How do you decide whether to buy flights with cash or miles? Follower Owen asked this question recently, saying:
“On the podcast you guys often say that you rarely book flights with cash. I find that, especially when booking domestic flights, I often can’t get amazing value from my points (let’s say <1.5cpp). As a result, I tend to hoard my points for those big outsized value redemptions (international business class, Park Hyatt stays, etc.) so I end up booking the flight with cash. How do you think about these situations, especially when you have less flexibility around dates? (Let’s say you’re traveling for an event, or just traveling during peak season). How much do you value the extra flexibility that comes with booking with points? At what point do you decide you have plenty of points so redeeming for lower value isn’t the end of the world?”
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We’ve been answering a reader or listener question at the end of each Frequent Miler on the Air podcast episode. Now, we’ve turned the question of the week into its own weekly episode. Tune in every Sunday at 5pm for our Question of the Week podcast. And if you have your own question you’d like to submit, you can send it to mailbag@frequentmiler.com.
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After the pandemic all major airlines made award tickets refundable without redeposit fees. Haven’t paid cash since, as the cash fares to compare award price with is the refundable fare – making the miles value always “outsized”.