Lot of miles but not easy to spend

[Fattony]

ALL the more reason to consolidate miles into one airline/one alliance and try to obtain status with a particular airline. Partner airline flights are often available when parent airline flights are not.

 

And I don't know of an airline that doesn't allow you to get ANY seat in the house for double the miles (is there one???). But most people ONLY want the "saver" award tickets, so instead of being creative to come up with the extra miles or actually using the extra miles they already have, they say there is no availability. I wonder how many times THAT computation went into the statistics.

 

It may not always be a matter of lack of creativity or willingness to use miles people have. Coming up with, say, 90,000 extra miles, or more, is not always possible for many people.

[greatam]

ALL the more reason to consolidate miles into one airline/one alliance and try to obtain status with a particular airline. Partner airline flights are often available when parent airline flights are not.

 

And I don't know of an airline that doesn't allow you to get ANY seat in the house for double the miles (is there one???). But most people ONLY want the "saver" award tickets, so instead of being creative to come up with the extra miles or actually using the extra miles they already have, they say there is no availability. I wonder how many times THAT computation went into the statistics.

 

 

It may not always be a matter of lack of creativity or willingness to use miles people have. Coming up with, say, 90,000 extra miles, or more, is not always possible for many people.

 

Not nearly as difficult as you seem to think it is. Please note that I posted "creative" ways to come up with the miles. You can purchase miles on most airlines. AA allows you to purchase 40,000 miles per account, per year for about $850.00 (AA also often runs "sales" on miles purchases-right now-20% off the "miles" purchase price). You can "gift" miles from one account to another for about the same amount. There are some limits to how many miles you can purchase/gift, but two people with two accounts could easily come up with 90,000 or more miles.

 

You can also purchase Starpoints from Starwood (good on many, many airlines). There are many other CREATIVE ways to get miles without running up $90,000 on your credit cards. And those are ways for just AA. Other airlines have similar programs.

 

Again, CREATIVE uses of miles and CREATIVE purchases/gifts/transfers of miles are VERY, VERY beneficial.

[frugaltravel]

And I don't know of an airline that doesn't allow you to get ANY seat in the house for double the miles (is there one???).

 

Yes - in some cases Delta requires WAY more than double the miles (see the link above for some examples).

 

But most people ONLY want the "saver" award tickets, so instead of being creative to come up with the extra miles or actually using the extra miles they already have, they say there is no availability. I wonder how many times THAT computation went into the statistics..

 

For those "in the know", only "saver" tickets provide any sort of good value. Why in the world would I use say 50,000 miles (the "double the miles" you were referring to) to fly within the continental USA when the ticket might cost under $500? Or why would I buy 40K miles for $850 (or less with 10-25% off sales) when a domestic US round trip ticket only in rare instances costs anywhere near $850. Granted, some people use 25K miles to fly from Chicago to New York, which might only cost $200 if paid for by cash. The airlines LOVE those sort of uninformed people.

 

Now if you are one to use your miles as wisely as fbgd, you would be a wise manager of your mileage currency:

 

Shocking value if you ask me...I have redeemed 25,000 miles to save $3000.

[Chesie]

Ok I'm going out on a limb here. I just used my miles FOR THE FIRST TIME with Delta. I admit I am not savy with the "ff ropes" so hopefully I won't get flammed.

 

I needed to use the miles otherwise I was going to lose them this year. Flew JFK to LAX non stop BUSINESS ELITE for 45,000 miles RT. Cost of ticket would have been shy of $3,000 RT.

 

Wanted to go to Europe but couldn't afford the "trip" once I was there so went to CA and picked up an inexpensive 7 day cruise.

 

Lastly, I got a call from Delta while on the cruise and said they "overbooked" BusinessElite and could we move over. We did and ended up with an $800 travel voucher.

 

How did I do?

[FlyerTalker]

hopefully I won't get flamed.

 

Nope, no flames, just commentary.

 

I needed to use the miles otherwise I was going to lose them this year.

Not true. You could easily have kept them "alive" with non-airline spending, including online purchases, hotel stays, car rentals or dining credits.

 

Flew JFK to LAX non stop BUSINESS ELITE for 45,000 miles RT. Cost of ticket would have been shy of $3,000 RT.

45K for transcon up front was a good usage!

 

Lastly, I got a call from Delta while on the cruise and said they "overbooked" BusinessElite and could we move over. We did and ended up with an $800 travel voucher.

Bonus time!

 

How did I do?

Better than a lot of "pros" might do. Good scores.

[Chesie]

Not true. You could easily have kept them "alive" with non-airline spending, including online purchases, hotel stays, car rentals or dining credits.

 

Not sure how to do that as I don't have a delta credit card?

 

Thanks for the encouragement!

[frugaltravel]

Not true. You could easily have kept them "alive" with non-airline spending, including online purchases, hotel stays, car rentals or dining credits.

 

Not sure how to do that as I don't have a delta credit card?

 

Thanks for the encouragement!

 

http://www.delta.com/skymiles/ways_to_get_miles/index.jsp

[fbgd]

How did I do?

 

Very well!

 

For me using miles for premium cabins is the only real option. You might use double (for J) or triple (for F) in some cases but internationally since I usually pay more like 6x the coach fare for my paid J tickets, and 10x for F, it makes perfect sense. The only way you get real value for money.

[Chesie]

http://www.delta.com/skymiles/ways_to_get_miles/index.jsp

 

 

Thank you for the link! Never went that deep into the website. Guess I better. Used ExecuCar r/t for airport transportation and realize now it was a Delta benefit:( Live and Learn!