Just thought that I would point out that all of my miles are related to flughts and flight related activity, I do not have a miles earning card, nor do I really need one.

I'm something of a hoader in that I won't spend miles for less than ~3cents/mile and hotel points for less than ~half a cent per point (both net).

I generally earn ~500k miles per year; and spend at a similar long-term rate, though with ups and downs. I like to keep enough of a buffer to be able to do an unplanned transpac or TATL in C/J on any airline.

I take the family (5 of us) to EU on vacation every 2-3 years in C/J/F, and still have plenty left over; I even spend miles on business trips if the company won't pay for C/J and there is no confirmed MFU avilable (buys good will for the next time I ask...)

On the hotel side, I use points on MRs and for family vacations. I'm hoarding my PC points for the next EU vacation with plans for staying mostly in ICs. SPG points (mainly from SPG Amex) I treat as miles, and hoard to transfer as required - mainly for MFU on airlines I don't use much.

Current totals:

Airlines
AA~300k
CO ~400k
AS ~100k
Amex ~200k
BA ~100k
plus ~100k spread across other programs

I wouldn't say that someone who spends roughly at the same rate as they earn is a hoarder.

I have been "stockpiling" my AA points for the future. Which future, I don't know. Either for retirement so wife and I can get away and enjoy some travels, or for some major vacation with wife, me, and 3 kids (when they are teens). I currently have 790k AA miles and add an average of 70k per year. Provided the program is still around in 15 years, I should have enough miles to do some mighty nice traveling, perhaps an around-the-world trip, might even take the wife :p.

For immediate or domestic travel to family, I have 310k DL points. Wife has 130k in CO. I have 44k UA and will get that to 50k for two 25k domestic tickets. Wife has 50k AA for same purpose. She gets AA Platinum and CO Silver every year for biz travels so those accumulated miles are used for the family trips. We've burned thru 475k in UA, DL, & NWA points over the past year for family trips.

I'm a bit of a hoarder and collecting miles / points is my hobby.

I have:

AS 98k
AA 736k
CO 90k
DL 50k
NW 50k
UA 52k
US 150k
... total airline miles 1,148,943

HH 404k
Hyatt 2k
PC 437k
MR 95k
SPG 53k
... total hotel points 883,317

I also have 1k Hertz points and 4k Amtrak points.

I count my point almost daily but it's easy because I keep the log in Excel. With DL, NW & UA I had to do all sorts of little things to get up to the 50k mark since I don't actively fly them. I'm not saving for a particular award but I like to plan big trips. This last summer I spent more than 1 million miles and points for a month in Australia. The trip was fantastic and a big chunk of the miles I have now will surely be used to make a similar trip.

I also collect licencse plates and currency. I've had a few other FTers help me out with the license plates. :)

Burned 110K and $92AUD to find my heart in San Francisco one weekend, found more than my Heart in this wonderful city. :D

Extra money was because I booked under 24 hours international.

deleted, kill that dead server

"...Do you consider collecting miles/points to be a hobby or obsession? Are you saving your miles/points for a particular award or is collecting them more important than spending? Are you a collector of other things also? If so, what?"

Obsession...I am a miles/points whore. I charge $1.00 just for the mile/point. I have 1 million United, 150k Delta, 200k AA, 300k Wells Fargo Points, 250k Amex, 35k HH. I fly a few times a year, but never enough to get status. I know I will get blasted, especially in this forum, BUT I think I should be a 1mm on United simply because I have 1 million miles. Who cares how I got there! I did book 320 days in advance and used 125k AA miles for a premiere class ticket lax-lhr. That seemed like a good deal to me...125k for a $12,500.00 ticket. If the ticket would have been under $2k I would have not wasted the miles and just paid for the ticket.

I use whenever humanly possible, since losing half a million hoarded points when Ansett Australia collapsed.

Economics drives me to mostly "hoard" my AA miles
 

I value AA miles at 2 cents each, and I hoard or spend them accordingly. For example, if a 25K-mile award ticket for a family member could instead be purchased for less than $500.00, I'll typically buy the ticket rather than spend the miles.

If it's a ticket for myself, the calculation is more complicated, because I look at the *net* cost. For example, consider a business-class trip to Europe (say, 12,000 miles round-trip), for which a coach ticket costs, say, $700. A one-way upgrade is 25K miles plus $300, or $800 including the cost of miles. So, with a round-trip upgrade, the net cost is $700 + $800 + $800, *minus* $480 (as a Platinum, I earn double miles). So the net cost is $1820. Or, I can use a 90K-mile Business Class award and earn no miles for the trip, for a net cost of $1800, about the same.

Many factors can affect the calculation above, including higher/lower coach ticket cost, higher/lower assumed dollar value for miles, assumed value of business- or first-class seats, and need/desire to earn domestic upgrade miles/credits or status. But having this framework makes it easy for me to decide.

