Comment by gruez | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gruez | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

>This is highly misleading since it doesn't include $ value of all the freq flyer miles used (as far as i can tell).

Yep. Here are the amounts with the value of the miles factored in[1]:

>$1366.06 on Alaska, 307500 Alaska miles

307500 Alaska miles * 1.2 cents/mile = $3690

>$380.86 on Southwest, 43732 Southwest points

43732 Southwest points * 1.5 cents/point = $655.98

>$42.80 on United, 5500 United miles

5500 United miles * 1.2 cents/mile = $66

>$15.60 on Avianca, 6500 Avianca miles

6500 Avianca miles * 1.2 cents/mile = $78

So for the fall semester it costed him $1805.32 in cash, but if you factor in the value of the points that rises to $6295.30. He also mentioned that he spent 45972 minutes on commuting. If you factor the value of time (eg. minimum wage), the "cost" rises further to $17,788.30.

[1] obtained from googling "[points program] value"

Valuing miles us a tricky thing to do because it depends on factors each are personal, and in this case unknown. I get that the airline has a book-value for them, but that's not the same as value-to-me.

Firstly, unlike $ they can expire. So it's not like you can save them forever. I recently had 15 000 miles expire, simply because there was nothing I wanted, or needed, that I could spend them on.

Secondly they're not universal. To follow the article, i can't spend them on rent. So they really only have a value if I can trade them for something I would/could have spent $ on. So sure, upgrades are nice, but not like essential.

It's the same with time. You can be time-rich or time-poor. You can be cash-rich or cash-poor. Typically your priorities will be to reduce poorness. Rich people spend cash to get more time. Cash-poor people spend time to get more cash.

Miles-rich follows the same argument.

So it's not so easy to put a $ price on miles or time. Clearly the equation will vary from one person to another.

Incidentally given the choice of commuting or working minimum wage, I'll choose commuting all day long. Especially if that commuting is eyes-free, so I can use that time in a productive or entertaining way.

Miles don’t expire on any of the major airlines

At least when I was in the Bay Area around 4 years ago, it was possible to get a 3 bedroom apartment right by Ashby BART for $3,000/mo. So yeah I don’t think this worked in this persons favor especially given the miserable schedule

Reply on news.ycombinator.com