classes on Turkish will earn credit in Mileage Plus (most will).

No, you didn't. You went for $90 PLUS the opportunity cost of earning all the points. If you did it with spend versus sign-up bonuses then the opportunity cost there is not trivial.

Points make a lot of sense if you're earning 25K+ each year. Anything below that and shopping on price and saving the extra you would have paid into a "travel fund" is going to offer a better RoI.

I hope that when you teach the class next week you offer full disclosure on both the costs and the benefits of this game, not just the upside.

When flying a partner airline on a paid ticket be sure your particular fare class and metal (if the flight is on a subsidiary) match the requirements for awarding of miles. I made several flights on Turkish a couple of years ago that did NOT earn miles, to my disappointment. Loved Turkey, but that was a sad surprise.

It's a hobby. I do this during some downtime/free time, like watching sports (it's really easy to read these boards and blogs during baseball). I fly less than you OP, and I have over 15K miles for US Air, and 10K Hilton. I've spent less than $50 on things I didn't need or paid a dollar or two more for a purchase just to get the miles. People would probably tell me that my miles will devalue, but for me it's a hobby. I'll keep the accounts active as best I can, maybe sign up for a credit card or two eventually, and someday take some free trips. If you're time is too valuable (and only you can decide that), then it's not worth it.

I went in - all in - about 15 months ago.... I had 0 miles in February 2010. I have "earned" over 750,000 miles and hotel points as of today. (not including mint miles) I followed Flyertalk and took advantage of every single offer I saw available including multiple "free" trips using the Expedia deal last November on DL getting DEQM and bonuses from RDU which also had the added benefit of quickly getting me to Gold in Delta then took advantage of another Delta offer to fly 2 paid R/T totaling less than $800 to get to Plat thru 2/2013. I have spent less than $3000 total towards this hobby that I wouldn't have otherwise spent yet have traveled lots and lots just for fun and every bit up front as I am flexible. I do watch flyertalk constantly to catch the best deals, something most sane people are not willing to do...

I have not found this to cause my FICO to go down at all. I am actually a few points higher than I was when I started, due to lower utilization.

You don't HAVE to go all in, you could just sign up for a couple of credit cards and take one big trip a year up front which might be all you want to do... on the other hand.... Its a fun hobby and can be quite addictive.... so be careful ;)

I think for me and most other people it is worth to pursue miles thru credit cards rather than flying. I dont fly much at all but thanks to credit cards I am able to take nice trips by redeeming my miles

Signing up for more credit cards will not make your FICO score go down in the long-term, what I was referring to is that canceling cards will make your score go down and if you sign up for a CC with an annual fee then you basically have to think of it as a lifetime card. I may look into the best airline cards without an annual fee.