25,000 SkyMiles or $919.60

September 25, 2012 - Howie

At 3.65 cents a mile, I call that an excellent redemption ($914.60 … take $5 off for tax). I personally value SkyMiles between 1 and 1.2 cents a piece, so at 3x my value its a great redemption I’d say. So here’s the story…

I was talking with Rick and he mentioned that his son Aaron needed to head up to NY for an audition, but unfortunately had very strict time constraints. He needed to be in Manhattan at 10:30 AM (and unable to travel the night before), but also had to be back in Norfolk for a 4PM rehearsal. Yes, options were limited.

Either Kennedy or LaGuardia would work, but it’d need to be non-stop. Options were Delta or American, but American didn’t have flights that met the time constraints (would have been a great use of Avios).

So Delta it is. We found low availability and Rick was ready to use his Alaska miles, but I asked him not to. Instead, I asked him to let me redeem my SkyMiles and then he can book me something using Alaska miles in the future. He was using the miles either way, and for me, the Alaska miles are a bit more valuable to me as they open up American as an option… and while I can’t book one-way awards with partners using Alaska miles, it does give me options on Alaska flights. Sure, I live in Savannah, but I’ve got family outside of Boston and occasionally need transportation from the West Coast . Below is the itinerary. I consider it a win.

I wanted to share this story to reinforce the power of networking. In this case it just happened to be Rick and I, but I do the same thing with other friends. Educate and share your knowledge… in the end you both win. In our example here, Rick actually saved $25 in fees as Alaska charges a small premium to redeem partner awards and I ended up with 25k miles in a program that offers more value to me (additional diversity).

Deal of the Day

For today’s Deal of the Day TopCashback is donating $50 cash (to be deposited to your TopCashback.com account) for the best overall travel deal submitted. A great mileage run, mistake fare, partner promo, new card sign-up offer, or the special twist you figured out on a deal today. Add it to the comments section of this post (along with your First Name, Last Initial, and Airport Code) or this afternoon’s Deal of the Day post by TOMORROW at 11:59pm EDT to be eligible to win. That gives you two days to win!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=540202913 Mark Rosenzweig

Last minute domestic trips are often a great value for redemption, since the paid fares are so high. This illustrates that well.

But technically, wouldn’t the airlines consider what you did “bartering”, in violation of program rules? Conventional wisdom says as long as you’re doing it with family or friends, in general, they are unlikely to be able to catch you – since it’s easily explained as a “gift”. But the one thing you probably shouldn’t do is post about it on a widely read blog, where they have both the passenger name and donor name, and include the dates and flight numbers in the post. That seems like asking for trouble…

Howie

Appreciate the point of view Mark. My reasoning is exactly as you explained but understood it could very much be looked at differently.

andrewleen

Get 1 paid-day credit for National Car Rental through MMS’s blog. You only need 2 paid-day credits for 1 free day (including one way rent)!

http://millionmilesecrets.com/2012/09/25/national-1-2-free-giveaway/

Li P.
IND
bennytma

I just hope those flights were on-time!

25,000 SkyMiles or $919.60

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