{"id":17283,"date":"2010-10-27T16:44:22","date_gmt":"2010-10-27T20:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/?p=17283"},"modified":"2010-10-27T16:44:22","modified_gmt":"2010-10-27T20:44:22","slug":"nytimes-on-non-airline-redemptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nytimes-on-non-airline-redemptions\/","title":{"rendered":"NYTimes On Non-Airline Redemptions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over at the New York Times, they seem to have discovered that airline miles can be used for non-airline awards. <\/a>Actually, this would suit me perfectly, as I acquire few miles from actually traveling, why should my awards be travel related.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In reality, the author learns that the third party awards from chocolate to hotel stays, rarely produce value comparable to an air travel award.\u00a0\u00a0 This is true unless you compare your third party award to an overpriced standard award, rather than the traditional awards.<\/p>\n

These days, many awards are so rare and\/or overpriced, that the mileage program becomes pointless for air travel.\u00a0\u00a0 I am looking at you Delta.\u00a0\u00a0 Converting your useless miles into merchandise only makes sense when you are accumulating miles through actual travel.\u00a0\u00a0 If you have been getting miles through credit card spend, you are wasting your time redeeming miles for merchandise at .6 cents per mile.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You would have been better off with a cash back credit card, or at least switching to an airline that still has decent award seat inventory, like Southwest.<\/p>\n

The author mentions hotel and rental car awards.\u00a0\u00a0 Hotel awards from airline programs are rarely a good deal when compared to the discounts commonly available.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As I have shown, you should never rent a car with a loyalty point award<\/a>, as your credit card will not provide insurance.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Since purchasing additional insurance negates the value of the award, what is the point?<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, the best use of non-airline award redemptions is clearing out orphan miles.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The cardinal rule of airline miles is that they loose value every year.\u00a0\u00a0 Worse, they expire with little or no notice.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Let’s say you have 25,000 Delta miles laying around, and you are not planning on flying with them anytime soon.\u00a0\u00a0 You check their award reservations system only to find that the theoretically “low” priced awards are just that, theoretical.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sure, you might be able to take that vacation to Buffalo in the winter, but a gift card seems like a better option.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sadly, you will find out that Delta offers $50 gift cards for an astounding 17,500 SkyPesos.\u00a0\u00a0 That is a mere .28 cents per mile, but have you been to Buffalo in the winter?<\/p>\n

If you have a Delta SkyMiles credit card, Gold or higher, you can use the “pay with miles’ option to get an entire cent per mile of value off of a Delta ticket.\u00a0\u00a0 The only drawback is that you shouldn’t receive frequent flier miles for your flight, even if the vast majority of it was paid with cash.\u00a0\u00a0 (I say shouldn’t, because the last time I used pay with miles, I actually did get the miles.)<\/p>\n

The moral of the story is that you should always consider the value of your awards. Do you do a lot of flying? Or do you do more shopping? Certainly, if you fly more than three or four times a year, you may want to stick with Airline reward cards. But, in todays economy, sometimes gift cards and merchandise make more sense that airline travel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over at the New York Times, they seem to have discovered that airline miles can be used for non-airline awards. Actually, this would suit me perfectly, as I acquire few miles from actually traveling, why should my awards be travel related.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In reality, the author learns that the third party awards from chocolate to hotel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nNYTimes On Non-Airline Redemptions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NYTimes On Non-Airline Redemptions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Over at the New York Times, they seem to have discovered that airline miles can be used for non-airline awards. Actually, this would suit me perfectly, as I acquire few miles from actually traveling, why should my awards be travel related.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In reality, the author learns that the third party awards from chocolate to hotel […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nytimes-on-non-airline-redemptions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ask Mr Credit Card Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-27T20:44:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jason Steele\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jason Steele\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nytimes-on-non-airline-redemptions\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nytimes-on-non-airline-redemptions\/\",\"name\":\"NYTimes On Non-Airline Redemptions\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-10-27T20:44:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-10-27T20:44:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/18331587d05ff4eaeee29fd913227597\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nytimes-on-non-airline-redemptions\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nytimes-on-non-airline-redemptions\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nytimes-on-non-airline-redemptions\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"NYTimes On Non-Airline Redemptions\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Ask Mr Credit Card Blog\",\"description\":\"Just another WordPress site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/18331587d05ff4eaeee29fd913227597\",\"name\":\"Jason Steele\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/author\/jsteele\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"NYTimes On Non-Airline Redemptions","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"NYTimes On Non-Airline Redemptions","og_description":"Over at the New York Times, they seem to have discovered that airline miles can be used for non-airline awards. Actually, this would suit me perfectly, as I acquire few miles from actually traveling, why should my awards be travel related.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In reality, the author learns that the third party awards from chocolate to hotel […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nytimes-on-non-airline-redemptions\/","og_site_name":"Ask Mr Credit Card Blog","article_published_time":"2010-10-27T20:44:22+00:00","author":"Jason Steele","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jason Steele","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nytimes-on-non-airline-redemptions\/","url":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nytimes-on-non-airline-redemptions\/","name":"NYTimes On Non-Airline Redemptions","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-10-27T20:44:22+00:00","dateModified":"2010-10-27T20:44:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/18331587d05ff4eaeee29fd913227597"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nytimes-on-non-airline-redemptions\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nytimes-on-non-airline-redemptions\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/nytimes-on-non-airline-redemptions\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"NYTimes On Non-Airline Redemptions"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/","name":"Ask Mr Credit Card Blog","description":"Just another WordPress site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/18331587d05ff4eaeee29fd913227597","name":"Jason Steele","url":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/author\/jsteele\/"}]}},"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17283"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17283\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}