years ago I heard that there was a way of weighing the value of cashing in miles versus buying a ticket. That each mile was worth so many cents. If spending 20,000 miles converted to a dollar value was a better buy than the ticket, presumably you should burn miles.

Two questions:

is this logic correct?

if so, is the conversionn rate.

Thanks

Yes and no, depending.

Please see the earlier discussion thread(s) in "THE BUZZ" where Randy address this himself, and elsewhere.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/003114.html

Hope this helps!

-Mark

[This message has been edited by doc (edited 05-14-2002).]

Here's a link to a story I wrote in InsideFlyer titlesd "Is a mile worth 2 cents?" I think you'll find it a pretty good guide to answering your question:

http://www.webflyer.com/@flyer/arcdom/jul01/cover.htm

Randy's article is very good. A few other points though that I think should be emphasized:

1. Inflation. Awards are becoming more expensive, miles-wise. Your miles don't earn interest sitting there unused. You money will.

2. Availability- I have found that USING miles is VERY difficult in the past 6 months. I have had a heck of a time booking any ticket anywhere where I thought it might make it worth my while to use miles. CO has made it impossible to go to Europe without using EasyPass. Thus it makes those miles worth a lot less than before.

3. Program differences- the one big exception here is Starwood (although we are talking about points, not miles). A lot of people convert their Starpoints to miles, but I generally wouldn't.

Why? No blackout dates. No capacity controls. You can use your point whenever and wherever you want. This makes these points MUCH more valuable than your typical mile.

4. They make up the rules. And they can change them when they see fit, with little notice. Don't forget, the airline is in charge. You are not.

I have a coworker that sells his miles to travel agent at 1.5 cents/mile. so I know it is at least worth that much.

The range of value you could assign to the miles wide because of all the variables involved. It really comes down to how much money do you save by not buying the ticket, would you have actually have paid that amount if you did not have miles, did you pay extra to get the miles (mileage run), etc. It is different for everybody. A couple examples from the past two years: I have 40,000 CO miles that I would like to use for upgrades, I often can't buy the lowest fare and get the upgrade so there is a cost that obviously has to be factored in to the calculation. Another factor is that CO often offers discounted first class fares now so I could just pay for the ticket at say $1300 rather than give 20,000 miles AND pay about $600 for the coach ticket. The 20,000 is really only saving me $700 ASSUMING I was actually prepared to shell out $1300 if that was the only way. On the other hand there is British Airways, on three ocassions I have cashed in 100,000 miles for first class tickets that would have cost over $10,000 each, and every time I got exactly the dates and flights I requested with less than 3 months advance planning. 100,000 miles on some airlines is much more valuable than others. There are many, many variables. You just have to consider your own situation.

Also, welcome to the board, if you fly often you have come to the best place to get accurate and thorough information.