{"id":130,"date":"2015-11-22T07:44:26","date_gmt":"2015-11-22T15:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/milespointsreselling.com\/?p=130"},"modified":"2016-02-14T08:31:38","modified_gmt":"2016-02-14T16:31:38","slug":"miles-and-points-are-dying-reselling-cash-back-and-economy-are-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/milespointsreselling\/2015\/11\/22\/miles-and-points-are-dying-reselling-cash-back-and-economy-are-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Miles and Points are Dying – Reselling, Cash Back, and Economy Are the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

I along with many others new the day was coming when AA would devalue their award chart. \u00a0It was only a matter of time. \u00a0After the big devaluations from United and Delta everyone and their mother new AA would do the same after the merger. It was a question of when not if.<\/p>\n

If you follow along with a lot of the miles and points blogs you read all about it and their collective “anger.” \u00a0I have a different view on the devaluation, which is I don’t care. \u00a0I don’t care for two reasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

First, miles are easier than ever to get. \u00a0This of course is part of the problem. \u00a0With miles existing as a liability on someone’s balance sheet the easy way to deal with that is to make it cost more miles to redeem an award (there is a second option I will get to in a minute). \u00a0Easy miles is the world we live in and I doubt that will change any time soon. \u00a0So the cost of a business class award to Europe went up on AA from 50k to 57.5k. \u00a0I can earn that many AA miles in a week\u00a0with reselling and MS.<\/p>\n

The second reason, is that the devaluations are not that bad. \u00a0If you listen to the bloggers they will make you think that this is the end of the world. \u00a0First Delta, then United, now American, what is the world coming to? \u00a0If you are a premium cabin traveler like a lot of the sales people bloggers (because their business model depends on it) then yes I can see how you can be angry. \u00a0First class to Europe went up from 62.5k to 85k. \u00a0That hurts. \u00a0My thought on that is if you collect miles and points to feel like the 1% then get over yourself.<\/p>\n

Consider this for a minute. \u00a0Economy flights stayed the same, 30k. \u00a0A roundtrip flight in economy during peak summer season could easily put you back $2,000. Paying 60k miles plus\u00a0pocket change seems to me like we are still winning.<\/p>\n

We are still winning at least in theory. \u00a0The real problem that existed before the devaluations and will continue to exist for the future is award availability. \u00a0Here is the real problem.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the second option to devalue points that I mentioned above. \u00a0It is also much shittier than an award chart being devalued. \u00a0You will also never see the bloggers talk about this because if they did it would really hurt their bottom line. \u00a0At least with the devaluations they can pretend to be on your side. \u00a0But then they go right back to selling snake oil and you are never the wiser.<\/p>\n

I run a small side business helping folks book award flights<\/a>. \u00a0I can tell you that this has been an issue for sometime now. \u00a0So long as flights are full of paying customers expect to see this continue. \u00a0So what can be done?<\/p>\n

The picture above is a snap shot of availability on American. \u00a0The picture is a bit rosier when you look at partner airlines, but there is a caveat.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

The caveat is that this is all British Airways award availability. \u00a0BA has a trade off – they make awards available but they also make you pay for it in the form of “fuel surcharges.”<\/p>\n

You can also look at economy, while MilesAAver awards are still bard to come by on AA you can still pay anytime rates. \u00a0That may cost you 45k-60k. \u00a0Again, my attitude with that is so what, miles are easy.<\/p>\n

In the long term, I am not sure how good a winning strategy this all is. \u00a0Eventually the redemptions are going revenue based like South West and when that day comes the end is here. \u00a0My advice, get in on the cash back wagon. \u00a0I go back to my travel slush fund<\/a> theory. Reselling, cash back, and MS are they way to go. \u00a0Work on making a travel slush fund. Think of the money in that slush fund as the most flexible points currency there is and you will be all right.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I along with many others new the day was coming when AA would devalue their award chart. \u00a0It was only a matter of time. \u00a0After…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2,6,3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nMiles and Points are Dying - Reselling, Cash Back, and Economy Are the Future - Miles Points Reselling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/milespointsreselling\/2015\/11\/22\/miles-and-points-are-dying-reselling-cash-back-and-economy-are-the-future\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Miles and Points are Dying - 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