I tend to disagree with the philosophy that you haven't really "paid" for those miles, since you would be making your credit card purchases anyway. The choice is often not FF miles or nothing. Instead of getting FF miles on my credit cards, I choose to get cash rebates. As mentioned above, many FF miles never get redeemed, and there is the chance that they'll change or drop the program. But cash is always good! And I get it back much faster. Then it's my choice to use it for airfare or anything else I want. I'm not saying this would work for everyone. For someone like NeoPatrick, he's obviously better off with the miles, but since I rarely travel overseas, and am unable to book far in advance, I like the freedom of having the cash.

We are able to plan ahead for trips & are flexible (also necessary to get the most out of your miles) + there are a ton of ways to get miles. I travel for business so many of my miles are, in fact, 'free'. Airfares, miles, hotels, rental cars, etc. all turn into miles that my company pays for. I cashed in 150,000 this year alone. Just used 90,000 to go to the Caribbean in February, but I had to leave on Thursday & return on a Tuesday. Otherwise, I would have spent twice as many miles. As far as credit cards go, as long as you pay them off every month, I would agree that they are essentially 'free' also. I'm not buying something I wouldn't otherwise buy, & typically I would pay cash....so where does the cost come in ?

I think the cost comes in as described above. If you use a Credit card that gives miles vs one that give cash rebates (1% - 5% back on purchases) then the FF miles "cost' you 1-5 cents per mile.

I use cash reward cards- so I only get FF miles from flights, car rentals, dining out, etc. The miles add up surprising fast. For example, yesterday I shopped at Safeway and got 3% cash back, plus 1 mile per dolllar spent.

I generally use mileage to buy upgrades or sold out dates (but then most of my travel is paid for by the company). For private use we also use it primarily for upgrades - and American Express "miles" primarily for hotels or merchandise.

For those of you who use cash rebate cards, which card(s) still offer a 5% rebate on certain categories of purchases? My Citibank Dividend card used to offer 5% back on gas, grocery and drugstore purchases, but as of last month, Citibank has reduced that to 2%. Therefore, I've shifted all of those purchases back to airline mileage earning cards because I can easily get more than 2 cents per mile "value" from my airline miles (whereas 5 cents per mile was questionable).

My FF miles are free miles.
They are miles my husband has accumulated traveling for business over the years.
We over 500K Continental miles and
close to 1M AMEX points.
I was trying to decide whether to use
points or pay for a trip my family is
taking to Trinidad over the holidays.
The cost of the flight is $700 per person or 70K miles per person for a coach flight. So we're looking at $2800 or 280 miles.
It seems silly not to use the miles when we have so many, but part of me
would like to save the points for trips that just my husband and I will take when we will want to fly first class.
So, any thoughts...$700 or 70K?

I'd like to echo Patty's question above. I also have Citibank Dividend card and was so sad when they cut back the rebates. (Knew it was too good to last!) Of course, the other problem was that I used it so much that I maxed out on the $300 yearly rebate cap prior to the year's end. I'd like to get another card that gives better than 2% on gas & groceries, or maybe even dining. Any suggestions?

Amex (regular)gives #% on travel, 2% dining out, and 1% on all other.

chase rewards Visa gives 1% on everything, but has specials with 5%

Discover normally gives 1%, but has special categories - for this season it is 5% on dining, book stores, and something else. I have no maximum amount, and can get paid out anytime there is at least $20 in bonuses.

Recently it was drug stores and certain supermarkets, IIRC.

I don't use miles for anything under a $500 ticket. There are certain domestic destinations that would fit into that criteria (e.g., Hawaii, Alaska, parts of the NE, and sometimes, San Francisco). Otherwise, we got our Citibank AAdvantage card primarily as a vehicle to go to the Caribbean/Latin America every year and take one other trip. We go to the Caribbean in the summer, when the miles are less (25-30k), and that enables us to have one other domestic trip.

Also of note is the reduced mileage awards that can work out occasionally when you are Citibank AAdvantage cardholder. We keep saying that we are going to save up our miles to go to Europe, but to me, it's hard to think about 2 years from now when I want a vacation.

As previous posters mentioned, the best way to accumulate points is using your card for everything (and paying it off every month goes without saying), shopping on the miles online shopping mall, etc. We just paid our taxes last week with the Aadvantage card, so I figure if I'm going to hand over a large sum of money to the federal gov't, I might as well get some value for it! lol

But don't you get charged a fee of something like 2.9% to use a CC to pay for your taxes?

I don't know about federal or state taxes, but my county charges a fee to pay your property taxes with a credit card.

Just used 35K AAdv mi for BJX-HNL-BJX in Nov: taxes and fees were $49.91 vs. $1039.30 coach fare.
Paid $760.14 for next week's trip: BJX-DFW-JFK-BCN-FCO-JFK-DFW-BJX last December.
Last Nov., used 90K Delta miles for business MEX-EZE-SCL-MEX on partners Avianca and Aero Mexico. AM was great - forget Avianca.
So, I guess, it depends.
M

Could I just say, mikemo, that I cannot decipher your messages because they always use airport codes, which I am not as conversant in as you are, and I would imagine many people are like me. Let's see, I know my own, ORD, and my favored New York airport, LGA, and beyond that not much. I can guess what MEX is, and I guess I do know DFW and JFK, but the rest, NO.

mln,
Lo siento,
SO has been in the airline industry 45 + years and we travel lots.
BJX = Leon/Guanajuato (Baijo), MX; HNL = Honolulu; EZE = Buenos Aires, Argentina; SCL = Santiago, Chile; BCN = Barcelona, Spain; FCO = Rome, Italy.
You may look up airport codes on any airline web site.
M

Yes, but couldn't you just take pity on us and write the city names? I know I could look it up, but usually I just don't take in your information, which is a pity cause I know you know lots about areas I am interested in!