- \n
- Economy: 25,000 miles each way, up from 20,000 miles<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Premium economy: 40,000 miles each way, up from 35,000 miles<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Business: 60,000 miles each way, up from 50,000 miles<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- La Premiere: 165,000 miles each way, up from 150,000 miles<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Partner award prices went up somewhat too. The change was intentional, and in theory will also bring increased award availability on first party metal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Devaluations Will Happen<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately, devaluations will continue over time in all<\/em> programs because:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Inflation in consumer prices means more points earned for buying the same things with a credit card<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Inflation in hotel and airfare prices means more points are awarded for revenue bookings<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- For airlines, CASM<\/a> inflates over time, and providing an award seat costs more over time<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- For hotels, CPOR<\/a> inflates over time, so providing free nights costs more over time<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Decreasing the value of issued points lowers liabilities on a company’s balance sheet<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
The only way devaluations won’t happen is with regulation, but (a) that’s unlikely to come, and (b) would just cause a different type of devaluation, such as no award space released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Protecting Yourself<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
To effectively shield yourself from devaluations to the extent that such a thing is possible:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Book awards as early as possible<\/strong>: Points on average are worth more now than they will be in the future, so lock in current pricing when you can
<\/li>\n\n\n\n- Book speculative awards with spare points<\/strong>: As long as a program offers free cancelations, you can lock in current pricing and cancel if the trip won’t work out (or if a lower price comes along)
<\/li>\n\n\n\n- Don’t save more points than you can reasonably burn in the next n<\/em> months<\/strong>: Saving points that will<\/em> decrease in value probably isn’t fiscally sound, just like eating a tub of lard probably isn’t nutritionally sound. Ok, but what value should you use for n<\/em>? It’s hard to say, but I think the half-life of devaluations is around 24 months with some medium variance
<\/li>\n\n\n\n- (A corollary to the prior item) Cash out excess points, especially those you can’t burn in the next n<\/em> months<\/strong>: Cashed out points turn into cash, which: earns interest, can be invested, and can be used to buy more miles if you cashed out too many. It turns out, money is fungible<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Good luck out there!<\/p>\n\n\n
- Book speculative awards with spare points<\/strong>: As long as a program offers free cancelations, you can lock in current pricing and cancel if the trip won’t work out (or if a lower price comes along)
- For hotels, CPOR<\/a> inflates over time, so providing free nights costs more over time<\/li>\n\n\n\n
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