onocoffee

Looking to do a hop to LHR on or around Labor Day to attend an event on the 4th of September. Looked up a BWI-EWR-LHR R/T routing on 9/1 or 9/2 and the award rate is the same: 130K + $250 R/T. Revenue seat on the same flight runs $1300 R/T.

What's the right way to calculate whether or not using award miles for travel is worth it?

Thanks!

JVPhoto

Are the miles you are listing for Y or BF? I want to assume that you are talking about Y since you reference a $1300 fare.

130k miles to fly to London and back from the East Coast in Economy...you can get BF to Asia for that.

DCFlyer0306

Using 130,000 miles to save $1050 gives you only a value for miles of .8 cents per mile, which, IMHO, is terrible. I only use miles if I can get at least 2 cents per mile. Everyone differs on what they consider to be a "good" redemption, but I think most FTers would agree that a redemption for less than 1 cent per mile is very poor.

YMMV -- depending how many miles you have, how much cash you can allocate to this trip, whether you want to earn RDMs or have already achieved the status you want for next year, etc

seanp7

For Economy? No. Keep looking.

Phoenixtinct

Seems like you've been presented with Standard Award rates instead of Saver. I just checked for both 9/1 and 9/2 and there is Saver availability if you're willing to fly out of IAD on 9/1 and connect in FRA to LHR on LH. On 9/2, there is a BWI option on AC connecting in YYZ. There is also Saver Business availability for 70,000 miles one-way, so for 5,000 miles extra than what you've seen you can fly in a higher cabin (out of IAD on both days on LH).

I couldn't check your return dates as you don't specify when you plan on flying back but in your case, you don't appear to need a free stopover or open-jaw, so you can just go ahead and book 2 one-ways instead of 1 round-trip. So, you can save at least on the outbound or for slightly more travel in a higher cabin. Good Luck!

onocoffee

Thank you everyone for the thoughts. It is very helpful.

I don't know why I didn't think about departing out of IAD. I will look into those options you mentioned Phoenixtinct.

I plan on returning on November 9th.

JPG3392

Look into flights from DCA as well. There may be an extra connection, but good flights may be available.

onocoffee

So, I've been doing a bit more number crunching and it turns out that I like the idea of spending a bit more miles (140K vs 130K) for B service.

On the 9/2 outbound IAD-LHR, I've found a routing on LH: IAD-FRA-LHR that retails for $2662 and the return on 9/9 with AC: LHR-YUL-IAD that retails for $2596, bringing the total (without tax) to $5258.00 or about 3.7 cents per mile paid (plus a total tax of $442.10).

If I stick with the cheaper mileage options through IAD, I can fly IAD-FRA-LHR on LH, then LHR-IAD on UA for 60,000 miles plus $326.70 tax & fees. Based on an average fare of $1300, this works out between 1.5 to 1.7 cents per mile (after the tax and fees are removed from the $1300 fare).

Either way, I think the real option is to fly out of IAD instead of BWI. The outbound BWI-LHR routings are pretty easy, as Phoenixtinct pointed out the 30K saver fare on AC via YYZ, but the returns are brutal with multiple stops (LHR-YYZ-ORD-BWI or LHR-EWR-ORD-BWI or LHR-IAH-BWI) and extreme total travel times (some over 20 hours). And while it is tempting to do the nearly 11 hour hop on the 787 LHR-IAH, and the loads look very light today, I don't think I'm really down with traveling that long unnecessarily - especially when I'm not earning miles.

As some of the other posters have asked: I have already made more than enough miles for *Gold and with the trips I have planned out for the rest of the year, making the $5K spend should be no problem (though I doubt I'll make $7500 spend), so I'm no longer too concerned about making status for 2015.

Any thoughts on which is the better spend - the 140K for B or the 60K for Y?

I'm asking because I'd like to do the smart thing. Right now, I have just over 530,000 banked. Truth is, I really hate to use the miles because it's a lot of BIS time to recoup the spend and I like to keep it for the day when I might REALLY need to use it (emergencies, etc)

Thanks!

BearX220

I would gently suggest that hoarding that many miles is not a smart thing unless you have a big high-value redemption in mind for yourself and a couple of close friends. The miles are losing value constantly. Burn your stash.

But in truth I still think 140k for partner business class from the east coast to LHR is very poor value. For such a short flight I would do the 60k Y redemption and burn my remaining stash on longer premium-cabin award flights.

PV_Premier

I agree. Sleep quality on TATL flights departing east coast is poor. Flight is too short. Find a Y award. If you have flexibility there's a good chance of a last minute saver Y on a direct flt from IAD.

bajrbajr

It's a decent value either way on the J @ 140K, or Y @ 60K... But I wouldn't make the decision based on wanting to sit on the miles... they get devalued too quickly to hoard them. (J on UA metal @ $115k r/t is an easier choice!)

On the other hand, with change to the MP program, its going to be harder to earn miles for me via flying, so I am being a bit more frugal with how I spend them.

You could fly J one direction, and Y one direction.

kmfdm91

I feel the same way as others...as a fellow WAS flyer, there is almost no need to fly in C on the outbound trip, it's simply too short to enjoy.

My wife at ~5 months pregnant didn't even really enjoy EWR-BHX in C, however the return from MAN-IAD was a bit better (still not necessary).

If you are really trying to go in C (but I still don't recommend it), then try going West first, go North (to YYZ/YUL) or go further East (to FRA/MUC/ZRH/GVA/BRU,etc) to get some more sleep out of the flight...

But, if it were me, I'd pay for the flights in Y rather than use miles (save them for something better) and try to do anything to avoid UK departures (especially in premium classes) to avoid those fees...get a cheap one-way fare on Eurostar and buy a ton of beer, chocolates and waffles in Brussels before flying out of BRU for instance...

-jeremy

berto714

+1 for this. While I agree with others that TATL flights from the East Coast are a little too short to get quite as much sleep as you might want, at least you can get some quality sleep in J. Last year I took several EWR-MAN flights, some in Y and some in J. Despite the flight only being 6 hours, I was still able to get a solid 3.5-4 hours of sleep in J vs. only 1-2 of much more restless sleep in Y. If you want to hit the ground running the day you land, J is still worth it on the way over. If you're planning on sleeping it off in your hotel when you land anyway, you might want to stick with Y.

On the way back, it's a totally different story. Those are daytime flights, and it's not really necessary to sleep. I don't really find Y on TATL flights back to the US that much of an issue, so it might be worth it to save some miles.

That being said, you have a ton of miles, and unless you have another foreseeable use for them, I might go for J both ways. As others have said, the miles are always losing value.

Oh, and one more thing. For the LH flights you found on the outbound, you should check to see whether that will be the new LH J product, or the old one. It will make a huge difference - their old J product is angled lie-flat, and not worth it IMHO. I'm pretty sure that LH flies a 748 IAD-FRA, which will have the new J product, but just double check before choosing that.