Do you have to pay taxes on that $500?

How much do you fly? Because if you're like a lot of us here who spend as much time in stratosphere as they do, I'd be willing wager that your appreciation of premium cabin travel will increase by that >---< much.

But hey there's a different shoe for everybody.

Agreed. And I think we can also all agree that the values airlines assign to their premium offerings are indeed ridiculous. They are, however, able to sell them at those prices, which makes it a market value. Although they seem highly inflated, those prices are market driven. To put it simply, if there was no demand (because the price was too high) the excess supply would drive down prices to a level where the supply-demand equation would balance.

I'm more like 'ender83'... I use my miles for long-haul premium free tickets. I figure enjoy the opportunities to fly international first why you can. Later in life I may or may not be as fortunate.

I'd never spend $10K - $20K for a First class seat on a long haul, so I pamper myself with miles while I'm in a position to earn lots of them.

I flew 64 segments in 2003... 59 of them in first class... mostly domestic flights. Therefore, it'd be tough for me to sit in coach for 14+ hours for overseas!

I've used (or will be using) miles twice...once in 2003 to send a friend over from England to the US to visit since he otherwise couldn't really afford to come, and will be using most of my remaining balance to go visit that same friend during his gap year in New Zealand (which was why he couldnt afford to come to the US)...I have a long life ahead of me to build the miles back up...

N674UW

I wouldn't be so sure that your arrangement doesn't violate the terms and conditions of your frequent flier programs.

That doesn't necessarily mean that I think you're going to get caught -- amongst other reasons, if you're redeeming miles for awards for your coworkers, they should easily be able to pass any tests where the airline asks them about your personal information to see if they really are a friend or relative of yours (those who you're supposed to be able to get awards for).

Quoting from AA's Web site:
http://www.aa.com/content/AAdvantage/programDetails/termsAndConditions/termsAnd Conditions.jhtml

(emphasis added)

Now, I'm no goody-two-shoes, I've on occasion sought ways to skirt rules and regulations. But it's important to realize when you are attempting to do so, and not delude yourself into thinking that you're not, so that you can properly assess the risk/reward ratio.


[This message has been edited by pshuang (edited Jan 04, 2004).]

all the tickets were for me.

As soon as I have enough miles to use on upgrading the cheapest upgradable international fares, I use them for that purpose. I'm much more interested in taking international leisure trips and trips to professional meetings I don't absolutely HAVE to go to internationally but enjoy, if I can go first class. Paying $1300 on NW for an upgradable fare from the west coast to Europe and upgrading with miles is worth it to me (and fortunately I can still afford this)., vs. paying $700 or sometimes less to fly coach and get exhausted and frustrated being cramped, listening to screaming babies and dealing with dirty lavs for 13 hours. I'd forgotten how awful international coach can be (unless the plane is half empty and you have a row to yourself to stretch out on -- very rare these days).

Presumably moondog offers to his employer the opportunity to have him travel on his own FF miles for a business trip for slightly less than the trip is going to cost the employer for the ticket anyway, so that moondog gets the cash, employer gets the employee to where they need to be, and everyone is happy.

Djlawman

There's clearly a barter transaction which has occurred, even if there is no transfer of an award ticket. Anyway, I might very well be tempted to do something like this myself, but I wanted to make sure that FT newbies reading this thread don't think that this is a completely open and risk-free loophole. It seem quite low in risk, but it's not risk free.

Pre-2003 strategy: Use primarily for international economy class trips.

Current strategy: Use only for C/F international trips.

Reason for change: I realized that it will only cost me an additional 25-30k miles per RT to fly in comfort for 10+ hours each direction. That same 25k buys one coach domestic RT ticket, which these days can usually be purchased in advance for $200-300. Ergo, it is worth $200-300 to enjoy my vacation by avoiding the cramped cattle car on long international flights.

Of course, this only works if you can accumulate sufficient miles before the levels are devalued, and if you frequent carriers such as UA and AA (and their respective partners) which provide sufficient award inventory for international flights.

Call me old fashioned, but I'm firmly in the international upgrade camp.

Over recent months I've been doing UK to the west coast once a month minimum out of my own pocket.

It's not just the better product in C that I like, but all the ancilliary stuff like fast track security at LHR, Flagship Lounge access etc.

Given that every RT earns enough miles for a one way upgrade I predict that judicious use of VIP03s should let me keep this lifestyle up all year.

And, of course, my other half enjoys being spoilt by never flying coach - more pleasant travel for her, lots of lovely karma for me http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Thanks to Southwest, Jet Blue, etc, domestic tickets are cheap. So I would rather pay for them with cash than with valuable miles.

I fit pretty well in a cattle class seat, so I really don't need business or first class for trips that are not overnight. But now that I have lots of miles, I do all overnight trips in business class, so I can sleep. So I now use my miles exclusively for international cattle class day trips and business class overnight trips.

I guess that if I every accumulate more miles than I could ever use in my lifetime, I would use them for any ticket I could get, and would splurge on the highest class I could find for all trips.

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