For an upcoming trip LAX to Toronto (which I am planning to take this May, and planning to fly economy), I am confused about:

1. To buy a discounted economy ticket (costing me $275 - $310), or
2. Use 25000 AA miles (of which I have many).

I did a search, and found that many readers here value miles at round 2c/m, a few at 1.25c/m. So the 25K award valued at 1.25c/m would relate to $312.50.

Am I thinking in the correct direction?

Thanks in advance.

I never redeem the 25K award. You get a much better value going for international premium awards (especially on other airlines). Unless I am stuck paying $500+ for a domestic (or Canada) ticket, I always just buy it. If you've got more miles than you know what to do with and you're doing fine on achieving your desired status save the money and do the award ticket, but if you really want value for money save it and go for a First Class ticket intl.

(Example: First Class US to South Africa via Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific in ultimate luxury, with a stopover if you want. The cost would be over $20,000 to buy this ticket, but goes for 140,000 miles. Your Toronto example = 1.2 cents value per mile. South Africa example = 14.2 cents value per mile.)

Anyone agree, disagree? That's my 'newbie' take on it.




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My rule of thumb is if you can get a ticket for under $400, I say buy it.

Others have different opinions. I believe one of the best uses of FF miles is imminent trips that otherwise would cost $800+. While it hurts to spend money, no doubt, in my case a better use of miles is for the occasional family funeral.

This article may not tell you anything your search didn't already reveal.

I would never buy a domestic ticket using miles, unless it was due to a last-minute emergency necessitating payment of a full fare. For me, the value of the ticket would have to be over $500 to make it worthwhile. Don't forget, you earn no miles on award tickets!

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Vasant

Western Airlines, thanks for the link.

Yes, I too agree that using 25k miles for a domestic award (when compared with a ticket of around $300) is kind of waste of miles. I wanted to get assurance from the (more experienced) ft community. And, also, the $400 rule of thumb would also be useful.

There is some logic to using awards only for international first or business class travel.

However, those fares are so high and beyond the reach of many people that it skews the comparison. They may charge $10,000 but would you ever buy such a seat?

Since I would not pay $10,000, I arbitrarily assign the value of the seat as between 1.5 and 2 times the price of a coach seat. With this factored in, the best use of a domestic and int'l coach award is roughly the same. An Australian business class award also qualifies. A transatlantic business class award often does not meet my criteria.

So do what you think is best. I wouldn't redeem a domestic or North American award unless the ticket was more than $425.

I'll take the opposite approach. It's true that a first class international ticket may cost $20,000. However what really matters is what you would actually pay. I'd probably only pay a couple hundred extra. I don't find coach to be all that painful and would rather just redeem coch awards anyways and save the miles. I generally plan well in advance and therefore get tickets cheap. If I happen to have an emergency trip, I still have plenty of miles. In general I'd use 25K miles for anything over 300. However American miles are worth more as they allow stopovers and have better award avaiability. If you had CO, NW, US, or UA miles, I would use those.

If a domestic ticket costs less than $400, I would generally buy it and save the 25k FF miles towards a transatlantic upgrade. Plus you get to earn more FF miles (and status miles) when you buy the ticket.

If the ticket costs more than $400, I would look a bit harder for a cheaper routing and/or try different dates.

I tend to agree with everyone else. You need to weight the cost against the benefit. I usually set the cut-off at about $350 for a 20K USAir reward. Realizing that you are looking at spending about $300 or using 25K miles, I would look at how many miles you have total and make a decision. If you have more miles than you know what to do with, go ahead and redeem some of them. On the other hand, if you don'y have miles to burn, I'd save the miles for a longer/more costly trip and pay the $275.

Last year, I wouldv'e agreed. But with the continual devaluation of miles and tightening of restrictions, my philosophy has changed.

Burn the miles now. Use them while you can, before they're good only on Tuesdays during lent when the moon is in the waxing phase. Miles will be worth less over time. Miles depreciate like a Buick.

