I'd say:
100k points is "below average".
250k points is "not too bad".
500k points is "pretty good".
1 million points is "really good".
2 million+ points is a "vast sum".
You'd be surprised how fast they disappear when you start redeeming them for vacations, especially for 2 or more people. A pair of domestic round trip economy tickets and 5 nights in a cheap hotel would usually cost at least 100k points. Upgrade to domestic first class or an international economy flight and a nicer hotel, and it becomes at least 200k points... none of that even includes rental cars or dining or anything else you might redeem points for. So now you can probably see how fast someone could blow through all their points, unless they had a few million of them saved up.
It also depends on how many other points a person might have in other accounts, besides MR/UR points. For example, 500k UR points isn't "a vast sum" by itself, but it is if you also have 1m United miles and 500k Delta miles.
And finally, it also depends on a person's expectations when they travel. Someone who is content with flying economy and staying in motels will be able to stretch their points out exponentially longer than someone who expects to fly first class and stay in 5-star hotels.
Total Loan Balance: $43k / $65k
Total SL: $78k
@bourgogne wrote:I agree with your assessment, thank you. what got me curious was that I had dinner with a couple of guys, business not friends, and somehow the topic turned to cards and I was completely blown away by the # of pts these gents have amassed. I am way over vast on both m&u and these guys made my points look like a couple of cheap baseball cards. both of them run a lot of equipment for clients through their cards so that is obviously a nice party trick. the one guy that I know does in fact use his pts well, travels in biz/1st and is very generous gifting flights to friends, etc. anyway interesting. have a good weekend
I've noticed the same with some people I've met through work - sometimes they charge almost the entirety of their business expenses on their Amex cards, and have amassed many millions of points. I often wonder how someone could let their points get so high without spending them or cashing them in - it makes me REALLY nervous having so many points in an account, knowing that at any time they could decide to shut me down and erase my points just by claiming they think I violated their terms of service or something, and I'd have little or no recourse to get them back.
In the story above, where the guy has amassed 10 million+ MR points, what happens if Amex decides his account is suspicious and closes it down and deletes the points? The guy would lose over $100,000 worth of points. And as far as I know, there's nothing he could do to get them back aside from begging and pleading. I think if I were in the situation where I was earning over 10m points/year, I'd never let the balance get above 2m or so... I'd cash in or spend any points in excess of that.
I only have about 225k points saved up between several accounts (mostly United miles), and while it's not a vast sum of points, it would make me pretty dang sad if they got erased. I typically earn about 300k miles/year with United, but my balance is never higher than about 200k because I try to spend the miles that exceed that number, because I'm not rich and it would really be upsetting to lose over $3k worth of miles. If I were wealthier, then my risk threshhold would be different, as travelling with points would just be a hobby at that point, rather than a necessity like it is now.