My Mileage Run Cost 3.99 CPM ...Or Did It?

From the desk of the Devil’s Advocate…

The flights have been flown, the cheap lounge liquors imbibed, the snarky tweets tweeted, and after 24 flights over a period of 84 days, it is official. I am somebody.

OK, so I’m only somebody when I’m on US Airways. But it’s better than nothing.

Most of you already know about the #30kToNowhere challenge, which I wrote about a few weeks ago in “Mileage Runs are Dead, so How’d I End Up on a Flight with Frequent Miler and Heels First Travel?” That post, aside from winning me an award for Longest and Most Awkward Blog Post Title Ever, described our attempts to win Chairman’s Preferred status before US Airways did away with their Preferred Status Trial. Thanks to the impending merger of the US Airways and American elite programs, in a few months that status will turn into Executive Platinum status, at which point I believe I’ll receive complimentary bars of gold each time I check in at LAX.

But how much did this lucrative status cost me?

Well, it depends on how you calculate it. Because as it turns out, when you fly 30,000 miles to nowhere, some of those miles aren’t actually to “nowhere.” Even when the miles are to nowhere, there are other expenses that should be included in the final Cents Per Mile (“CPM”) calculation if we’re being totally honest about our costs. And sometimes it’s not entirely clear whether an expense should be counted.

So I’m going to lay it all out here right now — every flight dollar, every hotel room, every taxi cab — in as transparent a fashion as I can, and let you decide how much I actually spent getting Chairman’s Preferred status.

The chart in all its glory.

I am not normally described as being “thorough” or “detail oriented” or “sober during the day” but in this case I kept a complete record of every mile I flew and the cost of every ticket and hotel…

Destination	Date	Cost in $	Card Used	Miles Cost	Type of Miles	Miles Earn	Elite Earn	Total
Silver Trial	11/17/14	$215	Prestige	0	N/A	0	0	0
LAX-DFW	11/19/14	$60	Prestige	5,750	ThankYou	1,544	1,235	1,235
DFW-LAX	11/21/14	$60	Prestige	5,750	ThankYou	1,544	1,235	2,470
LAX-DFW	12/12/14	$60	Prestige	5,000	ThankYou	1,544	1,235	3,705
DFW-LAX	12/13/14	$60	Prestige	5,000	ThankYou	1,544	1,235	4,940
LAX-LAS	01/14/15	$6	Prestige	4,500	Avios	0	0	4,940
LAS-PHL	01/14/15	$0	N/A	2,352	ThankYou	2,720	2,176	7,116
PHL-LAS	01/14/15	$0	N/A	2,351	ThankYou	2,720	2,176	9,292
LAS Hotel	01/14/14	$32	Ink Bold	0	N/A	0	0	9,292
LAS-PHL	01/15/15	$37	US Air	0	N/A	2,720	2,176	11,468
PHL-LAS	01/15/15	$37	US Air	0	N/A	2,720	2,176	13,644
LAS Hotel	01/15/14	$25	Prestige	0	N/A	0	0	13,644
LAS-LAX	01/16/15	$30	Prestige	3,000	ThankYou	625	500	14,144
LAX-LAS	01/28/15	$0	N/A	3,062	ThankYou	625	500	14,644
LAS-PHL	01/28/15	$18	Prestige	1,250	ThankYou	2,720	2,176	16,820
PHL-LAS	01/28/15	$18	Prestige	1,250	ThankYou	3,264	2,176	18,996
LAS Hotel	01/28/15	$51	Prestige	0	N/A	0	0	18,996
LAS-LAX	01/29/15	$38	Prestige	0	N/A	0	0	18,996
LAX-PHL-LGA	02/02/15	$78	Prestige	5,000	ThankYou	4,352	2,901	21,897
LGA-PHL	02/03/15	$6	Prestige	4,500	Avios	0	0	21,897
PHL-LAS	02/03/15	$40	Prestige	0	N/A	3,264	2,176	24,073
LAS Hotel	02/03/15	$51	Prestige	0	N/A	0	0	24,073
LAS-PHL	02/04/15	$37	Prestige	0	N/A	3,808	2,176	26,249
PHL-LGA	02/04/15	$6	Prestige	4,500	Avios	0	0	26,249
PHL-LAS	02/04/15	$37	Prestige	0	N/A	0	0	26,249
LGA-CLT-MCO	02/05/15	$50	Prestige	7,000	ThankYou	1,825	1,043	27,292
MCO-DFW	02/08/15	$76	Prestige	6,250	ThankYou	1,724	985	28,277
DFW-PHL-EWR	02/11/15	$75	Prestige	6,250	ThankYou	3,154	1,802	30,079
TOTALS		$1,203		72,765		42,415