Given that I have accumulated over 1.9 million miles "in the bank" over the past 6-7 years using this approach, it may be time for me to lower my assumed dollar value for miles. On the other hand, I keep telling myself that someday the award tickets for a big family trip with the three kids and their spouses and other hangers-on, in business or first class to Australia, is going to cost me upwards of 1.2M miles, so I better keep hoarding!

Hoarders -- don't forget to bequeath your miles
 

Hoarders, since your miles have significant economic value (e.g., $38K for my 1.9M-mile stash with AA), don't forget to designate a beneficiary for your miles in your will or trust!

I have been involved in two situations where miles (and upgrade credits) were bequeathed -- after the deaths of my first wife and my father-in-law. In both cases, AA was very nice and supportive and merely required a signed statement that so-and-so was the legal beneficiary of the miles, but it would be better to have it explicitly mentioned in the will or trust if you needed to back that up, especially if the beneficiary isn't someone "obvious" (like a spouse).

Im more of a hoarder than not. I have cashed in miles from various programs to go to Australia (twice), New Zealand, Paris, the outermost part of Alaska and to get a half price ticket to Mexico.

I am sitting on about 720K total, with 456K in my Alaska account and the rest of it spread to AA, NW, CO, UA and US. I am hoarding for my own use for international trips and trips to impossibly expensive places.

Trick seems to be making sure I don't miss expiration dates on the accounts I don't put flight miles into, namely AA, CO and NW

I am a saver of points and miles and have set very lofty seven digit goals for our retirement. Fortunately for us, we are very much on track to hit those goals.

Having said that, we have also had some wonderful free trips:

Two Concorde tickets in exchange for 100,000 Starwood AMEX points. Value $24,000.00

Four premium BA tickets from Seattle to London, Malaga, Barcenlona, Palma, London, and back to Seattle, using AS miles. Value $60,000.00 ^

Five last minute NWA coach :o (this was before FlyerTalk) tickets, Seattle to Sarasota, to attend my mother's funeral. Value $10,000.00. That seemed like a very big deal to me back in my Pre-FT days.

We have also used points to score some pretty pricey hotel rooms, especially when attending mega trade shows in Europe where we have seen the rates climb to over $750.00 per night for a plain vanilla room.

Like, Randy, I have considered that, if it were every necessary, I could spend many months in a classy hotel for free. Hopefully, however, I will just keep earning until I retire and then blow them all flying all around the world, loving the high life. :D

So AA lets others have the miles when the account owner dies? Many airlines say, sorry, the owner of the miles is dead, the miles are gone. The easy way around that is for the heirs to know the passwords of the frequent flyer accounts and book award tickets for others that way.

I always keep enough miles banked with several airlines to be able to obtain business class tickets to Asia/Europe or elsewhere in case I want to go to a wedding or other special event.

Admittedly stupid, I have inadvertently "hoarded" about 1.2MM Marriott points and 300,000 Starpoints over the last 10+ years. Each year, these programs devalue the worth of these programs significantly.

I currently travel at least one week in two for work, raise children and take care of a free standing house.

Generally I'm too tired/burned out to travel for fun on weekends owing to the business schedule and when the kids sports/activities call for travel, its rarely a hotel I can use the points and/or the group rate is so low it doesn't warrant burning points.
And when its time to take the kids away for a vacation / long weekend around their school schedules (i.e. Florida in March), there are no rewards to be had where I need to be.

I doubt these points will retain much value into retirement, which is at least 10-15 years away.

But it does show how the masses (including myself) get duped into thinking these are "real" currencies and make significant travel decisions / deviations based on maximizing miles/points with dubious future payoff.

I guess I am a hoarder by default & my circumstances. I'm sure others with different circumstances and greater flexibility see things much differently.

I am definitely more of a spender when it comes to airline miles. I have about 18K with UA, and I tend to go through airline miles pretty quickly because I think they are devalued faster than hotel points. I have some orphan miles with Continental and Delta.

For hotel points, I tend to save more. Marriott is where I stay for my lodging, and I have about 320K points with them. I earn and burn at regular rates, often for short stays at midweek properties with a high rack rate, usually for pointsaver awards. Someday, I will redeem more travel packages, but I prefer to save money now when I would have to pay for a high room rate (about $250-300) instead of using 10,000-15,000 points for a one night stay. I expect that my Marriott balance will gradually drift higher, and I plan to redeem a travel package once I hit 500K.

I have a Hilton Amex card, and I am saving my Hilton points to get enough for a multinight stay at a nice property. Right now I have about 80K. Once I get that award and get gold with Hilton via spending on the card, I will spend my Hilton points.

