In 2005 my Dad was sitting on something like 350,000 Delta miles amassed through their absorbing Pan Am's miles and a few decades of Delta travel. He was also commuting weekly between NYC and RDU and he decided he wanted to "save money". He blew that entire pile on 25,000 mile Y awards from LGA-RDU on tickets that went for at the most $225 r/t

For some people its pretty tough to get even 1 cent per mile. I know many people in this situation:

High income, limited vacation, and they have kids. They tend to mostly travel domestic to visit parents or close family. Travel dates almost always tend to be peak days due to work and school and they are not willing to sacrifice nonstops or timing.

So invariably the decision tends to be 50K miles or $400. For these people miles often have limited value. I see Ft'ers reference all the time that the miles could be used for a vacation to Europe or something but we mostly seem to forget how limited award availability is.

I wanted a flight from ORD-CDG this summer on AA and there is nothing for the entire summer on the nonstop. Instead I booked ORD-LHR 10 months ahead because I had no trust in AA to make seats available. Normal people are not interested in flying 200 miles from their destination and they are certainly not interested in booking ten months ahead. Using AA miles for summer vacation to Europe is easier said than done. If its DL miles, you're wasting your time even looking.

For all its warts, I'm finding myself coming back to UA these days. Availability there is better (I won't say "great" lest I jinx my next search). Even looking today at some summer 2013 Europe dates, most days I looked at were "green" for a search on 2 seats - meaning at least one available route in Y and one in either J or F. Midsummer weekends got a little tight, early and late summer were wide open. I was mainly focusing on the U.S. midwest to *A hubs on the continent.

Sometimes the route sucked, and I *never* saw the best F products available, but if you just wanted to get to Europe and back you could do it with miles. A few dates had only United Y and United F available - two less-desirable awards - but I also saw some OS, AC, and LH J mixed in as well. (If you can't get LH F out of FRA, then J on those airlines represents the best total value for your miles IMHO.) Even saw the LOT Dreamliner available in J, although I'd be hesitant to book until the Dreamliner fleet is fully back in the air.

Problem is that flying UA around the U.S. can be painful if you aren't 1K. US is a better inflight experience for a low elite but the roundtrip requirement and lack of robust online booking tools is a tougher pill to swallow.

^^^

Very good point - I myself, even as an FTer for quite a number of years, have a very hard time booking trips ten months out and I know that I will have a harder time finding availability later on, so sometimes I take what's available and other times I need to use more points to get what I need/want.

Agree w/ regard to DL - I don't remember the last time I was able to find anything normal available on a DL award search that did not have a crazy inflated miles required. I have not booked DL awards in years and yes, I know that there are people who are successful in booking the cheapest award flights with DL, I personally have been unable to do it.

I too sleep like a baby in coach. I wake up every two hours crying.



I had the following converstation with the DW a couple nights ago:


DW: Why are you using the miles to fly us to Thailand? (Family of 5 in J/F BTW) We can use those miles to fly to Europe and visit family!
Me: Because I can suffer through a 8 hour flight to FRA in Y. There is no way I will fly to Thailand in Y. By the time we get to Thailand we will both be ready to throw ourselves into the sea and never surface again.
DW: Oh it's not that bad.
Me: OK, let's change the award. You fly steerage and the rest of us will sit up front.
DW: Crickets

Yes well I left UA off that list for a reason. I am willing to pay a significant premium for UA miles these days because they are much better. Although stll fall from perfect. I was able to book BCN-ORD for july 2013 relatively easily in November. But looking today I wouldn't be able to get within 2 weeks of my desired date. So at 8 months out it was pretty easy, but at 6 months out there is nothing.

It really depends. I wouldn't do a generalization in that because in the past I was under that impression of SkyPesos and found I have missed out a load of opportunities...

In late Dec I have found PLENTY of DL biz availabilities to Europe for months between June to August - key is you dont rely on DL for your domestic hop.

I was able to book a pair of business class seats on Alitalia for travel in Jul/Aug, nonstop direct flight MIA-FCO-MIA no less - actually the whole itinerary is much bigger than that, but the TATL portions are on Atlitalia. Intra-Europe on both AF and AZ, that bring us to Stockholm and after surface sector to Russia, to Amsterdam for stopover before returning home.

This totally changes my perception of DL miles and now I am a fan.

Though I do not mind at all that DL miles remain being SkyPesos in most people's mind just like what it was in my mind up till this award. The more folks swore off DL the better off for those who use the pesos.

I would say no matter which program you concentrate on, knowing the alliances route maps and the rules make a world of difference. While AA has turned much worse in the regular award dept, the Explorer (former OneWorld) award remains a gem if it works for you.

It's amazing the amount of complaints about the traveling and the mileage collecting suddenly dies down the moment the mention of flying business class or upgrade comes into play.

What's worse is the opening the door of high expectations going forward for which all trips are followed up by the question, "Are we flying in first or business class?"

Baloney! So long as you can do a few 72 hour layovers, Delta has a great selection of cheap reward fares. Why, you can even get from Houston to Dallas in the same week for 60k - if you book 365 days in advance, of course. Ya just ain't trying hard enough.

I'm ashamed to admit that before I found FT I must have cashed in at least 200k Amex MR points for ~$2k in Williams Sonoma gift cards to get furniture for the house. If only I had known then what I know now. What a waste. I'm now only at about 30k Amex

Well, an FTer friend before he found FT, had cashed out 80K TYPs for $800 Staple GCs when at that time a mere 60K TYPs could redeem a $10K+ DL ticket to Asia, then canceled it, resulting to a DL e-Cert that would be value of the $10K+ ticket minus the $200 fee...

This was in 2007, the good old days of TYP redemption which has a fixed level and no cap on the actual ticket's price...

Talk about disparity in redemption value... I cannot think of anything remotely resemble to such, because the DL e-Cert is of real value, not some J/F flights that one would never pay for out of pocket...

Funny enough, my Uncle just redeemed a TON of AMEX MR points for a flight that was already over priced to begin with.

Friend of mine was looking at tickets JFK-LAX for my wedding... was going to spend like 150k MR points on 3 Jetblue tickets + lapchild. But he asked me first, because he knows I might be able to find better.

I spent about 20 minutes looking, had him sign up for BA Executive Club, transfer 122k MR points to 158k Avios (30% bonus), and get 3 business class seats + miles fee for lap child on AA.

So I helped him spend fewer MR points and get business class seats... but had he not asked me (or known someone like me) he would have just bought the Jetblue tickets. And yes, I realize even this isn't the best use of points, but as a family they can not really take international vacations right now.

I think you have done a very good deed. ^