A bit of a dilemma. Currently looking at a South America to North America for summer 2018. I obviously head straight to my Alaska account, especially since AA is devaluing (via AS) before too long. It will cost me 50K miles in J and I can play around with the free stopover, etc. and change flights at will. Alternatively I can just spend 75K Avios and get myself into MIA, DFW or JFK, but obviously no further without paying even more Avios. And 35 quid every time I change something. AS seems obvious on valuation and travel hacking terms, yet I have 250K+ Avios and am not looking forward to "dynamic pricing", whereas my 130K+ Alaska miles have a better use as F on Cathay or JAL. Thoughts?
Great question - 'proper' conundrum. Personally, (unless I had a particular use for the stopover etc that might change the equation), I'd definitely rinse the Avios. It's generally easier/cheaper for me to acquire 75,000 Avios than 50,000 Alaska Miles, so slightly better on the earn side to use Avios; and on the burn side I can definitely usually get more value from 50k Alaska than 75k Avios. Given your stockpiles as well, the relative 'scarcity' of the Alaska Miles makes using the Avios even more compelling to me. Put it this way - I would trade 1.5 Avios for Alaska Miles all day long if I could. As ever though, depends on personal travel pattern, ability to generate different types of Miles, etc, etc.
