Pay or Miles?
 

I'm looking at flights from PHX-MCO. There will be 5 of us and I'll use the $99 companion ticket for 3 of them - buy 1, get 2 addtl for 99 each.

Right now, it's $562 AI per ticket or 55,000 Miles. I would need two of these tickets, so 110k miles.

I'm trying to determine if it's worth cashing in this many miles for these tickets or should I pay? I'm Platinum, so I'll book myself on the full fare ticket to get the miles. The others I'm not concerned about accumulating miles.

What's a decent return for miles redeemed?

Oh, and SWA is $437 AI pp for similar non-stop flights. I might even consider flying them and using one of my free tickets.

Thoughts?

Unless you have millions of miles to burn, do not spend 55,000 miles for a $562 ticket. For comparison, consider that for 60,000 miles, you can book a rt itinerary to North Asia on *A carriers. And you can even add in a stopover to a *A itinerary, which in effect gives you two destinations.

For domestic flights, my personal rule when using miles is to spend no more than 50x the ticket price on miles. So for a $562 ticket, I would not spend more than 28,100 miles.

+1

Personally I'd go with the $99 companion tickets on this one.

But he is!! He's looking for the 2 extra tix!! ;)

I would agree with tommyleo! I NEVER redeem miles for anything less than 2cpm! Last example, just flew my mom to the States from Rome and back in business class for 55.000 miles!! :cool:

How in the world did you do that? I would love to snag these seemingly impossible mileage deals in business.

I like the earlier rule of not paying 50x the fare in miles. I've never thought about it that way and I seem to have this very conundrum every year, typically for TATL flights.

Now I'm trying to do RDU-POP on United (bc they're the only *A carrier to fly there) and the fare has shot WAY up in the past month to $865, so I'm hitting myself for not purchasing it earlier and if it doesn't go back down, it probably would be worth paying 35K miles each based on this test.

Low Season Envoy awards (Jan/Feb) are 60k miles round trip to Europe. If you have the US Airways DM MasterCard, you get a 5k miles reduction on all awards. Hence the 55k round trip.

I have round trip for me and my wife booked for next January DCA-PHL-FCO and return in Envoy Class for 110k for two! :)

The mileage redemption on US metal sounds high to me for Economy.

I'd check *A partner availability (using any of various online tools mentioned in this forum) for the remaining 2 tix, assuming it's OK to split up the group. It's only 25k miles roundtrip each when using a partner airline, or 50k each for First award.

I did this last month - 110K miles for two Envoy RT to LHR - nice! But I am trying to do it again in early 2013 but I see no availability! I guess I either have to act quickly or re-check for open dates.

Edited to add - The seat maps for dates to LHR in January are wide open and yet the off-peak saver shows sold out. Last time there was plenty of availability. Guess I will have to check frequently.

We did the same several times to fly to CDG, FCO... If Low Season awards are limited then consider open jaw. Last year we arrived from USA to LGW and left back to USA from AMS (Did not want to pay UK taxes).

Oh - smart! The UK departure taxes in Envoy are £120 ($200) per person.

AH! I didn't catch that...

For these low-saver awards to Europe, how do people feel about the actual trip once they are there in January/February? For a place like Paris, Rome or London I thought the weather was usually bitterly cold to make it not too pleasant of a trip if a lot of time is planned for being outdoors walking around the cities. I'm curious what everyone does on these trips with the weather.

(I hate to say anything that may increase competition for these low-season tickets, but...)

The weather does tend to be cold and rainy, so it's probably not a great time to make your first trip over to a city like London. However, if you're already familiar with the city, I think it can be a great time to go over.

At least in London, there are many fewer tourists around, so the museums tend to be less congested and there often are good discounts on theater tickets. Some places like the V&A and Buckingham Palace have special events to get more visitors in during the off season. The cold weather can make hanging out in a pub or coffee shop seem even more cozy and relaxing. Outdoor places may not be as nice to visit, but even exploring Kew Gardens and walking along the Thames can be done on nicer winter days, and those places take on a different look and feel at that time of year.

Exactly!! ;)

Yes, it is usually colder than during popular season, however often not that cold. Rome was nice and even London during second half of January of 2012 was reasonable. However it is significantly less crowdie, good hotel availability and a lot of discounts. We usually take 48h hop-on-hop-off bus (during winter practically always for the standard price of 24 h bus and often includes river cruse) and visit 2-3 main museums. If you have good jacket, hat and gloves then cold is not a problem at all. Rain is the problem :(