I have some TY points, but I do not value that program as much since I do not have one of the better cards. I might sign up for a better card from Citibank, but I could just as well cash out once I hit 40K points. My Hertz account is not used that much, although I keep it for certain offers.

I used to hoard & then I burned through a lot (over 1 million miles on F-class international trips for either myself or as a gift to my sister) & now I'm a bit back in the hoarding mode. I'm quite nervous that I only have 250K left in my UA account :eek: I never use airline points for domestic travel; just F Int'l. Thanks to *Alliance I can usually get a F Int'l ticket.

I've also blown through several hundred thousand Marriott & Hilton points after saving them for quite a while. I'm now hoarding my remaining Hilton points (175K) but will probably use up the last of Marriott points for my annual birthday trip to London in February (thread in Community re: Feb Prez Weekend London Do if anyone's interested).

I also don't really pay attention to the 'devaluation'. I figure it is what it is.

My travel has lessened in the last couple of years, which is one of the reasons I'm back in the hoarding mode.

Cheers.

I'm new enough to frequent travel that devaluation isn't much of a concern since i've never seen it happen to me. That said, I probably don't travel near the amount of others here, and as such will likely fall more into the burn category. I've only been traveling for business for about 1yr, and just in the last 6 months realized I should be focusing my flights and hotel stays to specific vendors to maximize rewards. As such, in the last 6 months I've saved enough HHonors points for 6 nights in Hawaii sometime next year. Now I'm working on saving the SkyMiles to get myself and Ms. IsleOfMan there... though at around 2 domestic trips per month (and usually not transcons) it's slow going. I may only end up with enough for one award ticket and have to pay for the other. If my business travel can net enough rewards for one week long vacation per year then I'll be happy enough... anything above that I may start hoarding.

I'm definitely a hoarder, and am also a bit obsessed with miles/points. Heck, I'll even charge $3 at the drive through to earn every possible mile I can. I could probably take the next year off from work and travel non-stop on the miles and points I've accumulated.

I used to hoard miles but it seems every time I turn around now, their value becomes less and less. I fly three times a year to Southeast Asia and now as soon as I get the requisite miles, they are turned into a ticket.

Not a Hoarder, Just Don't Use Quick Enough
 

AA 600K
NWQ 51K
UA 77K
HH 340K
Mar 175K
*wood 9K
Misc +

Typically have 400 to 600K AA miles. Generally build them up as quickly as I use them. I travel too much to use many on myself, enjoy staying home instead of traveling. Maybe one redemption per year for flights. Wife goes Business to Asia and Europe once per year and several domestic trips with family / friends off my miles.

I hoard my UA miles but I am chasing AA miles to spend the moment that I cross my required threshhold.

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I always use them as soon as possible because of the continuing devaluation that is getting more frequent.

Do you hoard miles/points?
 

As soon as I reach Platinum status with Northwest, then I use my miles for the rest of the year for WBC to Asia. Usually I pay for tix until i reach my status for the following year. Travelling on a 120K WBC award ticket JFK-NRT-HNL-NRT-PVG-NRT-MSP-EWR for Christmas this year.

I'm with you. I have had some $US sitting around for a couple of years and have lost money ever since the $CDN has climbed to par. I have 165K Aeroplan points (140K collected in the past 5 months) that I won't be able to use for a while, however once I get the chance I'll use them. Star Alliance and AC redemptions are due for a hike.

I have about 280K miles now, but I am not trying to hoard them. I would use them now on 2 C/F international tickets with the hubby except we just don't have the vacation time. I mainly use miles on some saver awards to OGG and plan to find some time for a big trip to Asia or Australia... can't decide.

I use all of our miles for upgrades, being a silver I don't want to take a chance of sitting the the back!

I used to cash in my miles for an international upgrade as soon as I reached 25,000...but now with being exec plat about every other year, I use the evip's and save up the miles for premium class tickets for friends and family members. So I continue to earn miles, and get (slowly) ever closer to the 2MM mark.
Hotels are stranger, I tend to hang on to them, and then use them all at once, if at all, last spring using around 300K Hilton points for 2 rooms for a week in Paris with the aformentioned family members...good bang for the points!
Current balances:
AA 275K
HH 52K
Marriot 107K
SPG 130K
Hyatt 29K
ICH 55K
By some standards on this board...nothing to write home about, but I feel like I'm getting close enough for that round-the-world premium class ticket and the required hotel stays to make it memorable!
Great discussion, glad to find out I'm not the only "collector" out there...and they don't gather dust around the house.

I have 400k and the wife 250k. We plan every year to use them on a European business or first class ticket. On *A there never seems to be any availability.
The other problem is I am always concerned about making gold status, and that trip would maybe leave me short.
I guess I am waiting for a great redemption deal

onthebeach, do a search for 'ANA award booking tool', you basically sign up for a frequent flyer account with ANA (Japanese airline), which allows you to use the ANA site to search for available seats with Star Alliance partners. Very helpful, and to go one step further, you can check out the BMI forum for numerous award tickets that FTers have booked.

