What U do with your miles
 

I was wondering what most people do with their miles.
I know that I'm the odd bird because I'm not a business person and I fly for fun and exitement but I was wondering what do people that fly for a living and get miles from company money do with them. Mostly upgrades? vacations? tickets??
I have been gold and plat with AA for almost 10 years and since I am still student/training all I do wiht my miles is travel. I have used lots of free tickets to Spain, Italy, Sri Lanka, VietNam, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Indonesia, Ethiopia and more....... Sometimes I think that the airline don't like how many RT around the world I have redeemed......specially cause I do all my plat miles on cheap fares, I just know how to maximize!!!!

I haven't used any of my miles for free travel yet, just 40k on AC last year...i'm planning a nice free vacation with my wife to Hawaii with my AA miles and HHonor points. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I am banking all of my AA/DL/UA/CO (from credit cards/bonuses/shopping/non-travel) points for international biz tickets for my family. My wife uses her earned travel points with AA/CO/NWA for upgrades to FC domestically for flights over 2 hours where she doesn't think she'll get auto-upgraded.

We primarily use them to upgrade flights - still get the base & elite miles plus we're guaranteed sitting up front!

We did "spend" the miles on coach tickets earlier this year to Aruba - didn't want to fork over $600/ticket.

1. Tickets for friends and family.

2. Upgrades, though less so recently since I've been able to upgrade all my recent flights through a combination of VIPOWs (AA term for system-wide upgrades), mileage-based upgrade credits (now worth much less if you trade them in for miles) and complimentary upgrades on full-fare tickets.

3. Last-minute flights when the fare would have been (to me) absurd.

I try and use them for international stuff - ideally, upgrades from cheap coach fares. If cheap coach fares aren't available, I spend them on business class award tickets.

I definitely use awards when I want to do a stopover or open-jaw. A lot of award tickets allow these things, whereas paid tickets generally don't.

Finally, I've used miles to get last-minute coach tickets on occasion.

Award tickets for international travel in premium cabins.

Open-jaw and stopover domestic tickets which would cost a ridiculous amount of $$.

Airline Miles from preferred airline: upgrades on inter continental trips
Hotel miles + miles from other than preferred airline: free hotel nights.

[This message has been edited by ql2112 (edited 10-17-2002).]

Exactly http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I redeemed my first airline award in May 2000. 25K apiece for tickets that were available for $135 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

And then I found Flyertalk. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

My inception to date usage in all airline programs stands at 730K. That is a burn rate of over 300K miles a year http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

What do I do with my miles? I let airlines cheat me by not always crediting me flights then I let the airlines change the rules so that my miles become worth less!

Seriously, I redeem them for coach seats domestically and occasionally, internationally. I don't upgrade on them. If the airlines are curious, they don't lose any money on them because I usually end up redeeming awards on tickets that are cheap anyway. When the tickets are expensive, they never seem to have seats.

Howdy, ql2112! Born in Stamford, but on the Left Coast since 1966. I now meet relatives in Florida during the winter. To answer the question: I like to earn and burn.

Happy Trails!

Howdy,

Hotel Points from Hilton (my primary hotel) - I use for family vacations, my status frequently gets me upgraded to suites when I book standard award rooms (such as Hilton ALON awards).

Hotel Points from everyone else - convert into AA miles.

Airline miles from everyone except American - convert into Hilton Hhonors points.

AA miles - use for first class tickets for family vacations.

I fly a lot of short routes, most of my flights have no first class. Those few that do - if they are 2 hours or more in length and I cannot get 3 seats across to myself - then I upgrade to First.

Just my two cents.

Keep the faith,

Pakse

Mileage Plus miles
* I 'used' my balance of 431'000 miles (nov-2001) to get these miles (431'000) and my 1K status comped by KLM Flying Dutchman (I now have also a balance of 431'000 points in their program).
* in 2002 booked award tickets for business-class tickets with Singapore Airlines Zürich-SIN-Melbourne (january 2003)
* an award ticket SFO-MIA in first (3-class flight) for Matt Wald's Virginia Tech football game in MIA (dec-8-2002)
* an upgrade eco-first on UA HNL-SFO (sep 2002)
* an eco ticket SEA-MIA for somebody needing urgent medical care there.

miles&more
* several upgrades eco - first fro transatlantic flights (m&m upgrades are good on any fare) in march, april, sept, nov 2002, to see my 49ers play (includes FlyeràTalk DIM SUMS, side-cars, etc in the bay area,)
* a Zürich-Düsseldorf, partner award (2 people cost only 150% of the normal miles) for Gisela and me to the Düsseldorf carneval event in feb-.2002, organized by bernie; another one for the upcoming (summer 2003) Düsseldorf event.

