News and notes from around the interweb:
- Receive 2500 Aeroplan miles when you join the program and earn your first mile(s).
- Federal bailout in the works for hotel mortgages? a commercial mortgage-backed securities bailout doesn’t do much for jobs, it helps hotel owners and big banks.
- The #FlySafeTexas airport coloring book is downloadable and suitable for printing.
- Doctor of Credit writes that Chase will no longer approve credit cards for people in the U.S. on non-immigrant work visas
- How are hotels handling bad reviews during Covid?
- The world’s last Blockbuster video store is now an Airbnb.
- Hotel elevators – like all elevators – are less than awesome shared spaces during Covid
@ Gary — So, what is your valuation of miles under the new AeroPlan, and would you take ~342,500 miles or a $4,700 USD voucher? I’m not sure my math is 100% correct on this — I converted $4,700 USD to $6,226 CND using today’s conversion rate, divided by .03 and multiplied by 1.65 to get the number of miles.
I hate to hold yet more miles, but I guess we could avoid flying Air Canada, which would be nice given that we would prefer not to fly on airline that has confiscated our cash refund.
@Gene – before the new program details I valued Aeroplan miles at 1.4 cents. I think that for a top tier elite member in Canada they’re probably worth 1.7 cents? For a non-elite American they may be worth 1.3 – 1.5 cents I haven’t fully internalized how the higher prices / lower surcharges net out in my thinking yet to fix on an exact amount. And you’re looking right in the middle of that valuation. In other words, the point at which I’m more or less indifferent to holding cash and miles.
The good thing is we now know the details of the new program, and can probably count on no devaluation for awhile. The bad news is you already have lots of miles, when will you spend them versus holding onto cash that should earn a rate of return?
You’re literally in a spot where there’s not a ‘no brainer’ answer. When I don’t have a no brainer the other way though I prefer cash.
@ Gary — But it isn’t cash, it is an Air Canada voucher.
@Gene yes but a voucher is more flexible than miles probably