Just curious when do you start to feel uncomfortable about the number of “available award mileages” you are holding in your account? > 1M, > 2M miles.

Howdy,

Hmm...for me it would be 500k miles. That represents a trip in F to Europe for the family - so I'd use it.

I don't bank my miles. I use them now - I love to travel with my family and can take time off to do it when I have the miles.

I can't imagine that my balance would ever hit 1MM - although it's possible.

I guess I'd worry they would end the program or up the requirements or something. Free trips now = more money to save/invest - so in the future I'll have more money to travel

Just my two cents.

Keep the faith,

Pakse

My concern exactly. However, I personally consider 1M miles my zero point. So I typically hold between 1M and 1.5M available award mileages.

The problem with holding less than a million miles is that at some point you will stop traveling for business (either you will stop working or your job will change) so it is nice having a mileage bank that will last you awhile. While mileage runs and buying miels personally occassionally make sense, in most cases banks are refreshed with work-paid-for miles.

It is not possible to have too many miles

My frequent flyer and frequent guest accounts are the equivalent of my Travel-401K. As we slow down my wife and I will travel more and more and we like to travel in style. We intend to very seldom pay cash for another ticket or high end hotel room. Of course the risk is that our Travel-401K could suffer the same fate as has befallen many regular 401K plans lately.

Enough for what...

It all depends what your plans are.

<100K in the bank for upgrades
100-200k for family trips
>200k for really big trips (or for a big family!)

You need to set goals first.

My goal for airline miles is primarly for upgrades so I keep a balance 50-100k. Hotel points for nice weekends away so I keep a balance 100-200k.

Good point miles don't earn interest; actually they loose buying power over time.

So perhaps holding excessive miles is not a good idea.

Maybe they lose value, maybe they gain. If fares go up and/or miles-for-free-ticket go down, I think that your existing miles gain in value.

If an airline cancels or restricts the program, your existing miles go down in value.

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Middle_Seat

History is pretty clear on these two facts:

1) The cost of long-haul coach travel has go ne done, not up. If you plan appropriately, you can go to Paris, Hong Kong, Bangkok, or London cheaper now than ever before in the history of aviation.
2) Airlines over time raise the price of rewards and/or make them harder to get by placing restrictions on them.

There probably are certain circumstances where miles have become worth more (perhaps premium cabin travel has become more expensive over time), but for my flying patterns, I need to use my miles as quickly as possible - I will still be able to fly to London in coach in the Spring for $500 from KC in 5 years, but will I still be able to get a reward business class ticket for 80K or 100K in miles?

Rules I live by:

Own things that appreciate in value.

Lease things that depreciate in value.

Spend things that the issuer can cancel (or significantly modify - devalue) with 6 months notice.

Guess which category contains airline miles?

Everyone's mileage may vary, as it has every time this question has been posed on FT.