I think the OP's point was to highlight what is considered a waste of points or miles... and a critical issue is defining what would be considered a waste.

In many examples noted previously, whether it be for a last minute expensive ticket, or a ride up in F, I would not necessarily consider it a waste.

What I personally would consider waste is what the ALTERNATIVE to using the miles would be. If there was a decent cash option, and the mileage requirement far exceeded the value of the cash option AND the miles could be used for future/another purpose, I would think it's a waste. If there were no use for those miles for anything else, then one can use it up and not consider it wasted because there was no ALTERNATIVE use for them.

Also, if one had far more miles than money, then the threshold for defining waste is probably going to be substantially different than the person who is saving his or her hard earned 10K annual miles from flights and credit card spend for a flight to Europe (it would take them 5 or 6 years); whereas some of us, with our business travel/elite status or credit card bonus/spending, earn that in a month or two.

Or just plain awesome if you do both and don't mind paying ~$1,000 in fees for F.

I've had family members redeem hundreds of thousands of AMEX MR points for crappy products in their catalog many times despite my best efforts to teach them otherwise. So frustrating and depressing.

Yep, before I knew what I was doing, may or may not have redeemed for some merchandise gift cards...dah.

Argh - sent 8 scouts to Zurich for 240k - could have sent 24 for the price of 2 seats.:p

I've always found you cant make someone use their miles in a way you want. One persons good deal can be ripped to shreds by 100's on these boards. If you only use your CC for normal purchases(I know right , who does that??) then you tend to view these points/miles as free. So burning 50k for $300-400 is still a win in your mind. It doesnt have to make sense but I know that this is how most people redeem miles. There is a ton of info on miles/points collecting and redeeming. Most people just dont want to invest the time or care to be involved in our little obsession.

No, not a bad thing at all - at least he's not redeeming for gift cards or merchandise :D!

Yes, you are right that you can get more flights to see more places if booking in to coach. However, my dad never uses his points for vacation which happens only once a year and is usually somewhere within the USA and he will just buy the tickets for $200 - $300 bucks. He only uses the points for business trips to Europe and it's not like he's going to travel MORE for business by going in coach because he only goes x amount of times per year anyway and has been doing so for the past 30+ years. I always tell him that he can at least travel in style and comfort but he's fine with coach...

^ I don't think I've laughed this hard in a long time!! But, don't count on me getting with the program - you'll keep seeing me in J or F whenever possible :cool:!

Simple solution:

Offer to buy them whatever product they want for 20% less points. You buy them the product on amazon.com. They transfer you the points.

I spent 3200 Business ExtrAA points on a MileSaaver ticket in J to Las Vegas. Probably not the best use, but some of the points were going to expire, I need to go to Vegas for a bachelorette party, and I had more points than I did cash at that moment.

Then my husband heard I was going to Vegas in J without him, so he is now spending 25k miles one way so he too can go to Vegas in J for his friend's bachelor party. I have made great strides educating someone who didn't have a single FF account before he met me, but I let this one go. :rolleyes:

But even better deals in business or first! :D

As far as I know, AA offers no J service to LAS. You're talking about domestic F.

I have spent 25k miles for one-way domestic economy ticket on AA. But then, the same flight was over $350 cash. So, while it was not a 12.5k redemption, I was happy.

I'm with your dad. I want more fee trips, and don't really care where I sit in the plane. The extra "value" you get by redeeming for premium class seats is simply referenced to the insane retail prices of such service, and the extra comfort may indeed be worth the extra miles to a lot of people. But I don't really believe that I'm getting less "value" if I enjoy four international trips in coach this year rather than two in premium cabins, just because the retail price of my travels would be less.

One thing to take into account is that people on this forum love to travel. That's not true of everyone. I have good friends whose idea of a fabulous vacation is a camping trip to the next state year after year. They love it and that's great. Once a decade or so they may do something else. For people like that, the credit card companies need to market other products for their rewards points besides free travel to gain them as customers. What would be a bad redemption to me may be just the thing to entice someone else to participate in a program.

Ditto here. For my family of 4 with 2 kids under 5, i would prefer to take twice as many trip in coach than half that in business/first. It is the best personal value for me compared to the "technical" value. (2 trips to Hawaii in 1 year all on UR and Hilton points.) And i am sure the people up in Business unknowingly thank me that they didn't use their miles to sit next to a 2 year old on a 12 hour flight :)