Editor’s note: It is a recurring post, frequently updated with latest information and offers.
My family collects airline miles for just a few different reasons. Often, we redeem miles for flights we otherwise couldn’t comfortably afford to purchase with money.
We’ll also redeem them to make sure flights much more comfortable by sitting up front or for spontaneous trips that crop up — whether for fun or obligation.
Nonetheless, we will not redeem miles for each flight. So, now we have to make a decision which of them we pay for with points and miles and which of them we pay for with money.
Airline ticket pricing might be interesting. You might see incredible deals, corresponding to $39 one-way fares on ultra low-cost carriers, but that’s only a part of the story.
Airlines are also reducing capability at certain airports and leaving others altogether. Latest airlines and latest routes are popping up. So, from some markets, airfare prices could also be higher than what you’ve paid previously. Your experience will vary depending on the airports you fly from.
When money prices are very high or very low, deciding when to make use of miles versus money is commonly easy. Sometimes, though, it’s a much harder decision. Listed below are the things we consider when deciding whether to tug out our bank card, frequent flyer number or bank card points when booking flights.
Check award availability and costs
Using miles is simply an option if there’s decent award availability at a great price. Before you anguish over whether to make use of miles or money, check to see if there’s award availability when and where you need to travel.
The more flexible your travel dates, the greater likelihood you’ll discover saver award availability. Nonetheless, with airlines increasingly moving to dynamic award pricing, “saver awards” may change into less of a thing. As an alternative, it’s possible you’ll need to examine award prices since they’ll vary by day.
Also, check the money price for the flight. I like using Google Flights to quickly spot airfare prices over a period. Note that Southwest flights will appear in Google Flights but is not going to display the value.
Check your money and points balances
Once you already know the costs for flights using either money or miles, it’s time for a reality check. Is spending the money immediately even an option on your budget? Do you’ve gotten enough miles to cover the flights?
In case your money budget is tight, the scales may tip to using miles. On the flip side, they might tip to using money in case you are running short on miles or are saving them for an enormous redemption.
Even whether it is otherwise a comparatively poor mileage redemption, in case you don’t have the available money to pay for the ticket, miles may be the suitable call — and that is OK.
Calculate the cents per mile
Once you already know the selling price of the ticket in each dollars and miles (and assuming that you’ve gotten the posh of selection with regards to booking), you might want to do some calculations.
Most individuals who’ve been within the points and miles world for some time have a minimum amount of value they wish to get for his or her airline miles. TPG makes it easy by providing monthly valuations to present you a way of what you must hope to get on your miles.
Miles should not all definitely worth the same amount. A United mile may be value 1.21 cents, while an Alaska Airlines mile is value 1.8 cents. You should utilize TPG’s awards versus money calculator to make a call. But here’s the right way to do your personal math.
If you need to book a domestic round-trip airline ticket that is on the market for 25,000 airline miles and the selling price is $500, you’re getting about 2 cents per mile in value in case you book that award. That’s typically a great deal ($500 divided by 25,000 miles).
Nonetheless, if the identical ticket was $250 with the identical 25,000 miles to book, your return is simply 1 cent per mile. In that case, I’d probably moderately buy the ticket, save the miles and earn each redeemable and elite-qualifying miles on the trip.
To get specific valuations, you furthermore mght have to account for the taxes and costs charged to the awards — although that’s splitting hairs on a domestic trip more often than not.
While TPG has point valuations, it helps to make a decision your personal values. One quick strategy to get an honest idea of how much you value your miles is to make a decision how much that 25,000 miles domestic round-trip economy ticket would cost in miles as an alternative of money. Is it $500? $150? $350?
If the reply is around $350, you may value your miles at 1.4 cents each. This calculation is trickier when redeeming for international or premium cabin travel since lots of us would never find a way to pay for a $5,000 to $10,000 ticket with money.
In case you work with airline points in a fixed-value program, corresponding to Southwest or JetBlue, this decision gets easier. The points have already got a comparatively fixed value inside those programs, so you may as well use them more often than not unless you might be working toward elite status.
Does elite status matter?
In case you care about earning airline elite status by flying a certain variety of paid miles annually, that also aspects into the equation. It must be an in depth call based on the cents per mile, but when you might want to keep racking up elite status, that will tip the scales to a paid ticket.
Sometimes I exploit money to purchase my airline tickets and use miles for the remaining of the family to lower the general money price. This implies we aren’t on the identical reservation, which makes things harder within the case of delays or canceled flights, nevertheless it is a technique I exploit now and again.
Are you saving for something big?
Even when the maths works in favor of using miles, think through whether that may impact any of your long-range plans and dreams.
Repeatedly, there are methods to spend money to take shorter domestic trips, even when meaning flying an ultra-low-cost carrier like Spirit Airlines. Nonetheless, outside of using miles, there aren’t many budget-friendly ways to take that big, fancy international business- or first-class flight.
In case you are working toward an enormous redemption, consider sticking with that plan moderately than bumping yourself farther from the goal line with smaller redemptions.
Use companion tickets
One other thing to think about when deciding the right way to pay for a given trip is whether or not you may have a companion ticket available. For instance, I get an annual Alaska Airlines companion fare with my Alaska Airlines Visa® bank card annually. This perk allows someone to fly with me for a bit over $100 — even to Hawaii.
We previously used that companion certificate to fly home from Hawaii. Paid tickets wouldn’t have made sense normally but did when factoring within the discounted ticket.
We’ve done similar things with the Delta companion fares. Frontier Airlines offers Kids Fly Free deals, and Southwest periodically offers limited-time Companion Pass deals. These cost savings should weigh into your decisions.
Better of each worlds: Fixed-value points
When you may’t determine whether to spend miles or money, the suitable answer may be Option C: not one of the above.
Many bank cards award fixed-value points which you can use to book your airfare. This means that you can benefit from good prices while keeping your money safely in your wallet. Plus, you’ll still earn progress toward elite status, and you will not be tied to award availability restrictions.
For instance, you may book a paid fare together with your Capital One Enterprise X Rewards Credit Card or Capital One Enterprise Rewards Credit Card after which use your miles to pay for all or a part of that statement charge at a price of 1 cent per mile. In case you’ve found a terrific deal on a money ticket, you may still grab it without burning money.
A final thought: Flexibility
Something else to think about when deciding whether to make use of miles or money is whether or not using miles might provide more flexibility than money. Perhaps you’ve gotten elite status that means that you can change award reservations without penalty. Or, perhaps you may book via a program that doesn’t charge big fees for award flight changes or cancellations.
For instance, in case you book an American Airlines-operated award flight by redeeming Alaska Airlines miles and you might want to cancel, you may achieve this without cost in case you do it a minimum of the day before your scheduled departure. Just know that you just might spend more miles in case your latest fare is higher than the old one.
In case you book via Southwest Rapid Rewards and your plans change (or the value drops), you may refund or modify your award reservation without fees or penalties. Even money reservations via Southwest might be modified without fees. In case your latest flight costs less and your ticket is refundable, they’ll refund the difference to your original type of payment. In case your ticket isn’t refundable, you won’t lose your money. They’ll offer you a voucher for the fare difference, which you need to use to book future Southwest flights.
Bottom line
There isn’t all the time an ideal answer on whether to make use of miles or money for a given ticket, but these are some things my family looks at when making that call.
By considering these points when booking your next ticket, you may make the suitable selection for you and your loved ones.