Congrats on your healthy Starpoint balance, and good luck in redeeming 'em!

Reformed hoarder. :)

In general I fly the cheapest or most convenient, so I currently have >100K on UA, DL, AA. Most of the DL miles are from the mid-90s and I regret not spending them given the massive devaluation (no more F transcons for 25k or 2Fs to Hawaii for 75k :( ). No such regrets with UA and AA as I normally use them as soon as I reach a target, usually international upgrade or business class award. Have been largely successful in zeroing out orphan miles with others, e.g. CO and US with no regrets. And of course WN does not allow you to hoard credits! :D

As for hotels I have a few points spread across many programs due to my travel patterns... have been hoarding them as you do a bit better with multi-night awards. But given frequent devaluation I will probably start spending down these balances soon.

It makes no sense to hoard these days since the airlines and hotels are continuously moving the markers by raising award costs, eliminating award inventory, etc. Better to spend as soon as you get a decent value, then to save for years for free F to Italy and 7 nights in Rome (though I'd take either in a heartbeat ;) only to find that there are no rooms or seats available.

I used to save miles and eventually had well over a million miles but now with the constant devaluation of the miles I try to use the miles as I earn them. I fly mainly to Southeast Asia and unless I fly around holiday times, have had few problems obtaining a seat.

When they start paying interest, I'll hoard 'em.

fwiw, I'm guessing the '08 will be the first year since I became a Flyertalker that my aggregate mileage/point balance will decline.

I've never hoarded miles or hotel points. I'm more of a last minute traveler and very flexible. Because of that, I've been very successful at getting standard award tickets. I'm a NW flyer having been in their elite program for going on 10 years....nearly all platinum. This past year I was bumped back to silver....whoa....they treat you like crap unless you're platinum...LOL. Now I'm back to gold and will most likely make platinum before the end of the year. At any rate, I say use the miles as you get them....I've used over 1.5 million on NW for myself, my wife, and family. It's a great perk even with the devaluation going on. I also collect intercontinental points and I use them every time I need a room for personal reasons. Just last night I was about 800 miles shy of the necessary miles and ICH comped me the miles and gave me the room. I know it's easy to grip and complain about these programs and where they've gone....but the fact is any time you get a free ticket or room....it's FREE!!! Enjoy! BTY...I just had a nightmare flight on NW because of weather and they comp'd me 10000 ff miles out of courtesy without me even asking....NICE!

Tracy

Thanks for your comments
 

The article on hoarding has been published in the Nov. issue of InsideFlyer www.insideflyer.com and will be available in print and online soon. Thanks to everyone for your comments and discussion. We didn't know know what kind of a response our thread would get and appreciate hearing from all the hoarders, non-hoarders and hoarders-no-longer.

-Darcie

Hi,

I spend what I earn each year

Five Asian C trips roughly equates to one free J trip, and also renewal into gold status, so it's a toss up each year, when to use the freebie, as I have been caught before having to fly "once more before December 31st".

Gold status means access to all the lounges for me and one other, that is most important.
Secondary importance is the ease to book, upgrade and be able to swap and change at a moment's notice.

Do I horde, NO!
Why, because I have seen too many airlines go belly up, and I have watched others who hoard have their nest egg eroded with changes.

Best of luck with the article, regards bkkrop

I face the situation of having to use my miles on short trips. I currently live in Peru and my 6 year old twins live in Ecuador. It is only a 1,139 kilometer flight each way but it usually sells for about $400-600 roundtrip (a scandal if you ask me).

Since I travel there in average once every three weeks I try to use my miles for that. Paying $500 for a ticket that only earns you 2,000 kilometers altogether seems like a waste. I'd rather pay for my longer trips usually from peru to the U.S. on business trips which end up costing roughly the same $500+ but accrue 5 or 10 times more mileage. This way I keep my top tier status for less money while at the same time earning enough miles to pay for half of my trips to Ecuador to see my kids.

Since I try to see my kids as often as I can and since I pay for those trips with miles I see no sense in saving miles for too long. Also it does not make sense to claim a business class award for such a short trip. By the way an award from Peru to Ecuador on LAn is usually 25,000 kilometers. It is more important for me to retian my tier membership and its benefits than having a lot of miles saved up. I will every once in a while take the long trip to Ecuador via Miami which earns me about 15,000 kms and goes a long way into keeping my tier status.

No hotel points anymore. When i travel on business I can't get hotel points due to my company's corporate rates which do not allow for points earning.

Anyone think I could maximize my km usage in another way?