I didn't say that I think taking checks is good business. Might be, might not be. But the reason car rental companies don't accept checks has nothing to do with that. A credit card, at least to the car rental company, gives some sort of validation of creditworthiness of the customer. Taking a check for an $8.50 ethnic meal is a WHOLE lot different than taking a check when someone rents a $20K vehicle and might never return.

I don't agree with this point (though many here seem to have this opinion). It doesn't matter if a $12K ticket is sold at a corporate (or any other) discount for a much lower price. What matters is the lowest price *you* can get it at. If you use miles for a ticket that is quoted as $12K to you (either on the airline website or through a TA or your corporate travel desk), then you are getting $12K value for your miles. I'm sure the airline executives can fly free in their F/J seats. So does that mean you are getting 0c/mile value because someone can get it for free?

Now its a different matter, as I had posted on another thread, whether you would have bought the ticket at that price in first place. True value of miles is valid only when they are used for something that you would have bought by paying money. Otherwise its just something to feel good or bad about and brag/complain on FT.

I agree with you on this. A friend have repeatedly bugged me about how to valuate a mile's worth. I keep telling him it depends on HOW you use it and receive benefit from it.

I give him 2 examples of our recent redemptions:

1. A J all partner award costed 100K AA miles BCN-ZRH-xJFK-MIA-YYZ-xLHR-BCN last year when international stopover was still allowed. Said itinerary priced out at $8800 if using AA TATL both ways. Using BA on the return leg back to BCN, jumped the price to $9800. So, a mile worthed either 0.088 or 0.098.

2) A J Oneworld award costed 150K AA miles to travel 25K miles that we just finished the trip with such itinerary: MIA-LAX-AKL-SYD-SIN-KUL-HKG-TPE-ICN-KIX-CTS-NRT-SFO, visiting 11 cities. Similar itinerary but not exact, due to different rules between award and revenue, on the minimum stay at each stop (award is less restrictive), can be achieved with a OneWorld Circle Pacific fare - if originates from US, the cost is $11,200. (more restrictive rules but can travel an additional 1000 miles to 26K).

http://www.oneworld.com/ow/air-trave...#fare-estimate

In case 2, a mile worthed 0.075 only by this Price/Miles formula. Yet, the OneWorld award would allow me to stop at a maximum of 16 cities though we only used 11 slots, versus the higher "valued" J class to Europe award which only let me stop at a maximum of 3 cities - one gateway each at domestic / international gateway plus destination. Not to mention that there were only 2 longhaul segments in the TATL award, but there were 3 longhauls - 2 TPACs and 1 SYD-SIN (7+ hours, about the same as YYZ-LHR) in the Oneworld award.

So while the miles look worth "less" per mile, the OW150C offered a lot more in return.

3) To bring the illustration to an extreme, (unfortunately my friend still does not quite get it). He can claim 4 x 25K domestic Y ticket with the 100K a TATL J award would cost - but even if the domestic ticket costs $700 a piece (could only happen when going to Alaska, or to some destinations in Canada, from far corners of US, like MIA) - it is still $2800 in total, versus the $8800 or $9800 price tag for the J TATL. Then this boils down to, whether you want / need to save cold, hard cash for a family trip to Alaska, or you want to indulge and get yourself a J ticket to Europe?

That is why I keep telling him, there is not a way to value how much a mile worth - it all depends on what you want and how you would use it!

You're starring the word *you* which is partially fair, but I would change the word *can* to *would* to make this more accurate. It's worth the lowest price you *would* pay. Most of us who use miles would never consider paying $12K for this ticket. Not even close. I'd go further to say most of us would never consider paying for *any* first class ticket. I've only done it once, and that was a bizarre situation where it was $20 more than coach for some reason.

But somebody here did routinely get 3 cents per point value up until march this year sometimes at 6 points per dollar spent earning or a whooping 18% "cash back" by applying their thank you points to airline tickets that you'd change into useful tickets that still would earn miles!

I miss the usefulness of my Citi Amex Platinum and Driver's Edge cards dearly...

In that case it was Citi who paid big time for the rewards.

I think there are two issues here, the first is the issue of CC fees. The second is how to value a point/mile when it is spent.

Arguing that using credit cards costs business more money isn’t always true. If you want to talk about the ethnic food store where the guy behind the register owns the place and stops by the bank to make cash deposits on the way home, cash probably costs more. However if you are talking about major chains it isn’t always the case.

+ Credit Cards don’t require hiring armored cars to make daily/weekly cash pickups.
+ quicker for cashiers, and they can’t miscount with CCs
+ If your 7-11 gets held up, they can’t steal revenue from CC purchases.
+ Customer doesn’t have to have the cash on them to make buy the item


Value of a mile:
You many enjoy the F or J seat that you otherwise couldn’t buy with cash. However you can only value an award at whatever you would be willing to pay for the ticket yourself. Furthermore, awards are far more restrictive than paid tickets. It’s like when you see the Billy Maze style ads where you get something for $9.99 that has a $30 ‘value.’ Who said it was worth $30? It is only worth $9.99 because that is what it is being sold for. Buying a ticket with your CC probably gives you additional protection for delays or lost luggage.