Mileage Points Usage

[lovevacadays]

I just wanted to get anyone's thoughts on what you think is the most effective way to use mileage points and/or how you typically use them.

 

I will be flying from Southern California to Fort Lauderdale next year. I've never used points before but am accruing quite a bit of points on an Airline credit card.

 

I'm thinking I want to buy a coach ticket and then use my points to upgrade to First Class. But, it also seems like I may have enough points by the time I fly to purchase a coach fare with my points. I've only flown First Class 3 times but, as you might imagine, loved it.

 

Do you think using points to upgrade to First Class is a wise use of points? I can't seem to find info on my airline's website what the typical amount of points is to upgrade from one class to the next. I do see a lot of information on purchasing a coach ticket with points.

 

Just wanted to get some opinions and thoughts.:):):)

[CruiserBruce]

There are a lot of variables here- so some specifics of what you are considering would be helpful. For example, many will say international trips- particularly when trying for Business or First, are perhaps the best use of miles.

 

Also, the airline and it's alliances are important. For example, upgrading a coach fare to Business on United can be pretty frustrating- we usually just book the Business, or First Class seat with miles, and don't try to upgrade a coach fare.

[lovevacadays]

CruiserBruce, I will be flying from John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, CA to Fort Lauderdale. My points are with American Airlines.

[klfrodo]

My experience with miles.

A flight totally bought using miles is considered a non revenue seat. You will not earn miles for the flight.

A flight bought with miles has a zero dollar value. You cannot insure a zero dollar value flight.

You can make sure that any travel insurance will reimburse you to rebank the miles lost if you have to cancel. Each airline has their own price to rebank miles.

 

Now, how do I use my miles for a flight like you are taking.

I pay for my coach seat, then use miles to upgrade.

 

Not all flights have mileage upgradable tickets. You have to make sure that your flight has upgrades available. If not, you have to figure out why. Maybe flights on Fridays don't but Thursday's do, etc.

 

You may also have to adjust your airports. Maybe John Wayne to FLL has no seats upgradable but LGB to FLL does. Check out MIA also

Edited July 12, 2015 by klfrodo

[CruiserBruce]

CruiserBruce, I will be flying from John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, CA to Fort Lauderdale. My points are with American Airlines.

 

Ok, I don't have a great amount of knowledge of American Airlines. I believe upgrading coach to First is a bit easier, certainly than on United. So, with just a little knowledge, I would say upgrading Coach to First isn't a bad idea.

[FlyerTalker]

First off....I am NOT an expert on AA and AAdvantage. However, I can generally state that many airlines restrict which fare classes may be upgraded through the use of miles. Lowest fare buckets can be excluded, which means the idea of buying a "cheap ticket" and getting a upgrade with few miles isn't as available as one might hope.

 

Read the rules for AAdvantage and the specifics for upgrading.

[kenish]

CruiserBruce, I will be flying from John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, CA to Fort Lauderdale. My points are with American Airlines.

 

I live in OC, too. One tip on AA is fares and award seats are often way better out of LAX. Of course, the headaches and hassle that come with LAX are the downside.

 

Also check ONT and SAN. From South OC the drive time to LAX, ONT, and SAN are pretty much the same when there's no traffic.

[Gardyloo]

I just wanted to get anyone's thoughts on what you think is the most effective way to use mileage points and/or how you typically use them.

 

I will be flying from Southern California to Fort Lauderdale next year. I've never used points before but am accruing quite a bit of points on an Airline credit card.

 

I'm thinking I want to buy a coach ticket and then use my points to upgrade to First Class. But, it also seems like I may have enough points by the time I fly to purchase a coach fare with my points. I've only flown First Class 3 times but, as you might imagine, loved it.

 

Do you think using points to upgrade to First Class is a wise use of points? I can't seem to find info on my airline's website what the typical amount of points is to upgrade from one class to the next. I do see a lot of information on purchasing a coach ticket with points.

 

Just wanted to get some opinions and thoughts.:):):)

Here's the straight award chart - http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/redeemMiles/american-airlines-award-chart.jsp

 

And here's the mileage upgrade chart - http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/redeemMiles/mileage-upgrade-chart.jsp

 

So a coach trip paid with miles will cost 12,500 miles one way, or 25K round trip. An upgrade will cost 15,000 miles one way, 30,000 round trip, plus $75 copay in each direction ($150 RT) plus the base coach fare.

 

Most of us assign an arbitrary value to our FF miles. (They aren't free, after all - you pay an annual fee for the credit card, plus the merchants don't just eat the credit card fees they pay to the bank, they increase prices ever so slightly. Please refer to "free lunch" on the interwebs.) In my case (and this is a pretty common number) I assign a number of 1.5c to 2c per mile. Thus a flight that needs 12,500 miles would have a "value" to me of around $200 - $250 in real money.

