Life takes little twists and turns, and sometimes opportunities present themselves. I haven’t been to North Carolina to look in on my mother since Christmas, and a lot of my family that I haven’t seen in a while just happen to be visiting NC this weekend. I didn’t expect good news when I priced flights, and I was right.
Sorry, but I won’t pay $626 dollars for a 1 hour flight from Atlanta to Raleigh even if I have the cash. All things being equal, I’d just drive. But things aren’t equal – we live in a very walkable neighborhood with easy access to restaurants and public transportation. As a result, we have remained a one car family for years. As MrsMJ is not accompanying me on this trip, and needs our car, driving is not an option. But what about the miles?
I’d rather not use miles for short haul domestic redemptions, but it is what it is. (At times like these, I wish AA flew nonstop from Atlanta to Raleigh….Avios anyone? 🙂 ) Frankly, with the only options being paying over $600, or missing a rare opportunity to visit with family, I think this is a pretty good spend of miles, especially SkyMiles. As I’ve said before, I don’t walk around with a calculator figuring out cpm values. If it feels right, I spend the miles, if not, I buy with money. In the end, I’m feeling pretty good about this redemption. What’s your breaking point for using miles vs. buying airfare?
MJ, March 28, 2014
Even sillier is not taking advantage of the free ATL stopover on the return…..but alas, not all of us are expert bloggers
I’m an expert drinker and steak eater and almost expert cruiser. That’s about it. But….you raise a good point to explore in another blog post coming soon.
Yea I agree with TopTraveler. I’d save the miles and rent a car. That way you also have a car while spending time with family, which I personally find to be nice to have the ability to go places. On the other hand, SkyMiles are become more and more worthless….
As someone who used to live in Raleigh for 15 years, and I get to Atlanta often, sometimes I (cringe) would look to Southwest with Delta had a temper tantrum with the fares. Not an option for ya? Even just this once?
Southwest is always an option for me. I actually don’t dislike Southwest. However, in this case they were pricing $40 more than Delta.
So I’m assuming using Avios, the train or bus was not a good option for you. I agree any use that equals enough miles per dollar makes sense. I still feel bad about using 50k AA miles to fly in F from STL to MIA for a cruise a couple years ago.
Why not rent a car for the weekend with unlimited miles and save the 25k SkyMiles?
@TopTraveler,
A valid question. Even though I mentioned driving in the post, the truth is…I really hate driving. 🙂 I probably wouldn’t spend 25K of any other currency for this, so I’m ok with it.
I would call that a good use of miles for sure!