Do you avoid using miles for yourself?
 

I've got all these miles saved up, which could afford me some nice F/J travel, or at least free Y travel.. but I'd hate to miss out on collecting more miles and the bonuses that come with it! Anybody else struggle with this?

Not at all.

I know that I'm not going to pay for those F/J seats so I have no qualms about redeeming to take myself (and the wife, when she's got time off) some where fun, preferably in the pointy end of the plane. And I know that there will be plenty more opportunities to earn more points for the "next" trip so I don't need to worry about that on this one.

I avoid using miles for myself because, since I stopped traveling a lot for work, I need all my miles to maintain status - but I don't struggle with it one bit. When I travel with someone, I can get one paid economy seat, one upgrade award and one J/F award. Only problem is that sometimes the flights with good economy fares aren't the ones with award availability, but so far I've managed OK.

Once I've passed the status threshold I do not mind using miles for myself when fares are higher than I feel like paying. Mostly though I use them for the wife.

I use hotel points for myself more often than I'd like, but miles are for others domestic and me internationally.

I will not use miles for Y tix for myself, as I would prefer getting those miles. Y tix from miles are for friends and family. I do redeem miles for F / J tix for me as I do not generally pay for Premium fares.

I usually use my miles for friends and family and all of my tickets are paid and help maintain my 1K status.

To be honest, I have been saving miles since I was 18 (granted i'm only 24 now), I have hundreds of thousands of miles between multiple airline accounts, and have yet to use a single mile. I know I should since they devalue just about everyday. Some of it is because it never really tends to work out for the dates/itinerary I want. Also, I am sort of waiting for that special person to come around to impress and go on some on some crazy vacation that I would never be able to afford if I was paying for it with cash.

Only because I'm platinum on AA do I buy the thickets with cash as PLT's earn double miles (and you earn ZERO miles on award tickets). If I fall back to gold and only earn the 25% bonus, the equation changes... and if I have no status at all, then more likely I burn the miles.

That said, one thing AA has going for it that still makes me want to buy the tickets with cash instead of using the miles is the Lifetime Platinum status you can reach when you get to 2M lifetime miles.

Granted... perhaps it's silly to not burn the miles, as Citibank seems to want to give you all the miles for lifetime status anyway.

I used to dream of such things but eventually realized I almost never meet anyone worthy of an SQ business class award. :D

I strictly use miles to upgrade, then use the remainder on immediate family. The in-laws are from Central Asia so I almost always use miles to fly them over.

Some of each?
 

it depends on the economy... when things were a bit tight I've used miles for work! when things are good I've bought tickets for personal travel if the mile price seemed high, but I tend to keep my miles drawn down.

depends on the cost of the ticket. Typically my break even price is $300 domestically. Got tickets for the family to go MSP ATL for 170 AI. Can't justify using miles.

Europe or Asia, will typically use miles for Bus

I learned here that it's better to buy tickets for the EQMs and to use miles for upgrades, so I haven't spent them on free tickets for myself since finding this site. I have used them for free tickets for faculty members for a conference I own to keep my expenses down.

When I'm still looking for status miles in a year, and I'm travelling with a friend (or two), then I get a revenue ticket for myself and award(s) for the friend(s); we then add the total cost up (awards still have the taxes) and divide by 2 or 3 - however many of us there are in the group. That way, I get some benefit of the award but still earn status miles and my mates get discount travel! When I've already reached the maximum status (and this year is the first time), I start looking for decent J/F awards for selfish me!

--Henry

I usually use the miles for the fiancee and buy my own tickets. The only exception is for upgrades.

I use miles for wife & kids when tix are > $300. I never use miles for coach.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9000/4.6.0.167 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

Mostly I hoard all mine... It used to be I would just eek out MVPG on AS... But I'm at 65KEQM on AS... Already :eek:

I really need to look @ burning a couple awards... internationally (where I haven't been yet :o)

Miss out on collecting miles and bonuses? But at what cost?

I have no problem using miles for myself. A flight from central MN to FAI costs almost $900 round trip. Even if I drove to MSP and flew from there, about $800 round trip - in economy. If I paid for that ticket, I would earn about 12,000 miles. But I use 25K miles for the flight to FAI and I can use that $900 to go to Europe - just about twice in the winter, earning me far more miles and value than paying for a ticket to Alaska just to "earn miles."

I typically redeem for wife or family and buy myself.

I'm eventually going to cycle out of United status - meaning I'll then need to book C/F awards for myself if I want to fly *A.

As long as I have some elite status, I don't mind flying Y in a pinch. Of course I prefer the C/F awards when I can get 'em...don't we all?

I will never book any kind of important trip in coach on an airline on which I have no status. That's far too risky for my tastes. (I'm talking about a serious trip...simple short nonstops within a country or region, no biggie. I'll fly Ryanair, Southwest, Frontier, easyJet, etc. when it makes sense.)

This is an excellent point, and using opportunity cost to assess the decision at hand is a winning strategy.