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| Swimming pool at Holiday Inn Shanghai Pudong Kangqiao (see link below) |
ON MY MIND
I am going through the minimum spends on the two Citi AA cards in super speed. Still waiting on the other two cards.
Wife and daughter return to the US on Wednesday so maybe she wants to apply for some cards too;-) They had a great flight on Air Asia from Kuala Lumput to Singapore. Two tickets cost only around $70 total!
Readers, I need your help! You know I still have to book the Virgin Atlantic trip to London I won a few months ago. I am thinking of flying to Heathrow and then connecting to a flight to Norway to go on top of that famous Preikestolen Rock! How can I get there with miles from London’s Heathrow? When is best time to go? How do I get from the airport to the rock? Where to stay in Norway for a few nights? The award has blackout dates on Easter and June 15 to August 15! Any feedback is welcome. You can email me at travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com or write in the comments. Thank you very much.
MILES/POINTS
Loyalty Lobby shows how to book Hilton awards all the way to 2015! One Mile at a Time picks up on it too. Some may not work, may not last. Please, for heaven’s sake, do NOT call!
View from the Wing lists the Top 10 Things I’ll Miss About US Airways Dividend Miles After the Merger with American.
Another blogger joins First2Board, it is Miles, Points, and Mai Tais. At this pace they may catch up to Boarding Area, watch out Randy:-)
A bit of hotel loyalty program schadenfreude. From The Wandering Aramean. A viewpoint that is different from the ugprademetoasuitenowplease crowd and we certainly do not read much about it. We should.
I read on FlyertTalk someone had a reservation at the Hilton Madrid Airport hotel. He/she was notified that it can not be honored due to a “major plumbing incident”. Oh boy, you know something went horribly wrong when you hear that!
TRAVEL
Luxury Travel Blog is on a roll:
3 Amazing Drives Not to Miss -These look great!
The World’s Scariest Hotel Swimming Pool? – The lead pic is just amazing to look at!
The World’s Most Expensive RV – That thing looks ridiculous at $3 million. Rain check please:-)
ODDZ & ENDZ
10 Questions You Should Know the Answers to. Good stuff from Marc and Angel
FYI the View From the Wing link is going to the wrong page
Fixed now, thank you.
Norwegian is a low-cost carrier that should get you where you want to go and make the cents-per-point redemption (*A within Europe?) of points look not worthwhile. They’re not on the ITA matrix, but on Kayak.
WA can be prickly at times, but he’s usually right and in this case I agree with him 100%.
harvson3
There is absolutely nothing wrong with WA’s point of view. The way I look at these “preferences” is that we are all different and we have different backgrounds and goals. If something works for you, trying to convince the other person he is not very smart by giving up on a suite upgrade or free breakfasts is a waste of time. I just wished WA’s view was more prevalent among bloggers. Thean again, if that was true, how could they push the hotel credit cards? 😉
If Gary can fly to Spain for dinner, you can certainly fly to Norway to sit on a rock.
“People as a whole tend to undervalue peak experiences.” -gleff
Glad you realize what peak experiences excite you and you pursue them regardless of how popular they are with others.
That rock is definitely on my list! Sydney burning Skypesos is but I do not have the patience to find the domestic leg like you:-)
That Mile High Canuck guy on FTG keeps doubling down on the stupid with his 2.94 cpp valuation of UR points
And in unsurprising news, FTG will make sure to censor any comments pointing that out
It sure is easy to prove a point, by deleting counterpoints
surprise, surprise. another “angry” just being “angry” and your comment still is available on FTG???
Judging by you giving the floor to MHC, is it safe to assume that passing Algebra 101 isn’t a pre-requisite to doing data analysis on your blog?
2.94 cents…. SMH
I guess we know now hat “angries” don’t read the posts, just complain. he clearly states that is his target value for redemption, certainly something even an ” angry” should be able to comprehend IF they actually read the post
” Again, my point valuations are higher than others because they don’t include any subjectivity. And they don’t represent the value (or price) of the point: they represent the average value I can expect to get out of the point.”
Another way to say that is “my point valuations are higher, because I decided that the word ‘value’ means something different than what it actually does”
Much like you can’t change an Apple just by calling it an “orange”, you can’t change the definition of the word “value” just by deciding it means something else. Although if overvaluing apples were able to get people to sign up for UR cards by clicking your links, I have no doubt you’d try
Thank you for reading and commenting on my blog guys.
2.94
I think the number is ridiculous and I am not angry at all, just stating my opinion responding to all my dear readers!