AA recently upped the miles for non-capacity controlled domestic flights and FC domestic. It's only a matter of time before they go after the classic domestic coach, and then add fees.

And don't forget that bankruptcy risk. I doubt AA will dissolve, but one of the majors is likely to go soon.

MHO: If you have a lot of miles, keep some aside for emergency, that trip of a lifetime, etc. But use the rest and spend the money on a great dinner or events where you are going.

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On the road, In the air,
I enjoy travel, From here to there.

I use about $325 as a cut-off for use of a 25K domestic coach award ticket on most airlines. With the exception of last minute emergencies, I think paying $400 for a domestic coach ticket is a waste. To many destinations in the continental US, and certainly to larger cities and popular leisure destinations, some planning can usually get you tickets under $300. Obviously, better value can be had redeeming for international business and first class awards.

Note that I use the $325 hurdle on MOST airlines. As hindukid correctly points out, all airline miles are not created equal. One must take into account award availability on the different airlines, availability that may vary based on your current status with a particular airline. This leads to the conclusion that there is a difference, perhaps a substantial difference, in the value of miles across the various programs. In my view, ignoring these fundamental and real differences, and viewing every airline mile as worth 2 cents (or whatever value you assign them) is old FF thinking. For example, while I value AA miles at 1.3 cents each, I value CO miles at less than 1.0 cents, probably 0.8 or 0.9 cents each. The reason is that award availability on CO at standard levels, particularly for Hawaii and International Business First is just dreadful. It pretty much sucks for domestic awards too. Comparisons I have done between CO and AA standard award availability suggest that AA offers around 3 times as many FC award seats to Hawaii on each flight as CO does.

For me, I don't do a whole lot of International flying, so I probably have a lower threshhold than most here. For $300, I'd probably buy, but much more, I'd use miles. But I wouldn't fly coach. When burning domestically, I prefer to spend the 40K (going up soon) for first class. I just hate the idea of flying but not earning miles, and being up front takes a lot of that anguish away.

Two other things to consider... if you buy the ticket, you'd earn about 5000 miles, so your cost is really 30000 for coach. And don't forget to check the AA board for the discount codes that may save you 5 or 10%.

If you are flying AA and you have a citibank platinum world master card you can get a ticket to Toronto for 2nd quarter (April 1 through June 30) for 7500 less which is 17,500. I just booked three. If you have a gold card, it is 5000 less. If you don't have a card it may be worth getting one - there are 10K bonus miles for getting one floating around. Also if you book it online you get 1000 miles. You would just hold it, then call, give the locator number and they will "reprice" it when you give them the award code. I think at 17,500 (really 16,500) it is a bargain. Otherwise my ticket would have been $253 and I wouldn't get many miles for that trip. I think it is considering both cost and how many miles you would get for a paid ticket. From Chicago, a flight to Toronto give 500 miles each way. I won't be platinum anymore so I would get a 25% bonus. The online booking bonus is the same as booking the award online. In contrast my trip to Spain cost $459 and I ended up with 28K miles. So there is a lot to weigh. If you could do it for 16.5K net then it is definitely worth it.

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Ms.DtG

[This message has been edited by dgordon (edited 02-20-2003).]

http://www.citi.com/us/cards/cardserv/worldcard/
It doesn't show this quarter, but the same Canadian cities including Toronto are available for second quarter. I am flying up in April.
The award code for a Toronto destination is CBP182Q3. that is for the platinum level. For the gold level, it is CBG202Q3

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Ms.DtG

[This message has been edited by dgordon (edited 02-20-2003).]

Wonderful suggestions, all of the above.

I finally ended up using the miles (17500), as per dgordon's suggestion (since I have the citi platinum card).

I have around 200K AA miles, but I am saving most of them for an exotic overseas trip in business/first for me and my family. I add around 10K per month to the account, so they do keep adding up.