Playing the game requires significant time and effort. But most people think that our games are limited to “fancy” international business class. Most would consider this unnecessary and unattainable, so I’m here to show you some lower-priced redemptions, even if you’ve never flown a single mile.

The “Hidden” Value

Say that in 2023 you never flew a single flight. All you’ve done is spend on everyday items on your credit card. Or perhaps you found a loophole in the program that granted you many miles. You’ve earned your miles, and now you’ve stockpiled enough for a trip. Congratulations! You’re probably thinking of redeeming your miles for one cent directly through the Capital One or American Express website. After all, your VentureX card just gives you 2x miles, which is 2% cash back, right?

Well hold your horses! 1 cent per mile/point (CPP) is a typical value peg for cash back cards. My Discover card earns 3% cash back, which I can redeem for statement credits. But by earning MILES or POINTS on some of the largest issuers, you can unlock significantly more value.

The secret is that you get to transfer your miles to airline programs, and use those for your redemptions. Airlines normally charge less than 1 CPP for their own redemptions – already a better deal!

These are some of the best redemptions domestically:
– United = Turkish Airlines
– American = British Avios
– Delta = Air France/KLM Flying Blue

Calculating CPP

Cents per point is, quite literally, the number of cents value you get from a single point. If I spent 500 points for something that cost 5 dollars, my redemption would be 1 cent per point.

But for flights, we also have to factor in taxes and fees. If a flight cost $250 cash, but I can redeem 25k miles, it sounds like a decent deal. But I still have to pay $175 in taxes and surcharges, which doesn’t make sense! I’m basically using 25k miles for a $75 discount…not worth it.

So when calculating CPP, we need to exclude taxes. There is no way to extract more value out of a literal dollar amount, so a $5 tax is a $5 tax, nothing else.

If a flight cost $600 and the award rate is 20k miles + $153 taxes and fees (shortened 20k+153), then really I’m spending 20k miles to shave off $447. That’s where our CPP calculation starts. 447/20000=2.24 CPP.

A “good redemption” is unique to each individual person. Some may need the extra flexibility of a free cancellation, so that 1 CPP redemption was worth it to them booking through a program with free cancel. I would be happy to redeem miles for any flight at 2-3 CPP or higher. Some people who are serious about this game redeem exclusively for 6 or 7 CPP on Business Class. (Do the math here – it’s as if they just turned their 5% cash back on dining into 5*7=35% cash back! No credit card offers 35% cash back outright!)

An Example

Let me apply it to a real world example. Take for example a flight BOS-LAS one week from today, flying January 23. Economy flights are pricing at $178, with Basic Economy sitting at $128. If I used my Pay Yourself Back feature (1 CPP) on a credit card, I’ll be using 17,800 or 12,800 miles, respectively.

I’ll run the same search again, but this time with miles. United is charging 15k miles plus the taxes and fees ($5.60). Note this is for Economy class, as miles redemptions for Basic Economy are not available.

Apply the above redemption rate calculation, and I get (178-5.60)/15000=1.15 cents per mile. Or alternatively, it’s like I paid $155.60 instead of $178 for Economy. Just with this simple step, I’ve increased my value by 15%.

With enough planning, some days have availability for 12.5k miles, which improves the value even more.

Running a search on American Airlines for the same routing yields results around 11k miles, with some as little as 9.5k miles!

Taking it One Step Further

What if I told you 15k wasn’t good enough? Well, I can take advantage of airline alliance programs. With partner redemptions, most airlines have a set chart by region or by distance. Each airline is different, so you’ll need to do quite a bit of research. But luckily for me, United and Turkish are in the same Star Alliance, and can ticket itineraries between each other.

Even better for us, US domestic itineraries cost just 7.5k Turkish miles (plus $5.60 taxes and fees). That’s like spending $80.60 for the same $178 flight! That’s over 2.3 CPP, over double the credit card redemption rate.

Just by doing a little research, I’ve more than doubled my return. And yes, this trick works for Hawaii too! While I could pay $300 one way, I could also use 7.5k+5.60 for the same flights.

But Wait…

You may have noticed that Turkish only displayed one flight available, with all others blocked out. Is it because United has no seats remaining on those flights? But we clearly saw availability on UA’s own website…

This is a case where an airline has availability for their own members, but does not release the space to partners. Notice how in the United search the 6:10PM flight has a fare code of (X) while the others have a code of (YN), even though they are the same price? That’s why.

Airlines have certain fare “buckets” reserved for certain inventory. Wendover does a good job of explaining revenue buckets here. But the same concept applies to awards. United only released (let’s just say) 5 tickets in the Saver category X, which is available for Turkish to book. It kept the other two flights away, but still priced it the same for MileagePlus members.

A Word of Caution

Before you just start booking flights, you MUST take note of each airline’s cancellation policy. Even though you’re travelling one airline, the policy follows the airline that booked the ticket. To take Turkish for example, they charge a $70 fee for changes or cancellations, while United would normally charge nothing. That’s another reason why one might booking directly with United.

It also can sometimes be a bit frustrating to redeem these rewards. If you find the flight you want online, then that’s the best case scenario. But sometimes, you’ll need to call customer service to book your ticket. And some of these customer service centers are…let’s just say…utterly useless.

I recently booked a United flight via Turkish. It took me 2 hours of time and 7 phone calls before I found someone who was capable of booking my itinerary for me. Their agents either had no clue what I was talking about or their systems encountered issues when pushing my ticket.

Final Thoughts

Using these award programs to your advantage may provide outsized value to your points and miles. Use partner programs to your advantage to, but take note of their cancellation policies. Remember those two things, and you might just be able to take multiple dream vacations for little to no money!