Q – I have, lovingly supported United Airlines for the past fourteen years in my work which requires frequent cross-country travel. I am not a “points geek” and I don’t waste my time using points to fly for business domestically. I just gather those points like a squirrel hoarding nuts with the idea that in one year and three months, when I retire, my wife and I can use my current 1.3 million United Miles to enjoy many years of retirement travel abroad. I suppose my question is, “If I were a Points Geek – would I be doing anything different – would I use any specific strategy to stay ahead of the game”? Enjoy your approach – keep it up.
A – As the Wall Street Journal recently pointed out, we are going through a process called “Pointsflation”. The fact is that saving mileage award points is not at all like investing in a money market fund – your points are actually losing value the longer you fail to use them. One example in the WSJ concerned a Delta non-stop from JFK to London Heathrow. It was 86,000 points on 2019- it will now cost you over 150,000 points. Just last year on United, you could use points to fly to Paris CDG using 60,000 points – that flight is now hovering close to 100,000 points. This is all deliberate. It is an easy way for the airlines to enhance profits by increasing the cost to use miles on any popular route.
If you were investing cash in an interest bearing account we would recommend sticking with your plan. By given that this is “Airline World” and “Airline Ethics”, we would suggest that you figure out a way to use your miles for business travel as soon as possible and save the money you are saving your company by investing it for your retirement travel.
