Support our non-partisan non-profit newsroom 💜 Donate now

Don’t waste your frequent flier miles!

Nancy Marshall-Genzer Aug 15, 2014
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Don’t waste your frequent flier miles!

Nancy Marshall-Genzer Aug 15, 2014
HTML EMBED:
COPY

If you’ve flown lately, you know there aren’t many empty seats for frequent fliers. In fact, airlines don’t actually have enough seats to redeem all the frequent flier miles they’ve awarded.

So, they have to convince us to use them for other things; like school supplies, hotels, or magazines. 

“The cost of giving away a free seat is higher than ever. And so airlines would love to get us to use our miles in some other way,” says Seth Kaplan, an analyst at Airline Weekly.

But that may not be the best use of your miles.

Think about it: “Would you rather have a $70 calculator or fly first class to the Bahamas?” asks Brian Kelly, founder and editor-in-chief of thepointsguy.com“There’s an opportunity cost to every redemption.”

Kelly says it may be easier to just redeem your points for that calculator rather than trying to negotiate a free flight. But he says the best use for miles is, well, on planes. That’s where you get the most value per mile.

Still Kelly says, if your miles are about to expire, yeah, go ahead and get that calculator.

 

 

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.