Financial Fitness with Alan Akina - Airline Mileage

23 Nov 2011 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:29

In this short Wake Up Today segment, financial commentator Alan Akina warns listeners that purchasing extra frequent‑flyer miles is generally a terrible deal. He cites concrete pricing from three major U.S. airlines—Hawaiian Air ($13.44 for 500 miles), United Airlines ($35 per 1,000 miles plus a 7.5% excise tax), and American Airlines ($29.50 per 1,000 miles)—and shows how these costs translate into over $1,000 for typical round‑trip tickets. Akina frames frequent‑flyer programs as major profit centers for airlines and urges consumers to think twice before spending money on miles.

Well, are frequent flyer miles a good deal?
Yeah, wake up today's financial fitness guru, Alan Akina. He has more in Financial Fitness.
Morning, gang. Have you ever been tempted to purchase extra frequent flyer miles from an airline? Do you get those fancy postcards in the mail or get hit up online to double your miles just before you purchase your ticket? Well, before you pull out your wallet, let me point out the facts. It's a terrible deal, folks. It really is. I went to a few websites to check out the most popular airlines' frequent flyer programs, and this is what I found. Hawaiian Air will charge you $13.44 for a 500-mile increment. So for a round-trip ticket to Las Vegas or LA that will take roughly 50,000 miles, the true cost of this flight is $1,344. United Air charges $35 for 1,000 miles plus 7.5% in excise tax. So if your flight requires 30,000 miles, that would cost you over $1,100. And American Airlines, they charge $29.50 for each 1,000 miles purchase. For these airlines, the frequent flyer programs are a huge profit center. So think twice before purchasing miles. For Wake Up Today, I'm Alan Akina. See you on Thursday.
Thank you, Alan. That's a good one. Mm-hmm. People aren't aware sometimes. Sure.