Your Worst-ever Use of Miles?
 

Was just wondering what your worst-ever use of miles for a ticket was?

I booked a r/t ticket for me and a 1-way ticket for my 4 y.o. daughter PHL-MCO later this month so that I could take my daughter to my sister's where she will visit for about 12 days. I fly back by myself several days later. Didn't initially book wifey b/c of the cost. Now that we are getting close to the trip, my wife is concerned that 2 weeks will be a long time away from our daughter. So, thought of getting an award ticket on US. Best I could do is 25,000 miles down and 12,500 miles return. US will charge $80 for the ticket...$50 for being less than 14 days (or whatever their cutoff is), then $5 for something, and $25 for something else. I would also need to purchase another 1,000 miles (actually only need 491) at a cost of $25. So basically my cost is $105 plus 37,500 for a $295 ticket (getting wifey on the same flight on which my daughter and I are already booked). Normally, I would just buy the $295 ticket, but money is tight right now so thinking of spending the miles and $105 to get my wife on the flight.

The other factor, which can't exactly be measured in monetary terms, is that we have, through my brother-in-law who works at Disney, free access to Magic Kingdom/Epcot/etc. Our daugther is at a perfect age for a trip to the "Magic Kingdom" which would be a lot of fun; but I wouldn't want to take her there myself without my wife. So, there is "value" of sorts in having us all make the trip to Orlando.

So, basically I'm using 37,500 miles to cover $195 worth of ticket; I know! Terribly inefficient use of miles! :eek:

So, what is YOUR terribly inefficient use of miles story?

Cheers,
HalfSwede

As the OP is asking about award travel, I'll move this to our MilesBuzz forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

I recently booked a economy ticket to London for 75000 miles + $200 for a $1750 ticket. Granted that off-peak tickets to London can be had for $800, but this was a last minute emergency thing.

So 75000 miles for $1550, not terrible but quite bad at around 2 cpm redeemed value.

I spent 37,500 for a ticket to Iowa last summer for a friend's wedding. Could have purchased it for about $350, but just didn't want to spend the cash.

We just used 150,000 AA miles for 3 domestic roundtrips for relatives to come to Calif from the east coast on standard awards. There were no saver awards on any airline for the dates they wanted to come and the tickets would have been about $500 per person.

We don't fly AA much but had accumulated the miles through several cycles of credit card offers, had little other use for the miles, and therefore didn't see the point of spending $1500.

This is an example of why I am not so concerned about the lack of availability of saver award space. Yes, you need to spend more miles but you can also get them so much more easily. Inflation on both sides of the equation.

I used 50,000 NW miles to fly my then long distance gf from Boston to Phoenix for her first visit to me. She dumped me three days after she left.

That wins the "worst use" prize for sure...ouch!;)

Who knows, might have been a bargain in the long run...

Therapists, Psychiatrists and Divorces can be expensive!!
;)

Probably a round trip YYC-LGA / TPA-YYC on NWA a while back. But, I was upgraded to F for TPA-YYC, so I can't consider that too bad of a deal for the 20,000 miles I spent on it after 5 K delay compensation.

Actually, I think my recent YYC-COS round trip on UA for 20K was a bad deal. But hey, it was only 20 K.

I guess I don't really have a closet full of bad redemption experience.

My BEST redemption was YYC-DFW(stopover)-EZE (stopover) - Iguazu Falls (open jaw) / Punta Arenas Chile - Santiago (stopover) - DFW (stopover) - YYC for 40,000 miles.

My AAgent was a bit clueless Re: stopover rules! Man I wish I could go back to that!

I got a roundtrip ticket from TXL-LHR-HGK on CX and BA for 85.000 asia miles where the LHR HKG I could have gotten for under 400 Euros.

A few years ago, before I really got into this FF thing, I used a 15K reduced mileage award to fly LGA-YYZ. But when I wanted to fly to CDG a couple of months later I was about 10K miles short for an award ticket. I have no recollection of what the fares were but I was certainly out more cash for the Paris ticket than I would have been for Toronto.

That's almost exactly $0.005/mile, which is what the redemption rate is for many of the cash-equivalent awards in the Amex Membership Rewards program. I always thought that those were a terrible redemption rate, but assumed that some people must redeem for them because the Amex catalog is full of them.

To answer your question, I think your redemption is on the low end of things, but certainly people have done worse.

I burnt my last 45,000 DL miles on a domestic F ticket on a 757. LGA-ATL-GNV roundrip (757 only LGA-ATL of course)

At the time I was so frustrated with delta that I decided to burn the miles and abandon skyteam. The trip was so awful that I regretted not just buying an economy ticket on US Air connecting in Charlotte, which would have avoided DL domestic F, the DL terminal at LGA, and ATL- all of which are infernal.

I should have sat on those miles, as they could have gone towards an int`l first or business class award someday.

I will never use miles ever again for anything but upgrades, or int`l first and business class awards. I don`t find value in domestic redemptions- I`d rather pay cash and earn miles.

