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

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.

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, 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 (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.

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 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.