This may be true, but I'd prefer devaluation to being stuck in a market (GTF) with high fares. "well yes Honey, we have to pay $400 to fly 500 miles, but just think how valuable our frequent flyer miles are!" ;)

Depends on the market. I use 15k UA for MCI-DEN on occasion, and 25k NW for MCI-DTW. Those are short, but expensive, trips. Oddly enough, award seats are usually available on those, even when the airfare is $400+.

For those awards, it's easy to calculate the redemption value in terms of real cash in pocket. 1.5 or 2 cents or whatever that I was really going to have to spend.

For some other awards, I don't even bother calculating a redemption value...I just do it because it sounds fun. Upgrading to Europe for example...what's that worth? I don't know...I probably wouldn't spend even $500 of my own cash to upgrade, so technically not even a penny a mile. (The airlines may ask a ten grand or a million dollars for that seat, but that doesn't matter: I wasn't going to pay that to begin with.) But I still get a kick out of those redemptions...

Cast my vote for only using miles for premium long-haul (transoceanic) service. Last summer, LAX-TLV, was either $1500 in Y or $3400 in CO BF -- the 200k miles (Sleazypass) per BF ticket was well worth it, since paying $10k+ for 3 tix was a nonstarter.

Similarly, for next summer, it's LAX-Italy in AA F & BA J -- but I booked earlier and got them at 125k miles per. When I priced the tix, given the super-high fares ex-LHR, it was $11,380 per -- that's a 9 cent mile. Again, it's not really worth that much -- but when my wife (who thinks we're "only" flying in J) gets pointed toward the Flagship Suite at boarding... :cool:

Yeah, its nice to say that one should only use miles for premium transoceanic service. But you gotta have the miles to do it! You just used up 400,000 miles and 250,000 miles, respectively, on the two trips you mentioned. I, on the other hand, just surpassed 50,000 UA miles after about a year of collecting. So I just will never earn enough miles to spend them on the kind of trips that you say they should ONLY be used on. Unless I save for years and years and years, and what's the fun in that?

I use mine, typically, on expensive coach tickets within North America. Often for California to Montreal, which tends to be expensive compared to most transcontinental routes.

Ed

This is an excellent point. Other viable domestic redemptions are small airports - particularly in the west/northwest. For example, a $250 to DEN will become $500+ going into ASE.

We used to redeem NW miles for Y tickets to ANC every year - for 25K miles, you could get a ticket worth about 600 bucks (0.024 $/mile) - havent done that in a while though - just checked fares - still a very good deal on miles.

Have been saving up miles lately for intl upgrades and/or tickets - hope that works out well ^

---

As was noted, Ed, to each, his or her own! :)

Mark

Expect devaluation to continue...

---

...Eager to raise cash and satisfy their credit-card company partners -- who have propped up struggling airlines financially -- several carriers have made it easier to qualify for premium-level status as an enticement to spend more on credit cards. Some recent offers have also made it a banner year for "mileage runs," trips made solely to push mileage totals over qualifying thresholds.

As a result, the ranks of premium travelers who get perks like upgrades, exit-row seating and preboarding privileges are swelling -- eroding the exclusivity long associated with elite status....

http://online.wsj.com/public/article...s_free_feature

---

I used to be so easy! ;)

Now we need to be on our toes - and to work hard as well.

Mark

Makes me want to get even more miles for everything I do so when the miles per ticket goes to 100k, I am ready... I had an impossible time using 25k miles to get a flight from philly to LA 4 months in advance...had no choice but to use 50k...

---

Hey, as a FT'er aren't you supposed to be doing that anyway! :)

Mark

---

FWIW, there is also an article in The Economist concerning the devaluation of FF programs as well:

Who will cheer loudest when frequent-flyer miles celebrate their 25th birthday?

(From The Economist print edition) Dec 20th 2005

Frequent-flyer miles

The mania began in 1981, when American Airlines launched AAdvantage, the world's first mileage-based frequent-flyer programme, to encourage customer loyalty. Today more than 130 airlines issue miles, and according to Randy Petersen, the founder of InsideFlyer magazine, 163m people around the globe collect miles of some sort. Indeed, calculations by The Economist in January 2005 suggested that the total stock of unredeemed miles was worth more than all the dollar bills in circulation.…


If you are a subscriber, here is a link:

http://www.economist.com/research/a...55BA%252FL%250A

---

Note that one of our "members" is quoted in the article as well! :)

Happy Holidays.

Mark

May I ask you:do you mean the 12/17-23/5 edition?

Whoopee, the Economist is at it again. I wonder how many hacks are going to rip off this article in the next six month?

BTW, just redeemed a super awrd for 3 of us, which I value directly at 18c a mile in value, not bad.

you got to use them or their worth
is nothing...

Randy also just posted some related comments here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=486170

Mark

To go back to the subject, "The Value of a Mile", I offer the following anecdote.

I had been keeping an eye on the sales on ebay of the Kellogg's 100 AA mile certificates that appeared on the boxes of cereal, Eggo and other Kellogg's products over the past few years. For those unfamiliar with the program, you had to send them in to Kellogg's in groups of 5, and they'd post 500 miles to your AA account. Sadly, they quit printing the certificates earlier this year, and the last ones (if you can find them) expire tomorrow.

Over the last year (and to a lesser extent before), there was a thriving market in the certificates on ebay. As the supply in circulation appeared to dwindle, prices shot up amazingly! I posted a few links on the AA forum to sales where individual 100-mile certificates went as high as $10. It was not at all unusual to see groups of five certificates bring $25 to $40 (i.e., $5 to $8 per certificate).

Watching the auctions, I noticed that some individuals tended to win the high-priced auctions, while other folks would drop out as the bidding crossed $2 or $2.50 per 100 miles. Out of curiosity, I e-mailed one of the consistent winners of high-priced auctions, and asked whether he or she knew that American would sell miles at ~2.5 cents each.

She (it turned out to be a lady) responded that she was indeed aware of this, and had already bought her annual limit of 15,000 miles from American, and had also signed up for the AAdvantage credit cards to get the bonus miles offered for those cards. She said she remained on the look-out for such offers, so I sent her a link to pgary's wonderful website (if you're reading this, she says "thanks" for all the information, some new to her).

I had originally thought she was simply not aware of the "true" value of miles, but as it turned out she was quite sophisticated in this area, being fully aware that most flyers tend to value the miles at around 2 cents each, or even less. However, she said that, to her, they were worth about 10 cents per mile and she was willing to acquire them when they went for much less than that.

She explained that she is a business executive and vacations annually in Europe or Africa, and when she does so she flies first class for the comfort and convenience. She is also economical within those limits, and thus uses frequent flyer awards wherever possible. To her, it made perfect economical sense to assign a value of 10 cents per mile on the major airlines.

Perhaps this is nothing new, but it does again point up that the value of a mile is in the eye (or pocketbook) of the beholder.