At the very least I consider that they cost me $0.02/mile since I am forgoing 2% cash back to use my points earning credit cards. I generally use that as a minimum guideline when deciding whether to burn the points or spend cash.

OK..please help a noob out. I don't want to waste my points.

I just got into the CC game this Winter, here is what my wife and I have accumulated in Jan..

Me- 113,000 Southwest points from pers and bus plus cards, companion status reached today
- 56,000 United points from United Mileage Plus
- 43,000 Ultimate awards for Sapphire preferred

Wife- 110,000 SW points, companion status reached
- 56,000 United points

OK..we don't travel a whole lot, but I assume we should keep SW points and use those to travel.

United points..just keep until we travel somewhere overseas? Maybe combine Ultimate awards points at that time?

Keep the WN (=SW) points and use to travel; also, I'd recommend buying southwest tickets speculatively when there are good deals, as you can always cancel them, getting the points back (just be organized enough to keep track).

Definitely save the united points for going overseas, as you cannot with southwest. Obviously in an extenuating circumstance, you should throw out this advice, as the cpm doesn't matter. But with a few more CC apps, you're well on your way to a nice, free vacation in Europe (assuming that's what you meant by overseas...)

Wow is this thread pretencious, rife with a DYKWIA attitude on miles and points. I'm just glad sensibleu FT members came out en mass onpage 4.

Value is an individual assessment, and someone may value gift cards over airline travel, and for many people $400 is a lot of money, while miles and points are worthless in our daily lives. Many people just don't care to fly to other continents, so a great deal to fly in business class is worthless. MileageUpdate was right with...

I'll use myself as an example. I have circumnavigated the globe during an 8 year Navy career. I've experienced awesome and depressing interactions with people in many countries, so I have no desire to travel outside the US again.

I joined the miles/points game to simply offset our travel expenses for our annual trip to Florida (to see parents and Disney). Info on FT and the Boarding Area bloggers has been very valuable, but the greatest value has been the recurring annual benefits certain cards give, moreso than miles collected. Free bags, better boarding (to get overhead bin space for the booster seat), companion ticket, hotel status, free room, and other benefits outweigh the infrequent ability to collect and redeem points. As a three person family, we'd rather be together in coach than separate in First. In fact, we just redeemed 50,000 Skymiles for two tickets on an AS flight to SNA from PDX. $0.01 per mile, saving all of $500. However, that is $500 we can spend on something else during the trip, and it warms my wife to the game a little more (proving the invisible worthless points do have real value.

As for gift cards, I miss these redemptions, as it was nice to have Christmas paid for from daily spend. No financial stress at the holidays is worth quite a bit.

Finally, there are people on other boards that say the same thing about you. As a Disney fan, I shake my head at families that think free dining is a good deal, or those that drive their kids like cattle from park opening to close to maximize a perceived value ( I bet some are on these boards, too). Also as a data point, many Disney fans fly on the lowest price, even if it is Spirit. I bet this is true of most travelers, so saving $100 using any number of points is a win, considering a $30 price difference can make the difference between one airline or another.

In the end it is about personal priorities and perceived value. You value miles at $0.02 but I value them as a means to offset the overall cost of our trip and get privilages we wouldn't have without a card. Belittling someone because their priorties and perceived value is different makes you pretentiuos.

Thanks for listening.

- Chris

I have the exact opposite experience.
I always was fascinated with crossing borders given that I haven't lived very far from one wherever I've been (HK, SIN, YVR)
It's always fun seeing new places and I never get tired of it.

Ditto. And if I can "afford" to do it in style by redeeming points, then why not?

I don't think anyone who redeems for, let's say, gift cards is crazy or stupid (and yes, I've done this in the past so wouldn't want to label myself as such!), however, at this point in time that I've become educated as to how to really achieve greater value out of the points accumulated I would think more than twice before doing such a redemption.

I appreciate that, and the excitement for exploration that drives the FT community. I also appreciate everyone sharing their knowledge and experience, enabling me to save a couple hundred dollars for my family. I'm just concerned about the "can you believe how dumb they are (ha ha)" culture.

I appreciate this, which is why I'm greatful for your time here. I also understand the frustration with others not listening. You should see Disney fans that pilgramage to Florida annually and pay bag fees, complain about air fares, and just don't read the CoC from the airlines. However, they are great people that focus on maximizing their vacation time at their fav spot, much like others, instead of getting there and back.

I just wanted to be a voice for us newbies that may feel inimidated, unwelcome, ashamed, or off put by the tone of the thread.

It just never ceases to amaze me how judgmental some people can be about how other people choose to spend their miles. The only time I look at cost per mile is when I am trying to decide if I should buy miles during a promo. I think people should use their miles and points in whatever way is going to make them happy. For some, happiness is spending Christmas with Grandma, for others it's a week at the Hyatt in Paris. Let people enjoy their trips and stop trying to make them feel bad if they don't get 2 cents a mile or whatever.

The only waste of miles is when people forget about them and let them expire, anything else - if they are happy then that is all that matters.

I think a lot of people forget about the big picture here, and also can get so wrapped up in squeezing every cent out the mile that they don't actually have a good time travelling.

My $0.02: I've held a Southwest CP only one time. We decided to make that the year we did every U.S./Canada vacation we'd been ignoring for years in favor of bigger mileage trips abroad. Did tons of the 4-day weekend kinds of trips. We knew we we're going to be ongoing CP's...just a one-shot deal that we would need to milk as hard as possible while it lasted.

So if your CP's are off of big signup bonuses, maybe start there. It's one of the best travel deals there is....if you have an interest or use for it, which I'm assuming you do since you have all of these WN points.

Then, in the post-CP world, I'd probably be nudging my total available United miles to 100-120k per person and thinking about a good international J trip to take...

Amen ^ I've had people tell me I should only redeam for International F and how a KLM/Air France trip I took to Prague/Vienna for 100K was a waste and how using miles for a Y trip to see the 2010 World Serie swas a waste. Well said by you.

This gets a ^.

I'm not saying I don't feel better when I redeem for J or F seats or at a high rate hotel room, as my perceived value is higher than if I'd redeemed for something else. However, if at any given time I am in need of a gift card for whatever reason then I am happy with that redemption as well. A couple of years ago, while a member of FT and already aware of how to milk the system, I did not fly for about 2 or 3 years for various reasons and although I did mostly bank my points, I did do some relatively non-conventional (for an FT member!) redemptions and I was perfectly fine with it.

Wow...somebody busted your chops on a J award RDU-VIE because you didn't go F? :confused: That's actually one of my preferred uses of miles (the 100k J award to Europe)...IMHO it provides a decent balance between a comfortable cabin and extending the life of my miles.

Well, that and it's my way of soothing myself since I can't ever find an F seat on LH or LX... :o

I just encouraged my dad to use two of his Feb '13 expiring SWUs on an upgrade from DFW-LGA on AA next week. Sure, they could have been used on an INTL trip from Y to C (especially for a ORD-PEK/PVG Flight), but that's not what he (or I) was planning to do before expiration date (And AA wouldn't apply post Feb even if they could clear today). Saving the $120 he would have spent on stickers is much better than the low ~$100 value they seem to have in Coupon Connection, so may as well get more value from them. I"m just glad he had a trip at all in Feb to be able to use them instead of trying to trade or let them expire.

That said, he also wasn't willing to use 15k miles + $75 for confirmed upgrade instead of the $120 in coupons + upgrade lottery. Apparently he values his miles higher than that.