Who really cares how much
a flight cost per mile?
Not exact matches
United's
cost per seat -
mile should be falling as it ramps up the supply of seats and
flights, with the expenses being spread out over a greater number of seats, he said.
Average
cost of our sample
flights in LANPASS Miles: 73,011 Average
cost of those same
flights in dollars: $ 1,128 $ 1,128 / 73,011.12 = 0.015 dollars
per mile
Domestic U.S.
flights cost the same 25,000
miles per round trip in both programs, but unlike Delta, there are no close - in fees for Flying Blue if you must travel within the next three weeks.
With an average value of 1.3 cents
per SkyMile, the 70,000
miles alone are worth $ 910, which should easily cover the
cost of a round - trip domestic
flight or two.
Flights back to the US from any of these destinations
cost the same 37,500 / 62,500 / 72,500
miles per person as they did on the way out.
As an award
flight though, it
costs 15,000 Aeroplan
miles — a 3.3 - cent -
per -
mile value.
Even if you relegate United to domestic
flights only — earning those
miles for 1.0 - 1.3 cents
per means you'll can book any domestic
flight over $ 250 - $ 325 with United
miles and still recoup your
costs of time, travel and fees.
These
miles have the potential to be worth 2 - 10cents
per mile, especially if you try extremely hard to overvalue your
flight cost (I can't bring myself to link to examples of this, but you should know what I'm talking about).
Domestic U.S.
flights cost the same 25,000
miles per round trip in both programs, but unlike Delta, there are no close - in fees for Flying Blue if you must travel within the next three weeks.
A
flight between the U.S. and Europe will only
cost you 40,000
miles per roundtrip if you fly between October 15 and May 15.
And when completed, I would earn approximately 40,853
flight miles for a
cost of 3.9 cents
per mile.
For example, the flying distance between New York and Tampa, is just a hair above 1,000
miles which means it would
cost 7,500 Avios
per one - way
flight if there was a non-stop
flight between these two cities on American.
A Marriott
Flight & Hotel package that offers 7 nights at a Marriott Category 1 — 5 property & 120,000
miles costs 270,000 Marriott Rewards points (
per the chart above).
If you choose the inclusive option in the right column, the
flight will
cost 62,500
miles per person.
As you can see below, a round - trip
flight between D 1/4 sseldorf and Tel Aviv normally
costs 40,000
miles and $ 324
per person.
In low season, this
flight costs $ 850, giving you a 2.4 - cent value for your
miles, while in high season, when
flights are regularly $ 1,500
per person round - trip, you can get more than a 4 - cents -
per -
mile value.
If you want to spend less, you can try the United
flights, which
cost 115,000
miles per roundtrip, but availability is abysmal.
If you snagged a paid fare for the JFK to TLV
flight you would pay $ 2,267.99, which means that a 50,000 redemption would come out to a value of approximately 4.2 cents
per mile for this trip which is excellent and honestly a somewhat conservative valuation given how much those tickets can
cost.
If you snagged the cheapest paid fare for the JFK to TLV
flight you would pay $ 2,267.99, which means that a 50,000 redemption would come out to a value of approximately 4.2 cents
per mile for this trip which is excellent and honestly a somewhat conservative valuation given how much those tickets can
cost.
Some of these
flights were less than 650
miles long, and only
cost 4,500 British Airways Avios points
per person, in economy.
Domestic U.S.
flights cost the same 25,000
miles per round trip in both programs, but unlike Delta, there are no close - in fees for Flying Blue if you must travel within three weeks.
Normally this
flight on Star Alliance partner Air New Zealand, would
cost 15,000
miles per person in economy class or 30,000
miles in business class.
But the same
flight only
costs 25,000
miles one - way and a few dollars in fees through MileagePlus: That's a 6.3 - cent -
per -
mile value.
A one - way
flight between New York and Tokyo
costs 65,000
miles on United (130,000
per round trip) and 75,000 on ANA (150,000
per round trip) in United
miles.
Best
Miles / Points Redemption: American Airlines flies discounted award
flights to Europe from October 15 - May 15, meaning a round - trip
costs only 40,000 AA
miles per person.
Living the dream on card rewards Those who don't know us very well may think we are living the high life, but the truth is that our $ 250 hotel room near the line of totality during the eclipse was booked for 3,000 Starwood Preferred Guest points; our
flight to Wyoming was 100 percent free on a private plane thanks to a crazy JetSmarter promotion for those who could prove they had a million
miles; our resort complete with water slides and a lazy river in San Antonio was booked using an annual credit card award night when the room normally
costs $ 300 - plus
per night; our amazing room at the Park Hyatt New York was booked using 30,000 Hyatt points
per night when the selling price was almost $ 1,000
per night; and most of our other
flights were booked via a collection of airline
miles and credit card points that were primarily earned by leveraging our everyday spending for major rewards.
However at a value of 2 cents a
mile, you would still have to book an award ticket that normally
costs $ 250 one way in Economy to get that value
per mile on a domestic
flight.
You'll also earn
miles for the
flight itself, which would further reduce your
cost per mile.
This would be a better deal than transferring your points to an airline program, as it would
cost you 25,000
miles per round - trip
flight for most domestic programs, including Delta.
You'll see a screen like the one above that lists how many
miles you'll need to book a
flight, along with any extra
cost per ticket.
Average
cost of our sample
flights in LANPASS Miles: 73,011 Average
cost of those same
flights in dollars: $ 1,128 $ 1,128 / 73,011.12 = 0.015 dollars
per mile
You use your expert booking knowledge to find
flights others can't and take the spread on the
cost per mile.
If you take the total eligible
cost of $ 600 (base fare + carrier - imposed fees) and divide it by the 19,926
flight miles, you come up with just 3.01 cents
per mile.
Using this info, you can calculate the
cost per mile for the
flight and then compare to our break - even chart:
In short: If the
cost per mile for the
flight you're considering is less than the break - even point listed above, you want to book through a Special Fare method.
Unlike the flat
miles -
per - category formula most airlines use — 25,000 for the most available economy seat on a domestic
flight, 40,000 for midtier availability, etc. — Venture calculates
miles according to the
cost of the
flight.
Total in parking was another $ 108, which raises the overall
cost of my
flights to nowhere to 4.63 cents
per mile.