As you can see, I flew a total of 30,079 miles and paid $1,203 in cash, which includes the $215 cost of signing up for the status trial. If we simply divide those two numbers, we get a cost of 3.99 cents per mile. That seems like a reasonable way of calculating my CPM, right?

You don’t agree? All right, fine, let’s take a look at your concerns…

What about the miles you spent?

Fair enough. I didn’t pay cash for every ticket. In a number of cases I used my existing Citibank ThankYou points or British Airways Avios to buy tickets. The Avios tickets were all positioning flights, but I could redeem ThankYou points at 1.6 cents each and get revenue tickets that counted towards my mileage run. As I’ve written before, I believe this is one of the best uses of ThankYou points. (See “The Best Use For Citi ThankYou Points Isn’t the Transfer Partners” for a more complete explanation.)

So it’s not fair to only consider the cash outlay. I have to add in the cost of the points as well.

The chart says I burned 72,765 points in total. If we assume those points are worth 1.6 cents each, then I need to add another $1,164 to my expenses. That means I actually spent $2,367 in cash and points combined, which gives us an actual total CPM of 7.87.

But what about the miles you got?

Excellent point. Of course, I also earned US Airways miles on my run, even on the flights that I used ThankYou points to buy. It’s only fair to offset those earned miles against the miles I spent, especially since they’ll soon turn into relatively valuable AAdvantage miles. The chart says I earned 42,415 miles, which means my net miles spent was only 30,350. At a cost of 1.6 cents per mile, that means I only spent $486 in miles, which gives us a new total outlay of $1,689 or 5.61 cents per mile.

Did you really go nowhere every time?

Hmmmm. You know, I realize this is going to sound weird, but sometimes I took flights because I actually wanted to go somewhere. Yes, believe it or not, not every flight was about randomly jetting around the country for no reason. In fact, there’s at least half a dozen flights on this chart where I would have taken the flight whether I was on a status trial or not, and I don’t believe I paid anything more to fly those flights on US Airways or American instead of another airline.

So let’s look at that chart again, but this time eliminate the flights to actual destinations…

Destination	Date	Cost in $	Card Used	Miles Cost	Type of Miles	Miles Earn	Elite Earn	Total
Silver Trial	11/17/14	$215	Prestige	0	N/A	0	0	0
LAX-LAS	01/14/15	$6	Prestige	4,500	Avios	0	0	0
LAS-PHL	01/14/15	$0	N/A	2,352	ThankYou	2,720	2,176	2,176
PHL-LAS	01/14/15	$0	N/A	2,351	ThankYou	2,720	2,176	4,352
LAS Hotel	01/14/14	$32	Ink Bold	0	N/A	0	0	4,352
LAS-PHL	01/15/15	$37	US Air	0	N/A	2,720	2,176	6,528
PHL-LAS	01/15/15	$37	US Air	0	N/A	2,720	2,176	8,704
LAS Hotel	01/15/14	$25	Prestige	0	N/A	0	0	8,704
LAS-LAX	01/16/15	$30	Prestige	3,000	ThankYou	625	500	9,204
LAX-LAS	01/28/15	$0	N/A	3,062	ThankYou	625	500	9,704
LAS-PHL	01/28/15	$18	Prestige	1,250	ThankYou	2,720	2,176	11,880
PHL-LAS	01/28/15	$18	Prestige	1,250	ThankYou	3,264	2,176	14,056
LAS Hotel	01/28/15	$51	Prestige	0	N/A	0	0	14,056
LAS-LAX	01/29/15	$38	Prestige	0	N/A	0	0	14,056
LGA-PHL	02/03/15	$6	Prestige	4,500	Avios	0	0	14,056
PHL-LAS	02/03/15	$40	Prestige	0	N/A	3,264	2,176	16,232
LAS Hotel	02/03/15	$51	Prestige	0	N/A	0	0	16,232
LAS-PHL	02/04/15	$37	Prestige	0	N/A	3,808	2,176	18,408
PHL-LGA	02/04/15	$6	Prestige	4,500	Avios	0	0	18,408
PHL-LAS	02/04/15	$37	Prestige	0	N/A	0	0	18,408
TOTALS		$684		26,765		25,186