 

You can pick your own value, but even if it's 1c, you'd be spending $150 (miles) and $75 (copay) in each direction for the upgrade, or $450 altogether for a round trip, ON TOP of the coach fare.

 

Don't know your dates, but let's assume it's next January. AA round trips between SNA and FLL (or MIA) for then are running around $430. So add the cash copays ($150) and you're at $580. Add a "guesstimate" value of 1.5c per mile for the 30K miles needed to upgrade round trip ($450) and you're at $1030 all in. Now to be fair, you'd earn something like 5,000 miles (for the flown coach tickets) so the "net net" number would be a little better.

 

Now, purchased round trips in first class for the same dates are $1090 from SNA and $950 from LAX.

 

So that's the math. Obviously, there have to be upgrades available (i.e. first class seats made available for mileage upgrades) for the upgrades to work at all.

 

Most of us who play this game (and I play it A LOT) try to conserve our miles for cases where that 2c or whatever "value" really becomes profitable. For example, 100,000 miles redeemed for a business class round trip to Tokyo or Rome or Buenos Aires is - most of the time - a case of much better leverage for your miles. There, you're saving thousands of dollars rather than a couple hundred or even less.

 

Think of your miles as a form of currency that you can save, spend, or mis-spend, because that's exactly how the airlines regard them.

[nolatravelgirl]

FlyerTalker did a good job of explaining the value of points, but you also have to think about the quality of the seat offered. Flying from SNA you will have to connect via either DFW or ORD to fly to MIA. Those flights are almost exclusively on narrow body aircraft such as MD80 or 737. These seats are slightly larger than an economy seat with no leg rest and slightly more recline. Compare that to an international business class flight where you will get a fully lie flat seat and a much better meal.

[critterchick]

First off....I am NOT an expert on AA and AAdvantage. However, I can generally state that many airlines restrict which fare classes may be upgraded through the use of miles. Lowest fare buckets can be excluded, which means the idea of buying a "cheap ticket" and getting a upgrade with few miles isn't as available as one might hope.

 

Read the rules for AAdvantage and the specifics for upgrading.

 

I am a slave to AA for reasons both logical and not, so am pretty familiar with their polices. I've been able to upgrade off of rock bottom fares using miles and money. But as Gardyloo said, you need to compare the cost of each method, including valuing miles.

 

As an example, for LAX-MIA, we frequently buy FC tickets outright. When we booked earlier this year for our December trip (over NYE), my recollection is that FC was about $300 more than coach each way per person (it's a fare that AA calls "instant upgrade," comes with the same rebooking penalties as a coach ticket).

 

There's a blogger named The Points Guy, who values AA miles at 1.7 cents apiece. Using his value (since I don't have a better way to do it), the cost to upgrade from the $400 coach fare would have been $660 each in miles and money ($150 cash and $510 equivalent value in miles), so from that standpoint it was worth the difference to us. Flying FC will also give us base miles and a 50% mileage bonus. So it was "less expensive" than buying coach and upgrading.

 

We had been on a 767, but AA has been retiring that fleet and we're now stuck on a 757 or 737.:( We did luck out on one flight where we are now booked on a 3-class 777 in FC.:D (but I wouldn't be surprised to see an aircraft change between now and then).

 

I like Expert Flyer to search for award and upgrade availability - when I'm waitlisted for an upgrade, I put in an alert and often get the alert, then call AA to get it before somebody else can swoop in and nab it from under my nose.

 

Oh, and AA has made "free" travel more expensive by including peak travel times. They will also often force you on to US Air routes (although by the time you travel all flights will be AA) that connect, instead of nonstops.

 

Most of us who play this game (and I play it A LOT) try to conserve our miles for cases where that 2c or whatever "value" really becomes profitable. For example, 100,000 miles redeemed for a business class round trip to Tokyo or Rome or Buenos Aires is - most of the time - a case of much better leverage for your miles. There, you're saving thousands of dollars rather than a couple hundred or even less.

 

Think of your miles as a form of currency that you can save, spend, or mis-spend, because that's exactly how the airlines regard them.

 

So true! We hoarded our miles for Asia next year and were able to score FC on JAL in both directions for 130K miles RT each.:D

[TruckerDave]

I would never use miles for a domestic trip in coach (unless its an emergency). And the first (biz) class product on domestic US airlines just isn't great enough to warrant spending miles on in my opinion. International flights on US based airlines is pushing it to use miles on a seat up front. I would much rather spend my miles on a premium seat on Cathy Pacific, JAL, Korean Air, Qantas etc etc to some far away exotic place than on a domestic ticket on a crappy us based airline.