I ended up deciding to partake in the US Airways Grand Slam<\/a>, albeit with some limitations.\u00a0 Namely, I intend to use these miles within the first three months of next year for a comparatively simple trip to Europe.<\/p>\n Absent an especially good fare showing up in the meantime, a quick calendar search on ITA puts the price of an NYC-BER roundtrip in February at $616 all-in for an economy ticket.\u00a0 Additionally, I would be earning approximately 15,820RDM (based on JFK-TXL-JFK with a 100% RDM bonus) for an additional value of about $158.20, bringing the net cost at approximately $450.\u00a0 There’s tons of availability available on continental.com<\/a> via Continental and Lufthansa in business class, however.\u00a0 Assuming I have 100k miles to play with by the end of Grand Slam, I should use a value of at about 0.45cpm for US miles (ignoring US booking fees, taxes, etc.).\u00a0 Since the ticket would be for business class rather than economy and would include a stopover, my valuation should be at least 0.45cpm but less than 1.478cpm, the cost of buying the miles outright.<\/p>\n I am not an elite member with US, so hitting the top tier (40 hits => 110k miles) would require that I start crediting Star Alliance miles away from UA\/CO (where I get a 100% RDM bonus), a significant opportunity cost, or that I purchase trial elite status with US<\/a> for at least $200.\u00a0 Even with the trial elite status purchase as a hit, I’d still need to find three hits, leaving my cost for 10k miles at at least 2cpm.\u00a0 Given the 100% mile bonuses that US frequently offers, reaching 40 hits is irrational.<\/p>\n Having examined the marginal cost of hits 33-36, I’m faced with a similar situation.\u00a0 Even if I completely discount the inconvenience of finding and tracking them, the marginal reward for the 20k miles above the 32 hit level is worth $295.63 (based on the 100% bonus pricing of 1.478cpm with taxes, when available), or $73.91 per hit on average.\u00a0 Using a slightly more reasonable valuation, at say 1cpm, these miles are worth $200 in total or $50 per hit on average.\u00a0 Because these are, however, rather expensive hits, ease is a serious concern:\u00a0 A 10k Hilton point transfer into 2k US points has an opportunity cost of $80 (based on 0.8cpp valuations for Hilton) less my valuation of 2k US miles (or $20) before considering the inconvenience.<\/p>\n For the sake of keeping things sane, I’m using a uniform cost between AA, UA, and US miles of 1cpm.\u00a0 The miles gained by the activity itself offset the cost of acquiring the hit. So far, my first six hits have been…<\/p>\n This puts my true cost at $12.93 for 7 hits.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I ended up deciding to partake in the US Airways Grand Slam, albeit with some limitations.\u00a0 Namely, I intend to use these miles within the first three months of next year for a comparatively simple trip to Europe. Absent an … Continue reading \n