Am I crazy, would I be wasting my miles?
 

I have a crazy question? I have enough free miles(2 tickets) to fly anywhere in the U.S. on Northwest Airlines. Would I be wasting my miles for Key West? I would be flying from Detroit. Is it worth burning up 25,000 miles per person? What are your thoughts????

We found the drive down to Key West to be one of the highlights of our trip. NO, I don't think you would be wasting your miles if you go to Key West, but why not fly into Miami and drive down, and then fly back to DTW out of Key West.

Miles are worth .02 to .03 cents. So your airfare should cost more than $500 to be worth it.

Why is Key West such a popular destination? It strikes me as a tourist trap with way too many people who drink excessively. Even sunset on the pier, which used to be lovely, has turned into a commerical venture for some very untalented people who stake out their territory and belittle those who infringe upon it.

We fly to Florida out of Detroit Metro on USA3000. They are offering one-way fares for $59 to Ft. Lauderdale. From there you can rent a car and drive leisurely down to the Keys, stopping to overnight on Islamorada or another Key. We love the trip down as much or more than the destination. Go in February when it's snowy and cold here, rent a convertible, put on some hot Latin music and enjoy driving those long bridges with nothing but sun, blue skies and water as far as the eye can see. Nothing like it! Save your miles for something more expensive. We are flying to Hawaii this July for the second time on Northwest FF miles (35,000 for coach). Equivalent to a $700 and up ticket.

Ditto.

Save your miles for a ticket that will cost you out of pocket more than $500-$600... air fare fr. Detroit to FLA is inexpensive to purchase... spend the $$ to FLA & save the miles for the more costly flights.

I just returned from Key West and I highly recommend that you visit. There is so, so much to do and see for people of all backgrounds and interests. My first visit to Key West just took place a couple of weeks ago and we stayed for 6 days. We are planning to go back ... we fell totally in love with Key West.

Seems there are really two questions here; (1) Is spending 50,000 NW miles for two tickets from Detroit to Florida the best bargain and (2) is Key West a good place to visit.

Question #1's answer: No, its not the best use of your miles. We save our miles for Business Class upgrades on long haul trips.

Question #2's answer: Yes, by all means buy a couple of cheap tickets and visit Key West.

Agree with everyone else who has mentioned it. Unless your miles are about to expire, you might want to hold them for use on a flight that costs you at least $500. The value of miles is about 2 cents.

However, if you are like my wife and I, you have more miles than you know what to do with. We've got something like 250,000 and have used miles for fares less than $500 simply as a way of using them. Sure, we could hold them but using them, for us, makes it easier to once in awhile turn a business trip into a family vacation.

I'll play contrarian here. FF miles are so hard to use that I would use them in any situation that valued them over 1 cent a mile. Cash flow is important and using the miles takes away any risk that you can't or don't use them later (NW goes out of business, you move to a city that NW doesn't service, you can never find a FF flight you want, etc.). The question is, is it better to monetize them today at 1 cent/mile or take a chance at being able to monetize them at a later date at significantly higher rate than that (taking into account the time value of money).

Anyone monetizing above 2 cents/mile is doing very well and I doubt it happens very often at 3 cents/mile.

So if it were me, if the total cost of getting to Key West (including any combination of flights/car rental) was more than $500 for 2, I'd burn the miles and pocket the $500.

Now whether Key West is the best place to go is another story . . .

I have to agree with Brian_in_Charlotte. Valuing miles at 2-3 cents each is "old thinking". Award availability has tightened up over the past few years and there are more restrictions than ever. While it's true you can receive as much as 8-10 cents/mile in "value" when using miles for international upgrades (based on the cost differential between coach and first class tickets), I don't know many people who would actually pay for a first class international ticket out of their own pocket. Thus, that is not really a useful yardstick. In addition, even booking far, far in advance does not guarantee that you can use your miles on the dates/flights you want...or anything close to it. The situation is much worse on some airlines (Continental in particular) than others.

FlyerTalk (flyertalk.com) has had a number of discussions about the value of a mile, and most all agree it is no more than 2 cents and that that figure is on the high-side. For what its worth, my own personal hurdle rate is 1.35 cents. If I can receive 1.35 cents/mile or more when I redeem (based on comparable ticket price), I will use the miles, otherwise I pay for the ticket.

So, Janny, in my view if the tickets to Key West cost more than about $337 each, I would redeem the miles. My guess is that you can purchase tickets to Miami for less than that if you catch a sale, so that might be the best alternative. Good luck!

Just make sure you really do land in Key West. ;) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1157713/posts

I just checked with NW site and Expedia - picking times of 9/1/04 to 9/8/04, and 12/1/04 to 12/8/04, the cheapest one stop itinerary is just over $400, making the value of a FF mile ~1.6 cents.