My worst use of miles was letting all my US miles expire. Oh wait, maybe that was my best use of miles...

25,000 miles for $500+ ticket isn't a bad deal in my book. Especially when you're sitting on half a million miles, the trip is only 800 miles each way (or 350 for SFO-SBA), and you already have top-tier status locked up.

Whether or not domestic redemptions make sense will depend largely upon the person and their travel plans.

Since all of my travel is leisure travel and paid for out of pocket, spending 25,000 miles for an upgrade from NRT to JFK has much more value to me than a domestic Y award ticket.

As someone without half a million miles, and no status to speak of on any airline, I use what miles I do have carefully.

Honestly in the long run this is (IMO) a great use of the miles. Your in Tempe...ASU is right there....yeah.

Before Mr. petal and I were married we were bicoastal (SFO - NYC) and we'd see one another almost every weekend. One weekend we weren't scheduled to travel and on a last minute whim I used miles for JFK-SFO PS First Class to spend 40 hours with him. Although looking back it wasn't a worst ever use of miles. :)

My worse use wasn't on award tickets. I got some cheese using mom's LH miles cause they were expiring.

Nothing awful, but still bad. One way RNO-SLC on DL 2 years ago, 25,000 miles when the ticket was about $330.

You make a great point. ;)

I was a good husband and offered my mother in law an award ticket BNA-LGA, thinking it would be 25K onepass miles. Turns out she didn't want to leave till sunday... so it became a 50K saver pass award (I think this would have been a $300 ticket) ....

Later she ended up paying a $150 change fee to stay the next weekend!

We all got burned on that one!

Restaurant gift cards
 

Dropped 17000 NW miles for a $100 Chilis gift card. Was stuck trying to obtain 8000 more Delta miles, which would've been a pain, so I used it through Worldperks before it went away. I don't even like Chilis that much!

I love to golf and I planned a summer golf vacation for a 10 year period starting in 2007. I like to play the best courses I can, but my dad is notoriously cheap. He would just as soon never play another course in his life, other than the one he works at part time, because it is free.

Well this summer is Bandon Dunes in Bandon, Oregon. Very nice but also very expensive. Thus to soften the blow on him and make it a little easier to not complain about the $ I used 100k UA miles for 2 tickets ORD-EUG for him and my brother. Cost would have been probably around $400 each.

I wouldn't say it was a terrible use of miles as it was a nice gesture, but certainly my worst value in terms of redemption.

This one is easy: 50K DL miles to fly my wife's sister over from TAS for three months. Worst three months of my life, fought like cats and dogs.

my worst was spending 25k miles pp on ual tickets and then having to cancel, paying the $100 fee per person... only to rebook again and cancel again. $100 more pp...

This was $600 to not fly.

ahhh family life.

;)MM

I spent 180,000 miles for 2 RTs to India! Tickets were going for $1,000 or so before taxes. So 180K miles for about $2,000. I wanted to shoot myself for that since I usually try and get at least 2.5 cpm. But, my brother and I, both in our 20s, wanted to treat my parents to a family vacation. We bought 2 with cash, then realized we're out of it...haha. That's when I dipped into my miles stash.

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Worst or best use?
 

My worst use of miles was arguably also my best use of miles.

It was certainly a trip I will always remember.

It was the time I used points to travel about 200 miles from Toronto to Ottawa for a wedding. We flew up in the afternoon, with our return booked for the last flight back in the evening. Two J class tickets. Now, that was a lot of points for just a short puddle hop - but hey, the airline was struggling back in those days and I figured better to use 'em than lose 'em, right?

I have no recollection of the flight to Ottawa. Or the wedding. Or the reception. Except that it ran late so we were cutting it tight getting back to the airport.

We quickly snagged our boarding passes without line-up, made it through security, and dashed to the gate only to find no one there except the agent.

As we approached the gate, she greeted us by name. She explained she wasn't psychic; just that the flight before ours was running late so they had already put everyone from our flight on the earlier one - which was gone!

Fear not, the agent explained. Our flight was still departing as scheduled. It's just that we would be the only passengers on it! Literally.

A few minutes later came the departure announcement, concluding with the words, "would Mr. and Mrs. Flews now please proceed to the gate?"

So we did. As we proceeded down the ramp to the plane, we were greeted by the entire crew of eight standing outside the door; the head purser dramatically unfolding a red table cloth for us to walk across.

In we went, into this caverous, empty airplane, where we were invited to seat ourselves "wherever you like". Hundreds of seats, a 2/3/2 configuration up front. So much for using the extra miles for J class!

Then came the really neat part.

My wife, half joking, asked whether sitting "wherever you like" included the cockpit. Let me ask the Captain, says the Purser. Who quickly returned with a grin and told us we were invited to sit in the cockpit for takeoff.

Now, I happen to have a fear of heights. Back then I wasn't really a big fan of flying. I ALWAYS avoid the window, even to this day, if I can. So I took a pass and ordered a double gin & tonic instead.