That changes things quite a bit. It seems I flew nearly 12,000 miles worth of flights to somewhere, so my personal #30kToNowhere was actually more like #18ishKToNowhere. I also only spent $684 in cash and 1,579 points on those mileage run flights. So if we recalculate my CPM with those numbers, my flights to nowhere came to just 3.85 cents per mile.

Plus the miles from charging flights to your credit card.

That’s true. As the chart shows, I used my Citi Prestige for most flights, which gives me 3x ThankYou points on travel expenses. But I also have a ton of Flight Points saved up from when that program still existed, so I actually get 6x on travel purchases. So let’s add 4,104 ThankYou points ($684 x 6) to the calculation, which means I actually ended up making more points than I spent on my flights to nowhere. Deduct those $40 in earned points from the $684 in cash and we get a new CPM of 3.49. That’s pretty darn good. Hey, thanks for the insightful point! Sorry if I came across as a little defensive when you started asking questions.

Hang on. How about taxis?

OK, there were also a few taxis, shuttles, and mass transit trips to get to and from airports in Las Vegas and New York. I suppose I should add those in too. It came to a total of exactly $100 for all the mileage runs, so I’ll add that extra $100 into my cash outlay to get a new CPM total of 4.04. I think that should cover just about everything, right?

What about L.A.? Didn’t you park at the airport?

What are you, the NSA? Fine, yes, I did park at LAX. I was also so late for my first positioning flight to Vegas that I had to park in short term for 3 days and run to the gate. Thanks for bringing it up. Total in parking was another $108, which raises the overall cost of my flights to nowhere to 4.63 cents per mile. Are we done now?

Positioning flight to Vegas, huh? Did you gamble?

As a matter of fact, yes, I did, Mr. Smarty Pants, and I won $200 at the craps table on my first night in Vegas. I love Excalibur! So let’s deduct that $200 in winnings from my cash outlay, which brings my CPM back down to 3.54. Whoo hoo!

What about your other Vegas nights?

Shut up. $135 in losses on the second night. I hate Excalibur. Revised CPM of 4.27.

Any food?

I tend to eat out anyway so I’m not including those costs, but suffice it to say they were pretty minimal thanks to free American Express Centurion Lounge access in Las Vegas. Pretty nice breakfast and one great bloody mary. Or three. Still a CPM of 4.27.

Opportunity costs?

Now you’re just being annoying. I’m not going to try and figure out how much my opportunity costs cost. Let’s just assume I would have sat on my butt and thrown the money out the window instead of mileage running, okay?

Anything else you’d like to share?

I suppose I could try to calculate how much I drank in the lounges, but I think that might drop my CPM down to a negative number, so we’ll skip it.

The grand total = 4.27 cents per mile.

As you can see, we can get incredibly detailed with this calculation. But in the end it didn’t change drastically from the original CPM of 3.99. The general rule of thumb is that anything below 4 cents per mile is pretty good in today’s airfare market, so to end up at 4.27 cents with all expenses included is decent. I might have done better if I had done a long international trip with a quick turnaround as it would have limited my hotel stays and ground expenses. But at my age, I don’t think I can contemplate 18,000 miles in international economy all at once.

So 4.27 is my answer and I’m sticking to it. Now where are my bars of gold?

Devil’s Advocate is a weekly series that deliberately argues a contrarian view on travel and loyalty programs. Sometimes the Devil’s Advocate truly believes in the counterargument. Other times he takes the opposing position just to see if the original argument holds water. But his main objective is to engage in friendly debate with the miles and points community to determine if today’s conventional wisdom is valid. You can suggest future topics by following him @dvlsadvcate on Twitter or sending an e-mail to dvlsadvcate@gmail.com.