Deciding Which Miles To Use

Similar question. I will need 3 business class award seats in November 2016 (thinking ahead) from Austin (or DFW or IAH) to Florence or Milan or Rome. What airlines would you target using which points currency - which has best biz class and enough availability for 3. I have some time to earn but already have plenty of Amex, chase, Spg, Alaska, AA, United, and aero plan points to make it work. Any ideas? I'm stuck at step one...

I built a calculator to do just that! You can specify how much you value each currency and it'll tell you a best and 2nd-best program to use across 10 of the most commonly used airline programs and most frequent bank transfer partners.

You can download it at http://gum.co/awardcalculator - One Mile At A Time readers can get $5 by using the promo code "OMAAT"

I'm also releasing a v2 this Wednesday that covers AF, LH, AZ, and AM and Economy, Business and First, but anyone who downloads this version now will get a fresh copy then.

Eric from TravelCodex

@EricB

You could use British Airways, they have a decent business and fly to Austin, DFW, and IAH. Alternatively, you could fly a the long way via one of the ME3.

@EricB (hey! we have the same initials!) - You might want to look into Alitalia and Korean @ 80k roundtrip (with some fuel surcharges) on Skyteam, and ANA @ 88k and Air Canada at 90k round trip on star alliance.

AC, in particular, has many European partners where they don't pass on fuel surcharges. Korean transfers from Chase while the other three are Amex transfer partners.

Also, I also built an award calculator that helps to answer that exact question "Which currency to use for each destination?" - Take a look by clicking the link above in my name. Use the promo code "OMAAT" to get 25% off.

Releasing v2 on Wednesday which will cover the 14 most frequently used programs and economy, business and first class to 303 destinations - but anyone downloading now will get that new version via email.

Eric from TravelCodex

Rule # 1-Never fly on ripoff BA. Never. #2-IB has bad fuel surcharges but not as bad as BA. #3 Try to avoid any fuel surcharges. #4 Don't fly out of UK with ripoff air duties.

@Jerry great ideas, sadly bit difficult for those of us based in the UK! Our other much bigger problem is that BA Avios (or VS Flying Club, which also have surcharges) are over of the few points currencies we can earn at any reasonable rates though sign-up bonuses or credit card spending 🙁

Hi Tiffany -- you had a great start to this post but you didn't address perhaps the most compelling variable that affects my decisions (and those of a great many frequent flyers) to book flights which is something that should go on your flow chart.

I have many millions of miles and points across a number of programs. I guess I am fortunate because I can't use them fast enough. However, before I consider any of the flow chart issues you present, I consider what programs have deadlines for booking before their next devaluation, and then I look at what programs are most likely to have a devaluation in the near future.

For example, even though I mostly prefer to book long haul flights in first class, a while back I had to exhaust all of my Delta Skymiles before I lost a great deal of value with their devaluation. Same thing with United, BA Avios, etc.

I'd imagine that most frequent flyers consider impending devaluations as their number one motivating factor to book a trip.

It would be great if Ben could compile a monthly list of what programs we frequent flyers would want to consider booking flights with right away, and what programs he considers relatively safe. For example, Aeroplan has announced a devaluation for flights booked after December. That's definite. AA will be dropping the hammer any time now. We're on notice.

Ben put together valuations of miles and points for each miles and points program. It would be great to have another series of listings by perhaps creating some categories of how urgent it is to use a particular mile or point currency and then placing the various programs into those categories. Maybe four or five categories: From "Burn Immediately" to "Safe for a While." Similarly, when an airline suddenly makes award seats available that weren't available before, it's a "Book Immediately" situation, because there is great value and/or opportunity that might disappear very quickly. What do you think?

Also, and I mentioned it before on this blog, how come no one has come up with a contest to guess when AA will announce their expected devaluation, and when it will go into effect?

How do I get to New Zealand?

@ EricB, that's easy! I'd fly from JFK-MXP on Emirates a380 in business class! You can use Alaska miles. Buy a separate ticket to NYC if you must --- JetBlue?

Thanks Tiffany!
incredibly helpful

Thanks everyone for the ideas!

Have you seen the FlyerMiler yet? It basically takes away all of this and just does the work/figuring out for you. It's been popping up more and more lately from sites like TravelisFree, FreakinFlyers and TravelBloggerBuzz
www.economicalexcursionists.com/travelTools/

@ LeAnna -- I have, and I hope it's helpful to folks! I really like to encourage people to use their own brains and learn how to tease this stuff out though 🙂

@Tiffany- Haha! Using your own brain is always a good thing....buuuut spending HOURS scouring award charts just to figure out the best use of my points HURTS my brain 😛 Might as well use a tool that makes life a lot easier 🙂