Deal of the Day

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Posted by Monday, November 21, 2011, No Comments

Just as a reminder, you can always earn bonus miles when you book a car rental. For instance, US Air is offering 3,000 bonus miles for Avis rentals that are at least three days!

New American AAdvantage accounts will receive a 1,000 miles bonus when you use promo code ETD10.

Deals We Like has a great post about Black Friday and Cyber Monday travel deals.

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  • Anonymous

    Well said. I have a brother who does a lot of international flying for business and to this day can't figure out why people would waste money and/or miles on first class. (Aside from the extremely wealthy who have more money than they know what to do with of course.) Business has been and always will be perfectly fine for him.

  • Anonymous

    "I'll continue to take the middle road"
    Hey Rick, be a man and take a side. :)
    Some people tend to look at 'their own travel habits' and make recommendations for others based on that. That is sad, because people who don't go to overseas destinations, have to and must spend miles on domestic travel; whereas those who go to the ends of the earth, using miles for overseas travel gives you more bang for the buck. Don't know why those two would be fighting. They are both right. It is the travel destinations that define how to use miles. Sometimes, even domestic fares make me use miles. I hope most people are smart enough to know what works best for them. If they are not, ask God, or roll the dice instead of asking these fighting experts. ;)

  • deltagoldflyer

    I think your wife and my wife think very much the same when it comes to travel! I have never been on int 1st so will wait till next year to see if I agree with you there but have a feeling I will (you tend to be right about stuff). But you have to agree that service in biz or better is 10x the service "behind the curtain" or? At least on my dear DELTA that is the case.

  • Ryan

    Nice post. Frugal, not cheap. Huge difference and that's the name of this game.

  • ace

    I can't disagree with you more. 12,500 miles to move from business to first? A pittance.
    And not everyone lives or travels to some backwoods town and has to book expensive coach domestic tickets.
    To fly Cathay Pacific First Bali/SFO for 75k British pesos instead of an inferior seat in Business for 50k is a spectacular treat. But I would never upgrade from coach to first on a domestic flight, but I will buy an exit row.
    And I bought my first new car at 53, use Slingbox instead of cable, and use a space heater in my bedroom instead of heating the whole house at night, so frugality isn't a foreign concept to me.
    Viva la Internacional First class experiencia!

  • Eugene

    I've found that there are times when first class mileage redemption is *cheaper* than a business class redemption. A few months ago we were looking to fly Business Class to PEK on UA, and it was pricing at 300,000 miles (i.e. standard awards only). But a look at first class showed that they were selling saver tickets, for a total of 140,000 miles. In which case, don't you think it makes sense to fly First instead of Business?

  • Anonymous

    To each their own.

  • Michael

    I agree with your post 100 %, at the end of the day just be happy saving $$$$ and traveling in comfort.

    I built up my balances in my gf's and my accounts that all flights this year will be in business class. Trip to Australia, Cali, and euro trip and I am based in NYC. I am excited to finally enjoy the fruits of my earning.

  • Andy

    …shouldn't the point really be that the best use of miles is the one that makes the most sense for you personally? Some people are fine with coach, some people like international FC, etc.
    As long the person is happy with their redemption and they're not blowing 40000 miles on a toaster, then I'm cool with it.

  • Aarif

    I'm curious, how do you calculate the price of points/miles earned by credit card sign-ups?

  • Mommy Points

    I'm still somewhat amazed that this whole issue turned into a debate/disagreement about how to redeem miles. If it makes sense for a person to redeem domestically, then they should go for it. If it makes sense for them to redeem for international first, they should go for it. We are all here to help people earn and redeem miles however it makes sense for them. Sometimes that will mean a 500 mile flight in coach and sometimes it will be a flight around the world in first (or business in your case!).

    You will always find me on the "side" of do what works for you. :)

  • Anonymous

    Lol, British Pesos = the new BA Adios miles..I like that

  • Jimmy Y.

    I think it depends on the redemption rate as a few others mentioned. If it's a 17.5K difference between Business and First then I'd go with First. There are some award tickets that have a 30K+ difference and that is understandable. I don't think it's even worth spending miles for F during domestic flights unless there are no Saver Economy tickets left but there are Saver First. Since Anytime Economy and Saver First require the same amount of miles then it's understandable. If you have a lot of miles and are flying JFK-SFO/LAX then it's worth doling out miles for F for the PS flight as well otherwise it's not worth it.

  • Phil

    I almost agree. In most cases I think you are right. The only exception is when the award chart makes the pricing very similar, e.g. AA from North America to Asia on CX is like 135k in F vs 110k in J. The incremental 25k is not huge that it makes F a waste of points. I do agree when you have big gaps in the pricing, you are forking out a lot of points for very little real gain

  • Phil

    BTW on the good points raised above regarding domestic F… well I agree but this is why I also love Delta. As you can upgrade even on award reservations. On certain routes like anywhere to CUN for example chances of upgrades are real high so this is a very nice bene.

  • Anonymous

    I believe the supposed "devaluation" of British airways miles triggered this discussion. For those who love to travel international 1st class to South america and Asia it is a devaluation. I did not hear anyone strongly advocating the great advantages with Avios. I don't live in a major OneWorld hub (mid atlantic). However, now I can go to JFK for 9000 Avios miles back and forth. I can go to Miami for 15000 Avios miles (+$5) and I can go just about anywhere in the Caribbean for ~35k miles. For a family of 3 that's reasonable. I am glad I didn't get into the hype of using my BA miles just for the sake of getting a Great award. Turns it, I might start to collect them more actively for vacation trips to FL or NY.

