Earned and burned
 

I was playing around with my DM account history - which appears to be a rolling 3 year history of you account activity.

Looks like since 6/29/2009 I've earned 454,000 miles and burned 523,000 miles (excluding the one time additions and deletions for DMMC 10k preferred mile adjustments).

How is everyone else doing on earn and burn?

I typically keep a minimum of 150,000 to 200,000 in the account at all times. I like knowing that should I end up with some free time the option to take a trip to anywhere in the world in business or first class is always there. I do the same with my SPG account - keeping enough points for cash & points bookings and converting the rest to airline miles when the bonus applies. I'm currently holding a FC award to HKG and a off-peak Envoy trip to Paris with my wife and two friends.

So, on a rolling basis, I usually get the balance up to about 400k and then spend down to the 150-200k level.

Total miles added from 6/30/2009 to 6/30/2012: 768,159
Total miles subtracted from 6/30/2009 to 6/30/2012: 102,782

I have 3 children under age 5 so I haven't done a lot of leisure travel in the past few years. We'll do a big trip to Europe or something a few years from now I'm guessing. My point balance today is 1,090,058.

Added: 491,522
Subtracted: 420,900

Thats a lot of miles.

Added: 692,806
Subtracted: 638,480

I'm with geo1005 - in fact, from the description of your earning/burning habits, we are a lot alike. :D

Total miles added from 6/29/2009 to 6/30/2012. 683,078
Total miles subtracted from 6/29/2009 to 6/30/2012. -306,466

I got to start burning some more.

Earned 570K, spent 470K.

That was fun.

Just for giggles I ran my #s.

Total miles added from 6/29/2009 to 6/30/2012: 1,113,625
Total miles subtracted from 6/29/2009 to 6/30/2012: -1,003,400

This is a bit misleading as I have made and then cancelled several 100k+ awards over the last couple of years. That pads the numbers a bit.

Current balance is 205,000.

Interesting.

Total miles added from 6/1/2009 to 6/30/2012. 467,037
Total miles subtracted from 6/1/2009 to 6/30/2012. -472,808

6/2010 - 6/2012

660,865
-192,000

Not nearly as impressive

So what do you all value these miles at ?
 

No doubt -- some of the value of these things (miles) is (are) circumstantial, as per geo1005. But in folks' rule of thumb calculations -- for buying tickets versus burning miles, for upgrades, and so on -- what do you think of a mile as being worth?

My rule of thumb has been 1.5 cents per mile, which is less than what we can buy them for at current discount. I guess it's a kind of guesstimate of the potential for inflation in the system.

Total miles added from 6/28/2009 to 6/30/2012. 689,139
Total miles subtracted from 6/28/2009 to 6/30/2012. -282,500

Little out of whack, I need to focus more on my "Get busy Living" and less on the "Get busy dying" :-)

Total miles added from 6/1/2009 to 6/30/2012. 405,824
Total miles subtracted from 6/1/2009 to 6/30/2012. -455,500

Not quite there yet, but not bad for my first two years with US Airways..

Total miles added from 4/29/2010 to 6/30/2012. 257,142
Total miles subtracted from 4/29/2010 to 6/30/2012. -180,654