Targeted email offer: up to 70% bonus on purchased points
 

Buy points

Buying points is an easy way to top off your Rapid Rewards® account to get the reward you want!
"Get up to 70% more when you buy points"
Ex. 15,000 = 10,500 bonus points: $412.50

Obviously all airlines need ways to boost their cashflow now and I have to give them credit; this is a pretty creative way to do so.
But I'm trying to figure out if this is worth it. I'm looking at a $113 WGA flight that is also 7,644 points.
Buying 8,000 points costs $137.50 with this offer, so what's the point? Perhaps if you don't have specific flights you want to buy yet but want to stock up points ahead of time?

Purchased points do not count towards A-List, A-List Preferred, or Companion Pass qualification.

Points are generally worth 1.5-1.6 cents each. However, remember that flights booked with points to not earn points or status.

Only point I see to "top" off for an award you need or stockpile some points now for maximum cancel/rebook flexibility in the near future since they are near "break even" at 70% more.

The bigger question is who buys them when not on sale. A mixture of the rich and ignorant I suppose.

I definitely foresee devaluations in our future...

90-95% of all offers to buy points are a bad deal... with one exception. If you need a few more miles to get a reward, then they are valuable. But, as another poster discovered, it does not make sense.

I am amazed at how many people are unable to figure this out. Easy to do. Compare cash price of buying a ticket vs points - and what those points would cost you. Easy stuff.

And, as mentioned above, it does matter to some if they pay cash vs points for a flight. No credit for flight segment, or miles.

Don't buy unless you have an immediate redemption that will drain your Rapid Rewards account below its current balance.

Nobody should be saving up frequent flyer currency for funerals or aspirational trips or God forbid do manufactured spending for airline miles. There is a good chance there will be a major devaluation at all airlines before the funeral or aspirational trip. The ideal balance in your frequent flyer account is zero.

Sorry.... but a balance of ZERO is not what works best for many people. If you have zero points, then you should not be bothering at all. We have a fair amount of miles and have not paid for a flight in years and we fly often (or did before March). If had zero points, we would have to PAY.

I do agree - saving for a possible flight in a few years could be wasteful planning. Or having upwards of a million miles either.

But - why zero?

unless they have gone up recently its about 1.34 cpp.

I also subscribe to the earn and burn philosophy but me and my wife have a good stash of rr points ~100k total which allows us to book the year ahead and then continue to earn for the next year.

Thanks all. I didn't think it was a good deal (for me at list) but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.