Flying Dutchman:
* one-way business-class award tickets Zürich-Amsterdam-San Francisco (nov-2002) // Miami-Amsterdam-Zürich (dec-2002)

Qualiflyer (miles only earned with no-flight activities like tf, credit cards, etc):
* every december/january a business class award ticket (costs 25'000 miles) for my mother in law, living in Mallorca, Spain (for her early XMAS shoopings and a stay with us over XMAS and New Year in Wengen): Palma di Mallorca - Zürich - Vienna (point of return) // Vienna - Zürich (stopover) - Palma di Mallorca

I use them only for last minute tickets which would cost an arm or a leg. You should be aware that a UA 1K has NO blackout dates and no advance purchase restrictions when it comes to using miles. So I can use the miles on a whim's notice as I please.

So far I've used them to fly myself and friends around cross country a number of times. My good 1K buddies use them to go catch the US Open at NY, see new family members in FL, etc...

I have also donated some to help a local acquaintance book a last minute flight to see a dying family member, as well as donated some miles...

[This message has been edited by UALOneKPlus (edited 10-18-2002).]

The biggest chunk of my award tickets recently was for my wedding, both bringing people in and our honeymoon flights, 1st class tickets to South Africa. I've also redeemed a coach award to Australia and an award from Europe (waste, only used one-way of the 60k award). Also used some miles to upgrade back from Milan and to Taipei.

Hi,

I'm saving my miles to spend a wqeek on Sir Richard Bransons private island ( Necker Island).Only need 850k to go as it is 1 million miles....! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Seriously,
Saving mine to use on VS Upper Class return (100k from LON-West Coast USA)

Regards
TBS

Necker Island.... If memory serves me right, that is very close to Virgin Gorda in the BVI, right?

You may want to check out Biras Creek. What an amazing place!!!

I use my miles for 2 main reasons: 1) If I need to go somewhere on a moments notice and the fare is out of control. 2) First class trip ORD-CDG or LHR.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Upgrades upgrades upgrades

Award miles cost about $0.02 each to acquire. If you upgrade coach tickets long-haul you get up to about $0.40-worth of airline ticket for them. So the most 'bang-for-your-buck' is upgrading from coach.

On AA, I use them mostly for upgrades from Y to C.

On AS, we haven't used them in a while. My partner earns about 4000 miles a week for her 160 mile commute. Less than half of year of commuting gets her a nice BC ticket on BA.

We do gift the 'rents with BC tickets to Europe on occasion.

Right now though, we keep them under our pillows for safekeeping. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

lala

This is the year that the three years of being a Flyertalk devotee is really paying off. I found this site a few days after mailing off my first 50,000 miles worth of Healthy Choice pudding vouchers in May 99. I thought the pudding was a cheap way to get a trip to Barbados. Now I am earning and burning >700,000 miles/year and all my travel is leisure or mileage runs.

UA First class SFO-AMS for my wife and I = 200,000 miles burned. The 55,555 Star Alliance promo was > 400,000 earned.

BA First Class this December-January holiday for SFO-Geneva is 190,000 burned. Diners Club promo for BA and AA miles transfers put >100,000 in those accounts.

Helped relatives with last minute international tickets.

The entire year has been upgraded except for the $135 Lufthansa Denver-Frankfurt tickets last April and the United Express flights in California and the short flights I did on the Star carriers for those 55,555 bonus miles.

Travel has been very good to me this year.

I have sold about 3/4th's of my miles over the years. Of the times that my wife and I have flown, I usually purchase a coach ticket, then use my miles to upgrade to FC. Wife unit gets FC too, of course.

If the flight is less than a couple of hours we have just flown coach. As to flying on business, I get bumped to FC 80-plus percent of the time. Hence, it is worth it to chance getting stuck in steerage versus using miles to upgrade.

My husband complained that I save all these miles but we never use them. Well last winter he needed surgery in FL. We were able to get free roundtrip flights on NW thanks to all those miles I had been saving.

He hasn't said a word about my miles stash since then!

Now I am stockpiling delta miles for business class tickets to Europe, hopefully, this May.

I just used 25000 miles to fly an old friend (and Angel fan) out for the World Series. Booked yesterday for flight today - round trip was upwards of $1600.

The United rep. suggested that I should at least get a dinner out of the deal http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif