Key Points

• To experience flat bed seating and the best service, aim for longer flights between big cities on widebody planes operated by top-rated airlines..

• Nothing is for free - you can fly using the miles you earn from credit card activity, flying or (here’s the big secret) buying miles..

• Buying miles can be advantageous when certain programs have sales and mileage tickets often come with more trip flexibility than regular tickets

Last year, in January 2019, I kicked off the year by flying back from Asia for the holidays in Cathay Pacific First Class from Bangkok to San Francisco through Hong Kong. I used 70,000 miles from Alaska’s Mileage Plan program to get this ticket, and it would have cost the same whether I flew from Bangkok, other points in SE Asia, or Hong Kong. 

In December the previous month, I got to Vietnam via Tokyo in Japan Airlines Business Class for 55,000 Alaska miles. The amount would have been the same whether I just went to Tokyo, connected, or chose to do a stopover in Tokyo before heading to Vietnam. 

These are some of the top rated overall airlines in the world, and well-regarded for their premium cabin experiences in particular. 

If you use Google Flights to perform a search for these flights around similar dates in 2020/2021, you’ll see Cathay First prices out at  ~$16,000 one way (!!!), while JAL Business runs around $2,200. The normal guideline is prices for long international one-way flights in First Class run $7,000 or more while those in Business go for about $2,500 to $5,000. 

Obviously, I did not spend that since I used miles. And while I was an Alaska MVP Gold in 2018 when I booked these flight redemptions, I did not acquire 125,000 miles through flying alone.

I used a mix of earned miles, plus purchased miles. Most mileage programs offer you the ability to top up your account by buying miles, but when those are usually presented (while short on miles for booking a trip, for example) they are not priced at a great value. The key is to purchase miles and points from certain programs when they put out promotions (usually with discounts tied to quantity purchased).

So let’s run the numbers on how much these trips cost when paying purely with miles, and how much I saved by using purchased miles over the cash price:

• SFO-SGN in JAL Business Class:
  55,000 Alaska miles at 1.83 cents each = $1,006.50 (over 50% off)
  
  
• BKK-SFO in Cathay First:
  70,000 Alaska miles at 1.83 cents each = $1,281 (a whopping $14,000+ savings)
  
  

Miles on sale are one of the few great investments in the points and miles game 

I always tell friends and family not to hoard their miles and points with loyalty programs as, unlike other asset holdings, they don’t appreciate over time. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Airlines are constantly devaluing their points as they are big liabilities to their balance sheets and selling more and more of them to credit card partners and such. The number of points out there has increased over time, which means airlines are continuously shifting the goalposts on redeeming them - making it cost more miles with each passing year to make redemptions. 

Not all mileage programs are created equal

If you’re going to take away anything from my tips, it’s this: the best programs for buying miles to redeem for premium cabin travel are the ones that go on sale regularly and that let you redeem on many high quality airlines. The two programs that standout here are Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, as mentioned before, and even better for Star Alliance flyers - Avianca LifeMiles.

You’ve probably never heard of it, but Avianca is Latin America’s second biggest airline conglomerate after LATAM. It is based in Colombia and Central America, but don’t let that dissuade you - you can absolutely fly all over the world in discounted first and business class through its Star Alliance partners. 

Mileage valuation 101 

The basic principle of all point and miles programs is that, at minimum, a dollar spent equals a point earned, and a point earned equals a cent of fare value. That means that for every $1 you spend on your points or miles earning card, or on an airfare, you will earn at least $0.01 cent of value towards free flights and more. 

Of course, the credit card games have taught us we should look for things like 3 points per dollar spent on travel, dining etc. like many cards offer. But at the end of the day, it’s meant to convey that if you accumulate 25,000 miles, for example, you would be able to get a free flight worth 1/100 of that, or a flight worth $250. 

THERE ARE MUCH GREATER VALUES OUT THERE! DON’T SETTLE! 

When you buy points, you’re rarely going to get them for anywhere close to $0.01 per point. In fact, non-sale prices of $0.02 per point or more are way more common. BUT - Alaska has sales that puts their miles at an equivalent sale price of $0.0183 (1.83 cents) per mile, and Avianca has these blowout promotions where you can get LifeMiles for as little as $0.013 (1.3 cents) per mile! 

That’s not where the phenomenal value comes from though - it’s from the redemption rates they make available for their high quality airline partners. 

Case study: ANA (Japan’s 5-star Skytrax airline) Business & First Class from Manila to San Francisco through Tokyo 

• Cost: 86,000 LifeMiles. 
• Net cash outlay: $1,118 (+ $40 or so in taxes). 
• Normal paid ticket price: $7,000+ 
• Savings: $5,800+ 
• Booked: 2 days before travel 

Originally I had spent 75,000 LifeMiles ($975+ taxes) the week before to book MNL-TPE-SFO on EVA Airways (another Skytrax 5-star airline) in Business Class. However, my plans changed and I needed to extend my stay in Manila by one day. 

LifeMiles offers reasonable change, cancellation and refund fees for mileage tickets booked through them. Sometimes they are even free when airlines do schedule changes (which do happen quite a bit when you book far out). 

In this case, I would have to pay their maximum $200 cancellation and refund fee to get 75,000 miles back in my account. Totally worth it for me, as the program is very flexible and allowed me to book the even better value above just a few days prior to flight. If I needed to change that, it would have been the same story. 

Bottom line 

I can give you tons of case studies where my travel experience was elevated for not much more than you would pay for a premium economy airfare thanks to the miles and points game. 

More posts to come….