Confused about miles

jeffery581 · ‎05-02-2017

I don't understand the miles cc's. One card of mine says I have 10,054 miles. Does that mean I can fly around the world? Any help would be appreciated.

Loquat · ‎05-02-2017

If only it worked that way. But what card you referring to? I have a Venture from CapOne that earns "miles" but it's no more than a 2% cash back card with a $59 annual fee...oh, and they can only be used for travel related purchases to take advantage of the full 2%.

TiggerDat · ‎05-02-2017

When you go to redeem your miles it will tell you how many you need for that trip. This varies by company, time of travel, location of travel, and how many beatings the airline has done.

If you want to travel to UK one way during the slow season it will take maybe 30,000 miles, while it will take 12,500 to travel to LA from Seattle. In the peak season it might take 75,000 miles to go to the UK and 30,000 to LA. If you choose the option of coach plus it will be greater, business class even more, super business class even more than that, and if you choose the fight club section the winner travels for free.

Remember different airlines have different use amounts. With the points you have now you can possible do a one-way domestic trip within the continent if your airline has a 10,000 mile minimum use. You should never use miles to do a one way portion of a round trip as the return airfare will be as much or more than a round trip. If you want to do a multi-segment trip then it woul all be booked as individual flights, unless you are creative. I might be flying to China in a few weeks and I there is an option for an overnight layover in Rome, having never been to Rome I can check it out and see if it is worth a full trip. Alternately, I can do an overnight layover in London, which would be cool. If you very creative you can even get 2 overnight layovers in different cities, even in the US where you could get to check them out and still end up at your destination with a nice amount of time to vacation there. Think of it as an air cruise. I do. Last time I flew I got to spend the night in Hong Kong to visit a friend and visit friends in Chicago for a day.

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Loquat · ‎05-02-2017

@TiggerDat wrote:
When you go to redeem your miles it will tell you how many you need for that trip. This varies by company, time of travel, location of travel, and how many beatings the airline has done.

If you want to travel to UK one way during the slow season it will take maybe 30,000 miles, while it will take 12,500 to travel to LA from Seattle. In the peak season it might take 75,000 miles to go to the UK and 30,000 to LA. If you choose the option of coach plus it will be greater, business class even more, super business class even more than that, and if you choose the fight club section the winner travels for free.

Remember different airlines have different use amounts. With the points you have now you can possible do a one-way domestic trip within the continent if your airline has a 10,000 mile minimum use. You should never use miles to do a one way portion of a round trip as the return airfare will be as much or more than a round trip. If you want to do a multi-segment trip then it woul all be booked as individual flights, unless you are creative. I might be flying to China in a few weeks and I there is an option for an overnight layover in Rome, having never been to Rome I can check it out and see if it is worth a full trip. Alternately, I can do an overnight layover in London, which would be cool. If you very creative you can even get 2 overnight layovers in different cities, even in the US where you could get to check them out and still end up at your destination with a nice amount of time to vacation there. Think of it as an air cruise. I do. Last time I flew I got to spend the night in Hong Kong to visit a friend and visit friends in Chicago for a day.

Unless the OP is talking about a true airline card then a lot of this doesn't apply. Some companies like I mentioned above (CapOne) call it miles when it really isn't. And 30,000 "miles" with CapOne is only worth $300 in travel which doesn't get your very far these days. Until the OP chimes in and states what card he's referring to then there really isn't a way to answer his/her question completely.

From the OP's signature, the only card that I can see him/her referring to in "miles" is the BOA Travel Rewards which only earns 1.5 "miles" (term used loosely) /$1 which is nothing but a 1.5% cash back card without an annual fee. So if he/she has 10k miles on the Travel Rewards then that's only worth about a $100 bucks in travel expense.

longtimelurker · ‎05-02-2017

I think historically, "miles were so called because you earned one per mile flown (with bonus for premium cabin etc) But even then, one mile didn't allow you to FLY one mile, it took 40K off peak to fly the 6k round trip to the UK. So all airline miles get transformed to different values depending on award chosen.

The fake miles from Venture etc have only a fixed cash value