finally broken the 200k mile mark, now how to spend them?

finally after a business trip last week i now have around 203,000 miles which opens up lots of opportunities. ideally i'd like to take me & wifey to Cape Town next year but i've no idea what the best options are for using the miles:
- go straight for 2x UC tix?
- buy Economy & upgrade with miles?
- what are the odds on being able to book 2 reward flights for Cape Town - how popular is this route?

any other options or ideas gratefully received y)

[Darren Wheeler]

Australia and back, on your own :w

right now there are plenty of dates in April -it will depend when you want to go and how flexible you can be on dates. guess you just have to get in early and keep looking.

Cape Town is a wonderful place - i would rate it as one of my top holiday destinations so good luck and enjoy

Just don't spend them on an UC trip for 2 to NYC/ East Coast USA.

That is 90,000 miles each, over 1000 pounds in fees/ surcharges/ taxes, for two, and only 6-7hrs long.

not worth it!

If you are a couple then 2 X UC to LAX if not 1 x UC to Syd then on either rent A car and explore or book domestic flights and explore

- go straight for 2x UC tix?
- buy Economy & upgrade with miles?

2 x UC tix will cost 200k miles plus taxes etc at about £500 pp
2 x L fares will cost ~£900 pp plus some extra tax for travelling UC (£250?? pp)

Best idea is to call the FC hotline explain what you want to do and ask them to price the options. They can also advise on dates when they have any availability.

Good luck and let us know how you get on. I'm planning something similar for my wife and I - probably Aus next year - so I'm interested to hear what FC currently recommend.

Cheers

Martin

These are the taxes & extras a UC fare to ZA incurs:

Tax | Description | Tax Code | Tax | Amount
Operating Airline Fuel & Insurance Surcharge YQ GBP 295.00
UK Air Passenger Duty GB GBP 150.00
UK Passenger Service Charge UB GBP 30.63
South Africa Passenger Service Charge ZA GBP 18.00
South Africa International Air Passenger Tax WC GBP 13.60
South Africa Passenger Safety Charge EV GBP 1.10

I'm just about to book a reward flight in UC.for April next year. 8D
Out LHR-CPT...back JNB-LHR. 100k miles and taxes.
No reward flights out to CPT on a Saturday (though this might change)so going on Sunday and return on a Saturday from JNB.

I think the South African routes do tend to have more availablity for a Rewards deal than say, USA destinations.
To me this is the best use of miles and it gets me to my holiday house after an internal flight to Durban.. ^)

Hope this helps.
Paul

To me this is the best use of miles ...
Paul

Thats says it all really. What is a good use of your miles is not so good for someone else and people should just go with the flow - there are no rights or wrongs.

Personally I am saving my miles for (hopefully) a UC reward but to a destination with a 747 for v-port !

Just thinking out loud, but I'm wondering if anyone here has ever done an analysis of the 'average' value of a virgin mile, which I'm sure will vary considerably by the use to which they are put (there seems to be something of a consensus that G rewards are a good way to spend them).

Might sound a bit anoraky, but I'm sure that VS will have this sort of data to hand!

May be worth a seperate thread on this, if it hasn't been discussed already.

RC

Just thinking out loud, but I'm wondering if anyone here has ever done an analysis of the 'average' value of a virgin mile

Would be interesting to see a table of different ways of spending and how they compare. I wonder how UC upgrades from economy compare to UC miles flights. Both of which will probably be towards the top of the £/mile table

An exercise for the reader...

UC to Tokyo for you and your wife. Its certainly the best value route for using miles and Japan is a fantastic country

UC to Tokyo for you and your wife. Its certainly the best value route for using miles and Japan is a fantastic country

y) y) y)

I'm sure japan is a lovely place except Hat wants to go to Cape Town!!!

er, yeah japan definately isn't south africa! thanks for the offer but the location is the one thing we're set on

Leaving aside the cash for a minute, if you bought 2 L fares you would earn a minimum of 12,000 miles each (18k if silver and 24k if gold)

You would use 120000 for 2 l>g upgrades. So after the flight you would still have 104k miles (although 12k would be in your partners account). You would also get tier points on the base fare if that was an important consideration.

So back to the money. Fees and taxes on the 2 outright G's would be £1016. Fare plus additional taxes on 2 L>G upgrades would be £2132.

So using 80k miles saves you £1116. Buying the Ls leaves you with potentially enough miles for another G return, which would be another £500 in taxes. Would £1600 be good value for a G (the £1116 not saved and the £500 taxes on another ticket?). For most destinations that would still be a good deal.

Are you are going to continue collecting? Are any of your business trips in full fare economy where you can use 10k miles for an Economy to PE upgrade? These are all factors you need to weigh up in the spend or keep argument.

Regards
R3dV

Just thinking out loud, but I'm wondering if anyone here has ever done an analysis of the 'average' value of a virgin mile

Would be interesting to see a table of different ways of spending and how they compare. I wonder how UC upgrades from economy compare to UC miles flights. Both of which will probably be towards the top of the £/mile table

An exercise for the reader...

Budding and RC

Got me thinking too ...

I have started the homework on this and come up with a basic table which shows the value of an FC mile vs a real mile on VS flights. On the far right you can see how the routes rank on UC. Its not exhaustive and I'm sure there are errors (so please be understanding).The table is arranged alphabetically by route. It shows that Cape Town is the best value for a UC reward flight, followed by the far eastern destinations. Down at the bottom in VFM terms is Boston.

VS Reward miles table

I haven't calculated EC or PE ratios, but they look fairly similar in ranking.

This doesn't take into account taxes and most importantly whether or not you want to go to the destination

Also reward sale prices (generally only in EC or PE) will make a big difference.

If anyone wants the excel spreadsheet to play around with, please PM me.

Cheers

Martin

wow, i'm impresed & slightly baffled at the same time! nice work guys. seems like Cape Town is a good choice.

to answer some of RedV's comments, i'm currently a Gold member & so long as we resolve the changes to the tier points issue i should still be in Gold next year for this trip so would earn 24,000 miles on the base L fares. i still plan on collecting miles but this was one i was specifically building up for. my business trips are always in business - i think they're always D class fares

Just thinking out loud, but I'm wondering if anyone here has ever done an analysis of the 'average' value of a virgin mile

Would be interesting to see a table of different ways of spending and how they compare. I wonder how UC upgrades from economy compare to UC miles flights. Both of which will probably be towards the top of the £/mile table

An exercise for the reader...

Budding and RC

Got me thinking too ...

I have started the homework on this and come up with a basic table which shows the value of an FC mile vs a real mile on VS flights. On the far right you can see how the routes rank on UC. Its not exhaustive and I'm sure there are errors (so please be understanding).The table is arranged alphabetically by route. It shows that Cape Town is the best value for a UC reward flight, followed by the far eastern destinations. Down at the bottom in VFM terms is Boston.

VS-Miles-table.jpg

I haven't calculated EC or PE ratios, but they look fairly similar in ranking.

This doesn't take into account taxes and most importantly whether or not you want to go to the destination

Also reward sale prices (generally only in EC or PE) will make a big difference.

If anyone wants the excel spreadsheet to play around with, please PM me.

Cheers

Martin

Nice one Martin..I started doing an Execl sheet over brekkie before work this morning...you beat me to it.
y)

Martin - excellent work, worth at least 2 house points I think! Yes, this makes a lot of sense - although I believe the ratios are actually double what they should be as you have given 1 way totals for 'actual' miles versus the required reward miles for a return... But all very clear nonetheless and wouldn't change the relative rankings - only the perception of worth of a virgin mile versus a real mile.

RC

l