50000 miles or $500 for a ticket.
 

I'm thinking about going to Europe right after Xmas. I can get a ticket for $634 or I can use 50000 miles. The mileage will cost $150 in fees. So should I use the miles or just buy the ticket?

That's an even swap to negative (based on lack of accrual during the flight). I would pay the cash almost every time at that rate, unless you really don't have the $650 around.

Pay cash. $0.01/mile is not a very good redemption rate.

Thanks. That's the way I was leaning since I also get about 12K miles for buying the flight too. So it's more like use 62K miles or pay $500.

im sorry mile freaks
 

We are in a global recession and the airline industry is contracting and who knows what miles will be worth soon enough

CASH IS KING

Use the miles, at .01 thats about what they are worth these days. $500 is still $500 cash and likely will be next year....

That is not what they are worth unless that is what you redeem them for. That is often considered a baseline of value, but a little bit of effort can extract much more value from them, assuming that you want to fly in a premium cabin or take a multi-stop trip.

And, cash is king, but if you have the cash to pay for the ticket and have a reasonable chance to use the points for another ticket in the near future it isn't such a bad idea.

Not the biggest bang for your buck using the miles but I tend to think that if you are on a budget, having that extra cash to do fun things while on your trip might make it worth cashing out the miles.

They ain't getting any easier to use....

Without knowing your financial situation, I would in general pay with cash for sure. Keep in mind that you're also losing out on the miles you earn for a revenue ticket, which can vary based on your status or route, but is probably somewhere around 10,000 miles, which would be worth another $100 at a conservative valuation.

I'm with the consensus: Unless you're really strapped for cash, spend the money and save the miles for future use.

I too vote for buying the ticket and saving the miles, all else equal and you can afford the cash. As you said, you would be earning 12K miles to boot.

I try to use my miles for things more valuable - economy class flights to Alaska or business class international flights. Not sure where you live but from the lower 48 to Anchorage usually costs a minimum of $500. You can travel there TWICE with 50K miles vs. once to Europe. Or you will have 62K miles after this trip to Europe. Get a NW VISA card and make a few charges to get you up to 100K miles and you can fly business class to Europe, the retail value of which is several thousand dollars.

If I didn't value miles at more than $.01 each, I would change some of my habits, e.g., the credit cards I use. That said, award tickets can have one advantage over purchased tickets, that being flexibility to change travel plans without $ penalties or redeposit the miles to one's account for less than backing out on a paid ticket.

I'm flying Continental. They charge $100 for any change, even with miles. UAL is great about that though, when I was in China, I changed my flight every 2 days for a month and they didn't charge me a thing.

The good news is while I procrastinated, I found a 10% coupon to use to buy the flight. The bad news is that the price went up to $1000. I'm leaning towards miles now.

$500 is way below my threshold for using miles. I would hold off and use the miles for a much higher priced trip.

Most airlines now charge a fee for redepositing miles or making changes, even to dates. But the advantage of an award ticket vs. paid ticket is that you receive all your miles back if you cancel an award ticket vs. only a credit when you cancel a paid ticket.

Is the fare that you saw earlier no longer available or just that seats at that fare are no longer available for the flights/dates you looked at earlier? Perhaps taking a different flight or looking at a different date you could find that lower fare?

Looks like the fare is gone. It was available for multiple days but all those days have gone up as well. I should have just booked since you get 24 hours to cancel.

Welcome to FT travfar!

For future reference, check our pgary's website under Value of Miles. He has a nice formula for calculating whether to use miles or cash, even though this example was pretty straightforward.

Pay the ticket, save the miles.
 

50k miles vs $500? That's an easy choice, pay for the ticket. Right now i just was looking at flights vs miles on MVD-ATL. It's a $2000 ticket in mid January, but 60,000 miles. That's 3 cents per mile, vs 1 cent which you'd get on the europe trip.

The only reason to take the miles option is if you have a LOT of miles and aren't using them.

Please read the entire thread - it is now $1000 vs. 50K miles.

I have redeemed miles at low redemption rates when it meant taking a family a trip we wouldn't otherwise be inclined to do for financial reasons...so, the miles were an empowering opportunity, enabling a vacation we weren't going to take, and therefore the redemption "value" was high to us, but low in absolutes $/mile.

