Miles plus money - worth it?

Hi - Had a really frustrating morning looking at ways of using my miles. Seems the only useful way of using miles is to hoard them and use for an upgrade to upper. I looked at using miles plus money to book a premium econ flight to SYD. The only difference between paying cash and using 15,000 miles was 40 saving. Sames dates, farce codes etc. 1381 vs 1421. That is a total rip-off. What a waste of miles. They sell them at 30 per 1000 making mine worth at least 450 - but they are offering me only 10% of the value. Im finding BA's executive club far more rewarding these days. Just upgraded a WT+ flight to club - cost was 25,000 miles (LHR to CPT via JNB) and compared to cheapest available club fare saved 1,400.

The maths doesnt add up for FC for me - but granted its all about what routes you fly, how regularly you fly etc etc Just doesnt work for me. How sad is my life that BA is better for me... aarrggghhhh

[Neil]

MPM fares don't offer great value for money for everyone. Occasionally they do offer a saving of around 100 compared to a normal revenue fare, and for say a family who travel long haul very occasionally then it might be worth it for them. VS must think they have a place as it is something that has been around for a while.

As you say, in your circumstances and on the route you are looking at then it isn't worth it, and I would advise you keep saving. We have had some great savings with our miles, but it has required us to give loyalty to Virgin when choosing our revenue flights and also we have played the system well with partner miles, CC miles etc. It is all down to your individual wants, but obviously the system is not going to suit everyone in every circumstance.

[Decker]

Consensus is normally that mpm is for people who don't earn many miles so they can at least do something airline related with them. I tend to view miles as being worth <= 2p a mile so 30 per 1000 is not a good deal. Your comparison would surely be upgrading PE to UC with miles for 40,000 and I'd have to say that VS miles seem easier to earn than BA so this might be vaguely equivalent though ymmv.

Yup it seems that u need to decide what u're miles are worth to you, and part with them when its right. My original point was MPM just seems a very inefficent use of them.

My comparison was purely from the net cash saving i have made per use of mile recently using BA vs VS. I find myself wanting to prefer VS over BA but I just cant justify it. T5 vs T3; ease of use of EC vs FC; schedules to southern africa.. I saved up for ages for my first UCS flight - and def saving up miles for my next one - but my loyalty in terms of handing over my cash is edging more to BA than VS. My latest experience with MPM enhances that.

[Decker]

MpM is a terrible use of them for most people ESPECIALLY with fares as low as they are. I believe they can be useful if you don't want to stay a Saturday night but ISTBC.

BAEC miles do seem to be better value, as you don't need a full fare ticket to upgrade. If they are having a PE sale, you can upgrade for about the same price as the sale fare. With VS you have to spend so much more that a sale upper class fare is about the same or cheaper. There are of course exceptions that make VS miles better value, but there aren't many of them!