True that. Personally I don't like paying that much in YQ; and I wouldn't for JFK-LHR but I might if it was using LHR as a stopover to somewhere a little further afield.

Since your father asked, it's fine for you to offer some help if you really think your father has another way to use the points, which would give him more than the $1000 of value his travel agent discovered. But, as a general rule, it doesn't matter how "you" value the points, unless "you" manage the account. For many people, spending the points/miles to get something worth $1K for no effort is a great deal which makes them happy; whereas, investing a great deal of time to become expert in redemptions so they could then get something worth $3K transforms the freebie into just another "to do" on the list. The increased monetary value is not matched by an increased feeling of satisfaction; it's no longer a freebie but rather a part-time job.

Bear in mind that your father is a generation older and has that much more work/savings behind him. Squeezing a couple thousand more dollars out of a redemption probably isn't gonna change his lifestyle any or even be noticed in the budget...or at least this is often the case with people who are happy to get a freebie from an airline or hotel. Don't assume everyone who fails to maximize their redemptions is an idiot or being ripped off. Many of them are delighted to get something for nothing. If they want to get something even better, it becomes work...

I know. Sometimes my mind starts to drift to what I could do with 800k+ star points, but then I have to make myself stop bc it's just too sad to even think about.

I see the true value in the opportunity miles/points allow. Never be able to afford F/J tickets for my wife and I on pseudo-RTW trip but miles allow that because with UA/UR we have enough to do it even a the horrible value standard level. Additionally, there are low value redemptions that work depending on the situation. I've gotten as high as $.12/pp and as low as $.0068/pp for my redemptions and been equally pleased. Too me time off/ time spent with family is far more valuable than miles and points could ever be.

Just a hypothetical: if I had the mileage/point balance I have now (which is decent but far from excessive) and $1000 for a vacation and I could get tickets @$150RT each for the 3 of us as well as the ideal hotel room for $60 a night/ 7 nights. I would redeem 25k per ticket an 10k+ per night in a heart beat, just so that $1000 could be better spent at the destination. The "value" I am getting from the points/miles is horrible but in all the talk of cash v. Points there is an opportunity that points/ miles provide that straight up "best value" only arguments neglect.

It's also a matter of people's circumstances. If you don't have vacation days to travel a whole lot and if you want something that you probably wouldn't buy for yourself, why not use the points to redeem something other than airfare or hotel stays. The way I look at it, majority of the points are 'free' anyways and you can always accumulate more for when you do have the time to travel.

Personally, I love traveling and seeing new places, but everyone is different :)

I couldn't say it better myself.

It's J from JFK-LAX, and then domestic F from LAX-LAS.

I will be flying to Rome in Business and back from Dublin in business (mainly because there weren't any economy flights on the way back so I said the heck with it and did business for both my wife and I).

I've never flown business/first before so I don't know yet what I've been missing. I earn most of my miles from sign up bonuses so I'm not always miles rich so I tend to always try to travel more than I do travel in style.

I'm getting something like 8 cents per mile on this trip but while some people really tend to harp on that, it's also flights I would NEVER pay that price for.

On this trip we are also using Hilton points for the Rome Waldorf and while I'm sure it will be great, I'm not elite so basically nothing is free at the hotel. We like staying at high end places but just as much a nice holidy inn with a good hot breakfast is ok by us too.

My friend just had this situation a month ago. He wanted to burn his 30k United Miles and insisted on getting something from the catalog. I kept telling him no, no. He went ahead and wasted almost all of his 30k on a crappy Garmin GPS that doesn't even work.

Just last week he told me he is taking a trip to Berlin and that he should have listened to me, now he is scrambling to get a CC sign up bonus and pay out of pocket for the other half of the flight.

I totally agree with this, except that as I mentioned up-thread my dad never uses points for vacation travel because those are usually always domestic where the airfares will be relatively low (as compared to Europe where he travels to for business). He only uses them for business and will not take more business trips than he already does because he flies them in coach - he is self-employed and travels on his own dime so using points saves him the money he'd spend on airfares.

Great point and very well put - however, I think with just a little bit of knowledge and effort the average person can get a better value for their points/miles without making it in to a part-time job and making it feel as if it's no longer an easy freebie.

This.

There is no one set of principles that suits everyone - each person has his / her own criteria on what is more important to him / her - whether having comfort in travel or save as much out of pocket cash as possible - 2 almost mutually excluded goals if there is no compromises in between.

For relatively "short" trip from East Coast to Europe, we often fly in coach especially from Europe back to US often is daylight flight. It is just a little longer than a Transcon. It is not too hard to endure a 7 to 8 hours long flight in coach. The incremental hours from that threshold though, are MUCH HARDER to endure.

For long haul 14+ hours TPAC type of flights, there is no question a ride in the J or F is a necessity because we do not need to do such a trip. It is pure discretionary so if it is not doing it in comfort, why bother? A quality sleep in flight for such long haul is very important to us, as well as lounge access at airports thanks to class of service on a long trip that involves many airports over the length of the trip.

For hotels we always compare the cash price versus the point requirements - when cash price makes more sense, i.e. the points can be used somewhere else for more expensive locations, then we pay for hotel stays. We often mix up hotels from moderate to luxury in a trip but we do like to have nice hotels towards the end of a lengthy trip - just feels good to end a trip this way. ;)

We NEED people to waste points. If everyone is a FT'er and maximizes the redemption value, it is not financially viable for all these companies to continue to offer these programs without huge inflation. We need to thank the points wasters.

I stopped worrying what other people do. I can only set a good example and be helpful if they show interest.

The thought of this almost made me dizzy. I just redeemed 10k starwood points for a stay that would otherwise cost me almost $700 out of pocket. More than 10x his redemption value.

So he wakes up crying every hour? Not sure I see the draw to that.