BTW, it is $150 for CO reward changes now, not $100. :( :td:

me, I'd rather pay cash for an upgradeable coach fare and then use the miles to upgrade. typically this is a much better return than using the miles to get a coach ticket, but then again I fly almost exclusively on AA.

hope things work out for you, OP

-benzguy80

Glad you don't fly NW. Upgradeable coach fares are only Y and B fares - read: very expensive. I prefer to use miles for outright international business class ticket. Flying CO next Tuesday to Italy that way. Woohoo!

Thanks for pointing out this UA vs CO difference. There was a time when I flew a good deal on CO (when CO was a good deal), but that hasn't been for years, and I don't know when I might fly them again. But when I get unhappy about some of UA's "enhancements," it is helpful to be reminded of the advantages that UA offers in certain circumstances, like this business about how changes to award tickets are handled.

At $500, no question I would buy the ticket. And often, when I need miles to requalify for 1K, I still will buy at $1000. For me, what is much more important, is earning and upgrading....or going for an F tix on LH!

I burned 150K (3X50K) for a domestic transcon to go to the Rose Bowl

the tickets were anywhere from 500-800 bucks each.. I say anywhere from b/c I had to wait until the the games were announced to buy my ticket and to travel New Years Eve and come back the 3rd Sat.. it was expensive.. when I finally got around to looking I was having problems finding 3 tickets under 2 grand (total) in coach; I did not want to shell out that kind of dough and since I had 665K miles I decided to go with it and just eat the miles.. plus the $15 in taxes ($5 X 3)...

not the best value but as someone said, I still have that 1800-2100 cash in my pocket and I should requalify for EXP next year so right off the bat that is another 200K earned back..

I don't know.. if you have the miles, sometimes its just more fun to keep the cash.. sure you can get more value if you try.. but sometimes stuff comes up that you want to do and well... thats more fun than trying to get the most for each and every mile

Well, TrojanHorse, I just did nearly exactly the same thing (2x50K) for exactly the same reason. My buddy will be paying for the hotel and car, and I got the air tickets. For me, this was the right decision at this point.

Given your name here, I'm guessing that we'll be wearing different colors at the game. :-) Good luck!

interesting question
 

Hi Travfar,

Nice question - pay money, burn miles = depends on the $ and miles!

No matter the answer - have a great trip!

Elizabeth

yep I'll be the one in cardinal and gold :D


I am using Marriott points as well for the lodging and my free avis weekend for two of the three days I'll have a car so the real out of pocket is the tickets, one day of car rental and whatever I spend.. so my point of view is 2K saved, probably about 500 burned and 150K miles which still leaves me with a $1500 gain which in theory could be applied to travel next year anyway..

its really an individual decision for each person. I would surmise that someone could have one heckuva trip if they could travel anytime anywhere with 150k miles but then again, I will guess that I'll have just as much fun on this trip as anyone would have on any other exotic 150K mile trip as well

fight on... beat the lions :p

the Rose Bowl (BCS championship) in Jan '06 was worth that kind of expenditure :D^

Ironically I was able to buy an airline ticket to that game for $200 but that was b/c of the timing a week into January; this year I'm competing with the way the holiday breaks and all the holiday travelers

For a domestic ticket like this, I'd buy it if at all possible. I save my miles for international flights and am using miles this May for 9 seats [450k miles] from CLE/CDG/ROM with a stopover in Paris. To buy the routing I got would cost over $16,000.00, I figure I can buy a lot of $500.00 domestic tickets for that amount..... Will use my Holiday Inn - American Express points for the rooms in Paris and Rome

In the past used miles for 6 tickets [less kids at the time] [360K miles] for CLE/HNL/HGK/EWR/CLE stopover in HNL, and at that time the cost was about $25,000. Hilton and Holiday Inn points, helped for the rooms....

6 seats [360k miles] for a trip CLE/SEA/NRT/GUM/CAR/GUM/NRT/DTW/CLE stopover in NRT on the way back, and that would have cost over $20,000k, used Holiday Inn points for rooms

6 seats [300k miles] CLE/BOS/LGW/MSP/CLE for about $8,000. Holiday Inn points for the week

So, I always try to save miles for these kinds of dream trips..... Even though, my wife at times thinks we should use them for simple CLE/FTL [$250.00 flights] trips !!!!

Crap. I was oscillating between the two options. I actually booked a paid flight on Delta but then changed my mind and cancelled it. I then booked my current flight with miles on Continental. The 24 hour free cancellation ended at midnight yesterday, a few hours ago. Just now I got an email from Delta saying that they would give me double mileage for any flight through February. Why does this stuff always happen right after it's too late? How much would be the penalty if I cancelled my Continental flight now.