jelliott04

Hi all. I am trying to decide whether or not to use miles/cash for an upcoming family flight in which we need 3 tickets. My goal is to have the best value of my miles.

Flight cost:

outgoing $360 or 23,250 points + $25.71 fees.

incoming $248 or 11,200 points + $65.74 fees.

(360 - 25.71) / 23250 = .014
(248 - 65.74) / 11200 = .016

Is that correct? So I get more value from the $248 leg?

toomanybooks

Yes, cheaper legs get a better rate all-in (in general) than more expensive ones. This has been covered in depth here.

In any case, I would always burn points before paying cash, unless the trip is tax-deductible or I am getting reimbursed by someone.

HPN-HRL

I will quibble slightly with toomanybooks' statement above in that if a points booking is at a rate worse than 70 pts per $ I might choose to use dollars and save points for when they have more value (depending in part on how many RR pts I have and expect to earn in the near future). I almost certainly would never spend points on a non-WGA fare.

jelliott04

We have about 150K points. It basically boils down to spending an additional $456.09 or using an additional 36,150 points.

What to do what to do!?!? LOL First world problems.

J

toomanybooks

Yes, that makes sense unless you are pessimistic about the future value of WN points, as am I. Waiting for the next devaluation.

It has been a while but I concluded (and posted my analysis) that it is NEVER worth it to buy BS fares with WN points. Always turn them into WN gift cards at 1 cent each and buy BS, generating more points.

Looks like 1.26 cents each. I would likely keep points and and use cash unless you have tons of points or are expecting same in near future.

Would not hold that many points for 2 years, let's say. Cash also if you are trying for status this year and need more Tier points. Points if you are cash-poor. Points for a person who does not fly much if there is any chance of cancellation or refaring.

Often in a family, one person concentrates on cash purchases to build status and the others burn points.

Do not forget that with an Ink card from Chase you can buy WN gift cards at Staples/OfficeMax/Depot and get 5 UR points per dollar = 5 WN points. So that's around 7% "rebate" for buying tickets. I find UR points easy to generate.

jelliott04

As it turns out, the outgoing flights are not unavailable across the board (not even Business Select avail) and my incoming flight went up $40.

palmetto86

Wait, how do you turn WN points into WN gift cards? Can I really do that? Where?

toomanybooks

Go to Rapid Rewards link from WN website homepage and look for "More Rewards."

10000 points = $100 GC.

AMflier

Thank you for that and for the strategy.