Soccer time, I hope I score 3 because 3 > 2.94 🙂
That number isn’t just “ridiculous”…. it’s mathematically impossible unless you decide that “value” means something which it doesn’t
I totally get where Rick is coming from but personally just don’t like the putting any kind of point value on anything. For example, an average Delta business class ticket to Sweden would cost me about $3000. I ALWAYS find low level Skymiles seats at 100k. Thus, one could say a Skymile IS worth 3 cents each. But, I would never pay that much for a ticket. I would and do pay for coach seats now and then for about $1000. So, is a Skymile just worth 1 cent each? This could go on forever! If I could find a business class seat for say $2000 I would jump on it so I could EARN MQM & RDM’s. So, is a Skymile worth 2 cents then? NO, as then you are NOT earning MQM or RDM then. So, is a Skymile then worth 1.5 cents then? But this is just Skymiles. UR do have great value to me as I can spend them on so much that is NOT a Delta flight and Rick does help people understand that!
FTG. Where is my gc?
DeltaPoints…. you’re situation isn’t like the point I’m making about Rick at all
While it’s perfectly reasonable not to be able to put an exact amount on the value, what we can agree on is that in the situation above, the value can’t be worth more than 3 cpm, no matter how much “value” you get out of that flight… whatever it’s value might be, it’s certainly < 3 cpm For the same reasons a skypesos in your example can’t be worth more than 3 cpm, a UR point can’t be worth 2.94 under any circumstance. If you disagree with that, take it up with middle school algebra teachers everywhere
Mile/point valuation debates have been going for ages…
In my own humble opinion, 2.94 is so far out up there that can be misleading…a little?
Soccer game update: We kicked their butts, 4-0 #winning:-)
Gee, you think a 2.94 number….. when UR can flat out BUY the points from Chase for 2.5 cents each is misleading?
I really do not understand the obsession everyone has with cpm or mp$ numbers. Sure, we need a way to analyze the deals and various schemes to determine their potential, but constant bickering about this seems worthless.
I sat down yesterday and looked at the three itineraries I booked with United that I have the pricing for:
– Round the world trip in Business – 220,000 and $368. Actual cost ~$27,000 (I could not get the real number for that one) => point redemption value of 12.1 cents per point
– My upcoming trip all over Europe in Business – 100,000 and $316. Actual cost $14,824 => point redemption value of 14.5 cents per point
– Parents trip to Europe in Business – 100,000 and $160 each. Actual cost $10,066 => point redemption value of 9.9 cents per point.
Unfortunately, I do not have the actual cost numbers for a few other trips I have done, but, to me, these clearly show that the game is far from over ever if one just buys Ice Cream straight up for 0.8 cents per point (although, one would need to somehow find 440 tubs of ice cream to get to 220,000 points that way).
@The Artist formerly Known as Anonymous
You’re taking MHC out of context. He goes on to say: “Just because a UR point can give me 2.94 cents in value, doesn’t mean I’ll happily spend 2.9, or 2.5, or even 2 cents to buy one. For one thing, the 2.94 cents in obtained value is just an average. I might get five cents’ value out of a business class ticket; I might only get two cents’ value out of a hotel room. So I want to make sure that I’ve acquired the point for a price that’s well below this average expected value.”
He then continues to say that he looks for a risk to reward ratio of 5:1. Meaning, he is looking to acquire a UR at 0.588 cents and redeem them at an average of 2.94 cents.
Aaaaandd… another blogger leaves BA to join F2B: http://boardingarea.com/blogs/lufthansaflyer/2013/02/25/lufthansaflyer-is-moving/
Lufthansa Flyer has been moving for a while now. He was one of the originals
I think I will just make a link to all of you guys at the new site…can’t keep up:-)
Holy crap is lucky moving to f2b?
Where did you see that?
He’s been on a ridiculous affiliate-link binge the past few weeks (see: the top post on his blog right now), so I’m going to go out on a limb and assume this is incorrect until I see something concrete
I would be shocked if this happened, just shocked!
If I ever get affiliate links I would get my loser cousin to email me a question like “What is in your wallet right now?”…In the affiliate murky world, that is what must be called a…layup:-)
From the Ask Lucky page on his blog…
February 25th, 2013 at 9:41 pm
Alan said,
Are you moving to first2board?
February 25th, 2013 at 9:44 pm
lucky said,
@ Alan — No.
Lucky’s cousins have really been stepping up to the plate in recent weeks
Maybe they’re the same cousins that cant go a single Sunday without having to ask TPG about something related to CSP?