I would say that if you don't have any other farther place to which you want to go, then enjoy KW. ;;)

This is assuming that you can get tickets at the standard 25,000 mile level. It has become increasingly difficult to find standard awards to anywhere, let alone a desirable destination like Key West.

Taking a quick look at prices to Key West over the next few months (looked at Aug through Dec), tickets range from about $360 to around $500.

Thanks for all the insight. My mind was telling me to save the miles for somewhere further. Like San Francisco or maybe oneday Hawaii. Need a lot more for that. Anyways, I do see the other options. Renting a car and driving to the Keys. I'm so confused. I reallly didn't want to burn up my miles for Florida since I've flown to Orlando and Ft.Lauderdale so cheap before. Wish Key West airfare wasn't so darn high. I've been looking for November and it's over $450-$500.00 per person. Ughh decisions!

I think Key West would be a good value for your miles. If you can book it at 25K per ticket (which is no slam dunk), then you should go ahead. Value is not a function of distance, but of avoided cost. Hawaii may be a good value if you can get it because fares can be pricey, but San Francisco is a place where you can often find a good fare. (For example, I'm going to SFO over the 4th of July for less than $170 and even that low price can be netted against the 4,600 flight miles and 9,200+ total miles I will receive.) Ditto for something like Europe in the off-season: yes, it is a lot of distance, but if you burn 50K on a ticket that you could have purchased for $400 and give up another 8K in FF flight miles you could have earned on a paid ticket, it's a bad deal.

As a benchmark, I value miles at 1.5 cents each and I've redeemed more than a million in the past six years. Go to Key West on your miles with no regrets.

I think the answer to whether it's a waste depends on when you want to go (and how flexible your dates are) and how long you have for vacation. If you can buy a ticket for around $400-500, it does seem a waste to me, regardless of mathematical calculations. But in checking prices, there are some periods of time where a Northwest ticket (fewest changes of plane)would cost $1400+!! But ofcourse Northwest ain't the only guy in town. Just a heads up, I did a quick search on sidestep to familiarize myself with options and prices on your route and Spirit non-stop to FLL and then a "major airline" from FLL to Key West might be the cheapest way to pay.

If you have a longer vacation and don't mind driving,going from FLL or MIA is also an option.

Whatever you decide, I highly recommend the Miami to KW drive, especially if you love the water. KW is VERY laid back...small and charming and whether you are just sitting at SLOPPY JOE's doing some people-watching or watching the sunset at a place of your choosing, you are SURE to RELAX and enjoy! Good luck.

I loved KW when we went last year. We only stayed one day (on a cruise ship) but would have loved to stay longer. I loved the whole atmosphere! If you go, make sure you eat some delicious STONE CRAB CLAWS!

The drive from Miami to Key West can be endless and horrible if it's busy and you're stuck in traffic.

Once you're in Key West, two nights is sufficient to see the sights there. There's a lot more interesting places in FL than Key West.

Key West didn't live up to the hype. I agree that the sunset at Mallory Square has turned into something commerical.

I wouldn't recommend a trip there and won't return there again myself.

I've been to Key West twice, and I liked it even less the second time. It's a tourist trap, in my opinion. But I'm sure some people love it.

Forget Hawaii using miles.
I got a 30Kmi Delta voucher last Dec which specifically states that it's good for one year to HI, but they changed the fee in March to 35Kmi and no FF seats are available mid Nov - mid Jan. Also, Delta had no 30K mi seats to St. Thomas (USVI) last Jan, but would let you have one for 60K mi.
I used my AA miles - their 757s are marginally better than anything Delta flys, and AA's 757s have the worst coach seats in their fleet (we scored exit seats RT San Juan to DFW which helped). A recent Delta 737...coach flight DFW-SAN was awful as three hours in coach is my limit.
M

My husband travels alot, and has some miles, and I've been to Hawaii 4 times in three years using miles. I've never had a problem getting FF seats. I call about 5-6 months in advance give my date and I get seats.
One Hawaii trip I used Miles for airfare, Hilton Points for the room, and points for the week car rental! We went all out on food and drink, because everything else was 'paid for'!
I LOVE MILES!

If you have a ton of miles, convert them into Hilton Points and stay for 'free' too.....and they have car rentals for 'free' too.

If you have family, miles are great to have saved up should you have to fly somewhere at the last minute for a funeral or event. Last minute fares can run from $600 to $1200. It would be silly to waste miles on a $200 roundtrip.

Then again, if Northwest goes out of business the miles might be worthless.