ASUDan130

Quite simply how many cents is 1 qmile worth?

remdk

FlyGuy24 according to http://www.qatarairways.com/Privileg...ge?mid=4&sid=5 you may purchase Qmiles at a cost of USD 30-50 per 1000 Qmiles.

Since you cannot sell them they have no monetary value.

David_DLI

I think OP's question is about the value people give them, not the actual monetary value.

I have seen in other forums and blogs how people do some math and come up with an estimate of how much "value" you can consider miles to have.

escape4

Bump - wondering the same thing myself.

I see TPG has Qmiles in the monthly valuation chart but without a value shown yet. I would assume it's coming soon.

Alfredbali

My personal valuation is 140€ / 165$ per 10 000 Qmiles

hotwingz

Keep in mind that valuations always depend on the individual and on what you use them for (upgrades, awards, extra luggage, routes).

On some routes the difference between Y and J or J and F is higher and thus using Qmiles to upgrade might give you more "value" if you compare paying Y and upgrading to J with outright paying for J (minus the extra Qpoints and Qmiles you would get for paying for J).

Then you could also argue that it doesn't matter how much the cost difference between Y and J is, if you won't pay for J anyways but rather look at the difference in what you get (Y vs. J seat, lounge access etc.)

I guess what I am trying to say is, that is super hard to put a price tag on a Qmiles. To some they might be of huge value whereas others might fly exclusively on routes where Qmiles are of limited benefit. In the end, it all depends on what you use them for and how much "value" a better seat etc. has to you.

My personal valuation tends to be around your figure, maybe slightly lesser

escape4

In my opinion, the value of qmiles (or miles in any other FF program) will tend to migrate towards whatever provides the best value. If a program requires a reasonable number of miles to upgrade from Y to J, but a very high amount of miles to book in J outright, then my valuation will tend towards the value of booking in Y and upgrading with miles. I tend to do this with BR.

If the number of miles required to fly North America to Asia is a lot more than North America to Europe, but that the cash price is only a bit higher to Asia than Europe, then I will use miles to go to Europe, and pay cash to go to Asia. I tend to do this with LH. So what becomes relevant is the value of miles on the N.A-European routes, not the N.A.-Asian routes.

Those are just two examples.

Back to QR, at first glance it seems that for many routes, the number of miles required to book in J outright is not a lot more than for upgrading from Y to J. For example, JFK-SIN round trip is 190k miles in J, and 150k miles to upgrade from Y to J. I would rather pay 40k extra miles to book straight to J, and avoid the cash cost of a ticket in Y which by itself would be 95k miles. I also end up with a more flexible ticket than I would by booking in Y.

My personal valuation is about $150 per 10k miles but I am interested in other opinions for their own travel pattern.

Matt4

I value Qmiles somewhere between 0,6 and 0,75 EURcent each.
My calculation is :
High discounted fare J ticket from CDG to BKK = 1400 EUR (even if we haven't seen fare like this since the last January Travel Festival) - 133 EUR taxes = 1267 EUR which represents 142,500 Qmiles (discounted price for Gold and Platinum members for a CDG-BKK return in J) + 29,025 to 77,400 Qmiles earned with that trip (from 1x Qmiles with 100% flown miles Platinum status bonus to 4x Qmiles with Platinum bonus)
1267 / (142,500+29,025) = 0,738 EURcent/Qmile
1267 / (142,500+77,400) = 0,576 EURcent/Qmile

Matt4

Double post deleted

Dschaimz

I think this really depends on how you spend them and calculate your personal value. My last award booking gave me a much better value per 10000 Miles. I used a 30% award redemption voucher for a FRA-SYD return in F (189000 Miles instead of 270000). (yes, ok, it is only C on the FRA-DOH legs.) At the time of booking the flight cost €7700,- now it costs €8070,- I would not have paid for the flight, so I do not subtract the miles I would possibly earn for paying cash. Subtracting about € 180,- of taxes that gives me a value per 10000 miles of between €397,- to €417,-

Edit: Slightly off topic - this is not my record. On the same trip I used 8100 Avois + €28,- for a one way BNE - SYD in C which would have cost € 535,- meaning 10000 Avois were worth € 625,- to me.

davistev

It is a personal thing. Ask yourself what route you fly the most and how much you would normally pay for that flight. Then divide that price by the amount of miles it would take to redeem for it. The answer is your personal value of those miles.

For me the miles are worth approximately 2 cents each. I say this because I regularly purchase Adelaide to Seattle round-trip business class tickets for around $4-6K. It takes 200,000 Qmiles to redeem for this route. So $4,000 / 200,000 = .02 cents.

makrom

I see them closer to 1ct/Qm or even slightly above that. EU-BKK has often been on sale and is therefore probably not the best value for Qmiles. But flexibility should be worth something, unless one just buys tickets based on whatever is on sale.
Award availability might be limited, for some routes even significantly, but still much more flexible than sales. For example, I can get to AKL from any QR EU airport (-LHR) for 171.000 Qm, while most sales were only available ex Scandinavia.

Dr. HFH

Seems logical to me. One might also look at the value based on aspirational trips that one might not take if paying in cash. For example, with Starpoints in SPG, I sometimes use them to stay at hotels that I would never pay cash for because they're just way too expensive. Would I pay cash for DOH-SYD in F? Nope. Would I use miles? Sure!

escape4

TPG has now started issuing a valuation of Qmiles. First estimate is 1.1c per mile. Personally I find 1.1c on the low side.

For comparison purposes, TPG has Avios at 1.5c per mile. Just out of curiosity, would someone trade Qmiles for Avios at a 27% discount based on your travel pattern?

WorldLux

IMO value of miles/points depends on the individual that earns ad spends the miles. It's difficult to make abstract valuation.

Proving the point I made above. Based on my last Avios booking I value an Avios at 0.046$. That said, I don't care too much about the value of Avios/miles since they are a byproduct of traveling and I generally travel because I have to and not for the sake of collecting miles.

I only check the approx value when redeeming miles in order to check if the miles are worth anything or if I'm better of paying cash for the ticket.