  • Jeffrey C.

    My wife and I's motto is Go, See, Do. And it's not that important to us to be pampered on the way. We like to spend our capital, miles, points or dollars, at our destination, seeing and doing. And if anyone would like to get rid of their Avios 'Pesos', I'm here. Taking my wife to the Smokey Mountains for a weekend right before Christmas. Total r/t points for two on AA via Avios? 18k from DFW to BNA. That's for TWO ROUND TRIPS!! That's pretty good value my friend. Thanks for your blog. I enjoy it and profit from it.

  • Anonymous

    There is no right way to play this game. There can be wrong ways, if you somehow spend more money to acquire the miles than a ticket would have cost. But, really, if you prefer redeeming for economy class on domestic OR international because that means you'll also be able to redeem a 2nd international economy class ticket at the same miles price, then so be it. I have flown in economy class to Australia, South America, and Europe. Aside from the horrific back injury I dealt with on a flight from Chicago to Istanbul I've never had a problem sitting economy. As long as I have reasonable entertainment options I don't care where I sit. That said, during the "Burn your BA Miles" period I did book a Biz Class flight to Asia a few weeks ago. But that was a special circumstance, and I'll end up flying around the world with stopovers in Hong Kong and Amman.

  • Anonymous

    I fully understand your position although it´s not my personal choice ( and in the end the best use of FF miles comes down to personal choices ).

    One thing that bothers me in your argument, is the difference you mention returning from China of 55K miles in business vs. 67.5K in F.

    If, as you state, your accumulating miles at under .2cents per mile the 12.5K miles difference is 25 bucks !???

    Who, in a sane mind, wouldn´t fork out $25 for an upgrade from J to F on a 12 hour + flight ?

    From my view that´s the major fault in your reasoning.

    P.S. Even if that´s a typo I would still pay $250 for an up on such a long flight.

  • Million Mile Secrets

    I agree with you that when it is time to sleep, there is not much difference between first class and coach. That said, everyone should do what is best for their situation.

    Sometimes that will be redeeming for international first class and sometimes it will be redeeming for domestic coach awards. And sometimes redeeming for business class. What's all the fuss about?!

  • Anonymous

    I agree 100%.
    My first summer vacation choices are places with good camping resorts (BC, Alberta). It's not that I can't afford it, or use points for a nice hotel. I just like sleeping in my OWN bed (sleeping bag) and in my own room (tent). Just the thought of sharing the same mattress with a 1000 other people makes me queasy…

  • Julian

    Well, no wonder your name is the Frugal Travel Guy :)

  • Simon

    I have beef with the people who respond to posts like this with the "Do whatever works for you and stop judging people" statement. Man, I like the fact that you have an opinion on this website. I may, at times, disagree with you, but I think its great that you have a perspective on this issue. Maybe for the softies you can throw in the preceding phrase "[You may feel differently, but] I think F is a waste of miles."

    Thanks for being your own advocate. That's why I read your site! Don't ever feel bad for having an opinion!

  • tommy777

    Good for you, my friend. More F award availability for Gary and me ;)

  • MYRflyer

    Last year I used 135k AA for RDU-LGA-YYR-HKG, BKK-HKG-YYR-RDU Cathay Pacific First Class. I could not imagine having to sit in coach for this itinerary, the YYR-HKG was 14 hrs! not to mention the travel time to RDU, stress of possible cancelled flight because of ice, layover in LGA, long layover in YYR. Needless to say by the time I got to HKG I was ready for that arrival lounge shower.

    What if my home airport was JFK and I had acquired the nonstop JFK-HKG on CX, and wasn't my first time flying CX, then I could see myself in J and save those 25k miles.

    Visiting various travel blogs made me appreciate the luxury of first class travel and experiencing something that others dream of.

    I splurged one domestic trip to vegas in F, the only way I would ever do that again is if all saver economy awards were taken. Just not big enough difference between domestic coach / F on a 4 hr flight. imho

    Great discussion

  • Gary
  • FrugalTravelGuy

    What a lively discussion across the blogospere. After reading all the comments and posts from other bloggers I can make the statement clearly again that I initially made. "International Business Class is good enough for me"

    For you? Well, that is your own personal decision and after all, that is what is important. With the tips and tricks we all share, now at least you have a choice.

  • chemist661

    Intl Biz is sufficient for my wife & I. I flew her in coach to Rome in 2005 and proposed at the Vatican. She said yes and the Pope spoke on the square the next day. :)

    Now, she insists on flying Biz to Europe. With the CC signups, we had a decent amount of miles/points to fund some Biz trips.

    My travel is on hold due to a medical situation (cancer). After treatments are done with and when I am cleared to travel, I want to redeem miles for us to travel in intl F to Australia. For that distance, intl F (on QF) will be a treat.

    Biz is adequate for us but Intl F is a treat.

  • Kristal_Flyer

    I heard about this blog and the genius behind it, tonight on the news. I have a problem and want to know if maybe the Travel Guy has my solution. My friend and I are taking a week vacation in Anaheim, California for spring break in March and still need our plane tickets. Could I use your plan, apply for a credit card or something, to get our tickets? If not do you maybe have another plot for two collage girls and their California getaway?


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