✈ Are airline miles still worth it? The changing frequent-flyer game, plus latest airline news ✈

May 24, 2023

Airline mile sweet spots

by Ben Mutzabaugh, Managing Editor for Aviation

Hello TPG readers!

Greetings from the Philippines. It’s my latest stop on a trip through Australia and Asia to celebrate a big milestone birthday — but more on that in a minute.

There’s been a lot of talk during the past few weeks about whether frequent flyer miles still pack the punch that they used to, and whether they are even “worth it.”

That comes after United Airlines’ unannounced devaluation of award tickets to Europe, a move that’s made it dramatically more “expensive” to use miles for flights across the Atlantic. It also comes as airlines have increasingly moved away from published award charts in favor of dynamic pricing — where the number of miles needed for award tickets fluctuates with demand.

But not all hope is lost.

It is true that frequent flyer “sweet spots” are getting harder to find, but they’re not completely gone just yet — and I can tell you that from firsthand experience as I sit here writing this from jumping on one such deal.

My big birthday trip — to celebrate my 50th! — came together when I found two one-way award tickets for American Airlines’ swanky Flagship First seats from New York to Sydney for just 90,000 miles per person — an incredible value.

Next up was another award ticket from Sydney to Manila, Philippines — just 30,000 American miles per person for an economy seat on Qantas’ eight-hour nonstop flight between the cities that would set me up for a four-night stay at the tropical beach resort destination of Boracay.

As luck would have it, I didn’t need a sweet spot to get home. That fell in place thanks to a business-class deal on Singapore Airlines that will allow me to punctuate my milestone birthday trip later this week by checking a new item off my AvGeek bucket list: flying on the world’s longest flight.

So, don’t give up hope. While it’s true that those killer frequent flyer bargains are getting harder to come by, they’re still out there for those with flexibility — and a little bit of luck. I know I wouldn’t have been able to have this big trip around the world without my miles, at least not in nearly the same level of comfort.

That’s all for this week. Until next time …

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Photo Credit: BEN MUTZABAUGH/THE POINTS GUY.

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