My wife went up front, and returned after about 10 minutes after take-off once we had leveled off. She raved about it, said it was truly an amazing experience. We enjoyed a quick meal (yes, short haul had meals in those days!). And we chatted with the crew, who confessed they had never encountered a completely empty flight like this before.

Soon the Captain came back on with the pre-landing announcement. He concluded by asking "would any Flews' like to join me in the cockpit for landing?"

This time, I couldn't resist. So we both went up and sat in the jumpseats behind the pilots.

It was truly an experience I will always treasure. For one thing, I will never forgot how quiet it was. The sky was crystal clear that night, and the City was sparkling below. We were amazed how small Pearson Airport seemed to be. The pilots even turned on the radio so we could hear their conversation with the tower - which rattled off a whole bunch of instructions.

At that point, probably for our benefit, the Captain asked the tower for some kind of confirmation or clarification of the numbers. And the tower replied with a laugh: "Oh, forget it - just follow that airbus in!"

So we did. For the smothest landing I ever had experienced. We even clapped when we touched down, to the grins of the pilots, who high fived themselves.

And that, my friends, is how my worst use of miles actually became my best use of miles.

Ya just never know!

Happy flying. ^

Cheers,

15000 UA miles for upgrading a red eye SEA-SFO-EWR. SFO-EWR was a 319, I was a general member. SEA-SFO cleared, so the miles were gone. SFO-EWR had no chance of clearing but that's something I did not know at the time.:eek:

@flews:
excellent story :)

Good story. When were "those days?", though? Was this in the 80's?

I remember my own empty plane experience - flying from Kansas City to Hays, via Great Bend. There was only one other passenger besides me! Now, this was a tiny prop jet with around 20 seats, so it surely didn't matter where we sat, but it was nice to experience having the plane all to ourselves. The pilots didn't bother to close the cockpit door (and this was the 2006 post 9/11 world!), and gave us a bit of a mini-lesson on how the airplane works (while they were flying!).

This was a great story, I'm jealous.

[QUOTE=roadtripman;11913133]Good story. When were "those days?", though? Was this in the 80's?QUOTE]

Early '90s. Canadian Airlines, before it merged with AC.

Cheers,

I work in Reservations so I see a lot of various comparasions between the fare and milege award cost. Usually, I try not to offer an opinion when someone is debating between using miles or cash. Since that is their choice based on their personal preference.

The worst I heard about was a woman who used 25k for a short flight out West. She could have bought the ticket for $81, yes, just 81 dollars. The agent did advise her it probably cost her more than $81 to accumulate 25k miles.

Easy. 50K AAdvantage miles = 1 night at the Moscow Marriott Grand :(. At least we got an Ambassador Suite ^.

I booked 3 tickets from LAX to HKG in July by using 65000mi UA each in Jan, suppose the ticket price for summer will go as high as $1200, but I can buy a ticket from air China for around $700 each now. Maybe I should save the mile for X'mas travel.

I'm (waitlisted to) burn 15K AA miles + $50 to go from Y to J on a LAX-JFK redeye.

I got the miles for a delayed LAS-LAX flight, and a $300 voucher for VDB'ing myself OFF the flight and catching a ride to LAX for the second leg home (LAX-SEA), so I figure this is free trave (when I fly AA I stick my miles in AS, so the miles would be orphaned- plus I prefer NW (soon DL) for long-distance mileage runs as AS status gives you premium seat selection on NW and limited domestic upgrades, but not AA).

Yeah, there's probably some exotic 57 stop MR I could do that's a better use of the voucher+miles (I still have residual value left that will be good until next June), but I've never been to New York. (My return to the West Coast is burning a WN Rapid Rewards one-way to go LGA-MDW-LAS to visit friends in Las Vegas before returning home, which is quite a difference in experiences for transcon travel. I figure it will make a nice TR).

50K AAdvantage anytime miles for a MSP-GRR R/T, and glad to have it.

My mother didn't tell me until 20 days out that my uncle was visiting from Brazil and I was expected to be there, and of course prices had just jumped, or I could have booked a direct ticket on NW for < $150.

Spent 50,000 AA points for round trip to LAX for two from YYZ, then bought tickets to HNL from LAX, plus one extra ticket YYZ to LAX.

Cost for flight from YYZ to HNL - CDN$630
Cost for flight from LAX to HNL - CDN$480

Really I only got $300 worth of value for the 50,000 miles.

Cash was tight though so was all I could do (probably should have just skipped the vacation but was so very tired and needed a break).

1050 Air Miles + $230 taxes/person to fly from YYZ-JFK on AA. A regular ticket would have cost around $350. Oh well, wanted to get rid of those Air Miles since they were obviously totally USELESS!!! (Air Miles is a rewards program only available in Canada and maybe the UK and it doesn't cost anything.) And it got me to JFK to use my free Open Skies ticket to Paris courtesy of Flyer Talk!

The one good thing is I earned 500 AA miles in each direction!

Edit: I value Air Miles at 14 cpm as 140 miles can be converted into a $20 gift card for my local grocery store. So I only got slightly ripped off.