How many skymiles have you guys logged? I’m 25 and have 30,000 or so. I’m going out to Vegas in May and am wondering if I should burn them or hold onto them for future use.
I’ve got like 70,000 through AAdvantage 27 y/o. Gonna use them for Paris next year I think. Either that or a ski trip. I dunno if I’d use them for Vegas, flights are pretty cheap to get out there as it is, you can probably pick up a ticket for a couple hundred if you shop hard. Of course, using miles may help make the trip feel a little cheaper after you’ve had your fun at the tables.
agreed, generally people value their miles at about 2 cents/per mile. So a frequent flyer should be indifferent between a flight that costs 25,000 miles and one which costs $500. Of course these days it’s tough to get a roundtrip for less than 50,000 miles, at least on the carriers that I frequent, so that means a $1,000 tradeoff. But I would spend 50,000 miles for flights $700 or so, so my conversion function is concave…
Burn 'em if you’re flexible with your time. I always do the math that 25k is good for a domestic, 55k Europe, 65k Asia, etc., but in reality it’s not that easy. Even booking awhile in advance doesn’t always work if you need to leave on a Friday and return on a Sunday. I’ve got 115k on United and am headed to Brazil next month but wasn’t able to use miles for it. Though might recommend saving them for an int’l flight if you want to go far. Unless you’re doing Miami-Seattle or something it’s not worth using 25k for a $200-300 flight when 55k gets you to Europe.
I had about 120k in Delta miles (mostly from travel w/ parents when I was younger). Now I have about 30k…I had a fun 2010.
Only around 20,000 right now. Have been over 100,000 a couple of times (hello priority boarding!). Guessing I’ve earned 200,000 - 250,000 all told. Have used miles for South America, Mexico and a couple domestic trips.
I’ve used some for a round trip to Bos-Cali on AA in college. Have about 50K on AA and can never use them because of all of their blackout days and weird flights. Used some for a one way to Bos-Oregon and had to fly through Texas! Definitely was not worth the extra time in the end. I think I had a 5 hour layover in Texas. I did get to fly first class though. If there are available flights that work with your schedule I would definitely use the miles because you may never have the chance again for a very long time