Award use for me is divided into two primary categories: Cost/Benefit, and Sheer Indulgence.

Cost/Benefit is similar to what most others have posted. If you can fly somewhere and earn a reasonable number of miles for under US$300 within NAmerica, US$400 to Europe, and US$600 to Asia [before taxes and fees], then I pay for the ticket and hope to be able to use upgrades.

Also, if there is not sufficient notice for a must-go trip to purchase a discounted fare, then miles become an option because NAmerican travel to easily top up to US$1500 or more for a full fare Y ticket, elsewhere even more. [And award tickets are almost as flexible for me as a full Y, J or F fare ticket.] Being top tier in AC, I have access to any seat still for sale on the flight I want, even if no award inventory exists, for the normal award price. This is an extremely valuable benefit.

And AC also offers short-haul NAmerican awards for 15K. While expensive to some, these are also quite useful for mileage runs, when the objective if to top up one's status miles. Since fares are too expensive ex-Canada, I will use a short haul award to link up with a mileage run on UA or AA. The MR flights will generally earn 15K to 20K status miles, and twice that many due to elite bonuses. So I will net out what is spent for the award, and still be ahead on each balance: status and general account.

However, for the most part, I will still use awards for Sheer Indulgence: to fly First Class to Asia, Africa or Australia, where sleeper bed seats come into their own. 120K or so miles for the equivilent of a US$10K First Class ticket is a pretty good use of one's miles.

Of course, these strategies can best be managed by those of us who hold elite status in one or more programs, and who have been at it long enough to have account balances that would make us very wealthy people were they dollars instead of miles!

It's interesting how many people here say that they refuse to travel in coach, especially for long distances. Many say that they use their miles for upgrades or free trips in business or first.

I always use my miles for free trips in coach. To me, it's better to get two free trips in coach than one in business or first.

I've been on intercontinental flights in coach many times, and I've never had a problem. I've never flown anywhere in business or first class, so maybe I don't know what I'm missing, but it can't be so great as to be worth more than taking another trip another time.

Of course, I don't earn miles very quickly, so when I get enough for ONE free trip in coach it's a big deal!

Ed

I would gladly trade off all FF miles to do all travel in private jet. Hands down, the way to go. Miles don't begin to make up for the hassles of commercial airline travel.


[This message has been edited by jsmeeker (edited 04-01-2002).]

Ed, I'm with you, buddy. If it's within the US, I'm not giving up the premium for first class. I'll use my e-upgrades if the flight is full, but other than that, I'm not worried about it. Just get me my e-plus seat and I'm a happy boy. I'm not giving up what is 60 percent of another coach ticket to fly in first class, especially since the longest flight I'll be on will be around five hours. I can live with e-plus there.

However, with my trip to New Zealand, I will cough up the extra 30K miles to fly in business class. It costs 50 percent more, so that's less than the premium for a domestic flight. On top of that, I'll be in the air for around 20 hours when I'm all done, so that means that the benefit to me is four times as great as for the longest domestic flight. On top of this, if I fly on Air New Zealand, they don't have e-plus, so it's a little different.

I get so much more bang for my buck doing this that it's worth it to me.

To each his own, though.

I've had to fly at the last minute for suddend deaths in the family. Without the miles, I would have paid a lot more, even with a bereavement fare. Miles for last minute situations are always good to have.