one zone coach class redemption vs ticket

[Barciur]

Hello all,

I am planning a trip from Miami to Lancaster which costs $142 in coach. If I buy 5000+1000, I am paying $137.50. So it's nearly the same price, but now I can book the reward and freely change the date regardless of the buckets going up at any time.

The only disadvantage would be is that I will not get TQP's for the trip if I do iit this way, but the advantage of being free to choose the date as long as it's not sold out seem to outweight that.

Is this correct, or am I missing something here?

 

[Train2104]

You are correct.

 

[the_traveler]

My own opinion is if you need to make the trip for some reason and/or for financial reasons, I'll use points. If the current bucket is high, I'll use points. If I can get 4-5 cents or more per point, I'll use points. Otherwise, I'll pay for the ticket, earn points and save those for a "rainy day" or for a bigger award!

 

[me_little_me]

My own opinion is if you need to make the trip for some reason and/or for financial reasons, I'll use points. If the current bucket is high, I'll use points. If I can get 4-5 cents or more per point, I'll use points. Otherwise, I'll pay for the ticket, earn points and save those for a "rainy day" or for a bigger award!

I agree. 4-5 cents as a minimum to use the points.

Current trip ($4600) is costing me 90K points. that's just over 5 cents. Leaving in less than 12 hours.

 

[Bigval109]

My own opinion is if you need to make the trip for some reason and/or for financial reasons, I'll use points. If the current bucket is high, I'll use points. If I can get 4-5 cents or more per point, I'll use points. Otherwise, I'll pay for the ticket, earn points and save those for a "rainy day" or for a bigger award!

I agree. My upcoming trip from Reno to rvr would costs 20000 points plus $200 plus. However it will cost $700+ and I get Reno to rvr and get double points on some parts of my trip. It was cheaper to pay for my tickets.