BOS- IST Business Class 70K
 

My husband and I both have about 55K United miles- We want to fly Business
Class from BOS to IST stay for 2 nights then on to ATH My question is would it
be worth buying 25K miles each for business class over 30K for Basic Economy?!
Thanks

"Worth" is something only you can decide. But, in my opinion, definitely, over Basic Economy.

Welcome to FT!, Laurie Adams
Worth is a subjective term and depends on each person's situation and value system

But I would definitively make such a tradeoff. -- Guess this is TK (Turkish Airlines) you will be flying and TK business is worth it for me.

Best not to use Basic Economy has that has a specific meaning, I think you mean regular Economy
There are no Basic Economy awards.

You can purchase 25K miles for about $500 using Consolidated Award / Premier Accelerator questions
A little complex process but considerable cheaper the $875 by the simpler Purchase Miles
Note you need to buy the amounts separately for each account.

My offer on the United Website says it is roughly $800 to buy the miles (could be different for you). Whether that is worth it or not, depends on what else you would do with that money and the 55k miles. Also make sure there is availability on the United website for the dates you want before you pull the trigger; you don't want to buy the miles and then find out you cannot use them.

Depending on how far in the future it is, you could also try to get the miles via credit card sign up bonuses and things like that in the meantime.

Your post is a bit like an LSAT question—but I can’t make the math work! If you have 55K miles each, and TK J BOS>IST is 70K miles, why would you need 25K miles each to purchase it, rather than the 15K-mile difference between what you have and what you want?

I initially had the same problem, but "about 55K" could be 57K (and the amounts may not be identical) and the total need then would be about 25K ??? Just a guess...

Thanks!

But in the OP she specifically says she needs to buy 25K each. :)

Don’t leave us hanging! Why would you need to buy 25K miles each? (And don’t be embarrassed if it was just a math error—happens to the best of us.)

I promise I’m not just being pedantic. I want to make sure OP doesn’t accidentally buy a lot more miles than she needs.

Hello
Sorry...I guess i wasn't clear. We would be spending 2 nights in Istanbul then onto Athens which
is another 8K miles so we both need 78K for award flights- If i transfer my 53,000 miles to my husband
it would cost $795 plus $30 fee!! United is having a 25% bonus sale for buying miles right now ...so that seems
like the better option?!
Thanks, Laurie

Suggest reviewing https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...d-threads.html
in particular the thread's wiki
and
also https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...ernatives.html
and it has a wiki also

Full disclosure -- I wrote the wikis summarizing the threads.

Thanks...will check it out!

My email offer today has up to 75% bonus for purchasing UA miles.

You should be searching for RT award from XXX-IST-ATH, with stopover in IST, no additional miles necessary.

Given the number of miles OP describes having, I don’t believe she’s in the market for a RT award. Alas, that means no Excursionist Perk.

Yes, but then she shouldn't be searching for one way awards either, since she has to return. One way airfare is outrageous.

Not always. For example, IME Norwegian, Aer Lingus, and TAP regularly offer one-way TATL pricing that’s half their r/t fares.