Is there a formula,rule of thumb, of what is a good deal for dollars spent compared to miles recieved?

How/ where can I find out miles distances earned between cities?

First time user, be kind questions may have obvious answers to yhe experienced

thanks for help

I use the great circle mapper at:
gc.kls2.com

the actual mileage credited by an airline can vary, but not by much.

Are you talking about buying miles, or buying some product (a flight or otherwise) that also yields miles in addition?

Perhaps you could post the specific transaction you are considering and people here will probably be able to tell whether or not it is a good deal.

My general rule of thumb:

(1) I don't "buy" miles. (e.g., I don't enter into a transaction solely to earn miles.) The miles might play a role in my vendor selection, but I wouldn't go spending money on stuff I didn't want just to get miles. The only possible exception might be if I were very close to a huge award level and needed quick miles. Then I might be a few of them at a bad rate from the airline.

(2) I've changed my position on this one - I no longer plan wierd itineraries to max out miles. I used to do this (and a lot of people here do it as well), but I've been burned by flight delays enough to realize that my time is worth far more than the extra miles. If there is a nonstop flight available, I take it. When I got delayed in both DFW and ORD in the same day while trying to get from MCI to DCA, I realized that I had a mileage addiction that had reached problematic levels. So in terms of "miles per dollar spent" for flying, I can't really answer it: I simply pursue the best value for the times/route I want, giving a little bit of preference to my favorite airlines. Again, I'll leave myself one exception: if I have 54 YTD segments and it's late December, I might allow for a wierd itin or two to hit 60.

Elite status with 100% bonus on all flight miles makes a different value for miles.

For example, I receive 100% bonus with UA on all flight miles. When I am looking at a good trip just for miles I want my cost to be around 1 cent/mile earned. Therefore if I spend $300 I want to be getting 25,000 to 30,000 miles for the flights.

If you are not getting miles at close to 1 cent mile then you might as well buy a ticket if you are flying economy.

If what you want is a business or first class ticket then 2 cents/ mile could be worthwhile. A first class ticket to Europe is 100,000 miles and for $2,000 that would be a good deal or 120,000 for First to Asia/Australia and $2,400 would be a good deal.

For me personally I will generally only do a mileage run (taking a trip for no other reason than to accrue miles) if I am earning the miles at less than 1 cent/mile.

At that rate a business class ticket to Europe is earned for $800, First Class for $1,000.

There are really good promotions that allow cheap accumulation of miles if you plan well. The current AA and UA triple miles bonuses allow for earning at around 1 cent/mile if you have elite status and get 100% bonus flight miles already. For example, a San Francisco to Singapore roundtrip can bring in around 18,000 miles and even if you have no status (you will after that trip) you get triple miles =54,000 miles. The ticket can be purchased for about $540 right now if you have a 15% coupon (they are being traded on The Coupon Connection) and that is 1 cent/mile even for someone w/o status on UA.

The formula is: Figure out how you plan to use the miles, figure out how much it would cost if you had to pay for how you used the miles (of course, this may only apply if you WOULD pay if you couldn't use miles; otherwise you have to figure out some other way of figuring the value of an award to you), then figure how many miles it takes for that award (consider that there may be at least a 2:1 factor that's unknown until you actually get the award, as with many airline programs awards that you can DEFINITELY get cost twice as many miles as the widely-advertised awards which have capacity restrictions on them), then divide the value of the award by the miles it took and you have the value of each mile that it took.

Of course, complicating the issue is that you may not always use your miles the same way, and thus the value may vary from one award you get to the next award you get.

In turn, the value of awards varies TREMENDOUSLY. If all you want are cheap coach flight awards, most airlines charge 25000 miles for "plan ahead" "standard" awards and 50000 miles for "anytime" "rule buster" awards. But some charge as little as 15000 for standard awards, and Southwest charges 16.0 credits -- which can equate to anything from 20000 miles to 3200 miles (in terms of spending you would do to earn that number of miles on another airline) -- for an "anytime" kind of award (good for the "last seat" on the plane in this case) except for about a dozen blackout dates.

But miles can also be used to upgrade to more comfortable sections of the airplane on many airlines. And there the value may be completely different, but may only come into play if you start by buying a certain kind of fare. For example, on British Airways you can get a business class seat US-UK roundtrip worth several thousands of dollars for $1000ish (for a "premium coash" seat) plus 25000 miles, whereas it would take 50000 miles to get a coach award (where you only need to pay taxes). A coach paid ticket might cost well under $1000, maybe even less than half of that, while the difference in price between the premium coach seat and the business class seat is several thousand dollars. So, as you can see, in this case there's a vast difference in the value of a BA mile depending on whether you use it for a coach ticket or for an upgrade, but that difference in value only kicks in if you're willing to pay for the "premium economy" seat to begin with and if you value upgrading from that to business class more than any other use of those miles.

I'm not quite sure what you are asking here, but it seems to be about the value of the miles received. I have a write-up on how to value miles on my web site below. Should help.

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Free Frequent Flyer Miles

So as far as rule buster awards, do you mean walkup, and if you do, don't most airlines let you use 25,000 as long as award seat inventory is available? I am new to this which is why I am asking, not trying to be smarta**, just want to know if my relative gets sick and I need to fly asap, and I have 25,000 miles in AA FF account, will I not be able to get a walkup award ticket unless I have 50,000 FF miles? Thanks in advance.


[This message has been edited by ero2 (edited Jan 30, 2004).]

[This message has been edited by ero2 (edited Jan 30, 2004).]

[This message has been edited by ero2 (edited Jan 30, 2004).]

In most cases, you'd need 50K because generally, the PlanAAhead award inventory is long gone.

Occasionally however, I've scored 25K tickets at near-last-minute. Or the 25K has been gone, but a 40K (now 45K) F award has been available. Traveling on an off-peak day to a part of the country where there are a couple of alternate airports (and therefore a lot of flight possibilities) helps somewhat.