Buy-up PQMs changing price for the New Year

Buy-up PQMs have dropped in price after the New Year began. On the 31st the all-in pricing available to me was between 27 cents and 30 cents per PQM. On the first and second, prices dropped to between 17 and 18 cents. Today I encountered prices between 10.5 and 11.5 cents. Last August prices were about 9 cents.
I am working out my trip spreadsheet for this year and I expect to know by August roughly how many PQMs I will have (give or take an MR). I may consider buying some at that time if it makes sense.

 

Based on the numbers in this thread on FT, I now better understand the pricing for the (close to end of year) premier accelerator rates.

For those who listed numbers sufficiently specific to add to a spreadsheet, mean 1K cost was 16.7 cpm. Median 11.1 cpm.

Their pricing's pretty close to mean for int'll premier accelerator last I checked.

 

So it appears the PQM part is 8.5 cents on all my itineraries.

What differs is the RDM prices, from 2.1 cents (SFO-NRT-GUM-PNI) to 2.4 cents (PNI-MAJ-HNL) to 2.9 cents (HNL-SFO), to 3.3 cents (SFO-LAS). One of my MRs (LAS-BOS with too many segments) prices at 2.6 cents for RDMs.

 

$0.085 is what I'm getting on PQMs now, too. Add the required RDMs at a minimum of $0.021, and that comes to $0.106/mile. I have a multi-city international trip booked this month that has seven segments. 2 in F, 2 in BC and 3 on RJs with no front cabin. The total cost of the trip works out to $0.126/mile and I actually get to go somewhere.

I hate to admit that I wasted some real money last year buying a few PQMs, ending up at 120,000 PQMs, unable to make a year-end MR and unwilling to pay $1500 for 6,000 PQMs (the lowest offer I saw on any existing itineraries) just to get two more RPUs. The purchased PQMs played no part in my making 1K. I won't make that mistake again this year. Unless they get down to say... a nickel.

 

Mine, too. 8.5 cents for all of the PQM offers. RDMs are 2.6 cents (SJC-PVD and SJC-HNL) and 2.9 cents (ONT-EWR and LAX-SDF) Hard to figure the formulas, except there are two things: Higher prices are for the first two; lower prices both ex-SJC.

 

Lowest prices are for int'l long haul, highest for short domestic flights. At least that's true on my itineraries.

 

I, too, bought last year. (9000 PQMs). For me, it is worth it, as even with those I will only make *Gold by a few hundred miles. Do you have a credit card which might allow you to trade a few RDMs for PQMs if need be this year (Chase Choices?)

 

Hmmm. Mine are all domestic (if you count HNL as domestic. ). The two that earn just over 5K PQMs are higher than the two that earn just over 6K.

 

Are all the segments long, though? My 3.3 cpm RDM offer is on SFO-LAS.

 

ONT-DEN-EWR-IAH-ONT 2.9 cents; LAX-IAH-CLE-SDF-IAH-LAX 2.9 cents; SJC-LAX-SFO-HNL-SFO-LAX-SJC 2.6 cents; SJC-IAH-EWR-PVD-EWR-DEN-SJC 2.6 cents.

Are your itineraries booked as one-ways? Otherwise, how are you getting a different offer for the outbound and the return?

 

1. Shortest segment 819 miles; average 1289 miles; longest segment 1605 miles, 2.9 cents
2. Shortest segment 304 miles; average 988 miles; longest segment 1379 miles, 2.9 cents
3. Shortest segment 304 miles; average 1014 miles ; longest segment 2398 miles, 2.6 cents
4. Shortest segment 160 miles; average 980 miles; longest segment 1608 miles, 2.6 cents. However, unlike #1, 2 segments are > 1500 miles.

So: a hypothesis: it's relative to how many long segments there are and how long those segments are.

Let me get my spreadsheet out in a bit and see.

 

1. SFO-NRT-GUM-TKK-PNI: shortest 438, average 1938, longest 5124, 2.1 cents (int'l + domestic)
2. PNI-KSA-KWA-MAJ-HNL: shortest 345, average 823, longest 2280, 2.4 cents (int'l + domestic)
3. HNL-SFO: 2398, 2.9 cents (domestic)
4. SFO-LAS-SFO: 414 miles, 3.3 cents (domestic)
5. SFO-LAS-IAH-BOS-IAH-LAX-LAS: shortest 232, average 1074, longest 1597, 2.6 cents (domestic)
6. SFO-SEA-NRT: shortest 679, average 2723, longest 4769, 2.1 cents (int'l)
7. TUN-IST-DOH-SEZ: shortest 1039, average 1604, longest 2075, 2.1 cents (int'l)
8. SEZ-DOH-VIE-BUD: shortest 133, average 1558, longest 2466, 2.1 cents (int'l)

 

Last August my lowest priced choice was EWR-AUA at 6.5 cents for the PQMs and 1.9 cents for the RDMs.
I did not buy last year as I had a passle of FPQMs to use to round up to platinum. This year I expect to be well over 75k sometime this fall so I am looking to see what it would cost to get to 100k via MRs and buy-ups. Those GPUs RPUs and status are worth significant, quantifiable value.

 

All PQM accelerators are 8.5 cents on all of my itineraries as well.
RDMs- EWR-LAS 2.9c, EWR-PBI 3.3c, EWR-MCO 3.3c, EWR-HNL-SFO-EWR 2.6c, EWR-ORD-SIN 2.1c

 

That was generally my experience as well. The least expensive accelerator package that I found last year was EWR-AUA at 8.3 cents (6.5c and 1.8c on an ala carte basis), cheaper than EWR-SIN at 8.6 cents (6.5c and 2.1c). This experience in August '12 did not really fit the model that I thought they were following since the EWR-AUA run is not as long as other international itineraries I compared it to. Your point that connections matter may have affected these prices.

 

I see the same prices for the PQM purchase on my trip to London. The sad part is that it is almost cheaper to buy the PQM on the flight than actually fly the same number of miles in W (i want my upgrade). I am seriously considering buying the 45K PQM on this flight, and actually having more time at home this year. I know heresy.

 

No credit card that offers exchanges, but I already have nearly 40,000 BIS miles booked through March, so I'm pretty confident that I'll hit 100,000+ again this year. I decided last night that I will pay until I hit 1K, then burn miles the rest of the year. There will be exceptions for those flights that are just too cheap to justify burning the miles, but overall it seems to be a pretty prudent strategy for me.

 

I am now doing SIN-BKK-HKG exclusively on RDMs and then there is the paid return trip to the US

HKG->NRT->SFO->JFK

for which I am being offered the following options for purchasing Premier Accelerator Miles (PAMs):

1. 20K PAMs = $2,120 or 10.6 cpm
2. 30K PAMs = $3,180 or 10.6 cpm

With this return trip itself netting me 9,537 PQMs, if I elect to purchase option (2), I would be at 39.5K PQM by the end of January! With at least 2 TATL and 2 TPAC and quite a few domestic trips planned this year, I might then be able to hit 150K PQM by the end of the year to get all the extra RPUs and GPUs...It is tempting!

 

Oh no another acronym I won't remember PAMs

 

Seems like last year they didn't drop in price at the beginning of the year. I can't remember when they plateaued at $0.10/mile, but they did drop at some point for people who had not reached the next level. I remember reading that some people were receiving offers lower then mine, but I had a lot of flights booked which (if flown) insured my 1K status.

IT probably had their hands full at the start of 2012. They were busy preparing to make our flying lives miserable beginning 3/3. They obviously have their act more together this year, as evidenced by the immediate drop in PQM pricing beginning 1/1/13. Using 2012 behavior as a model for 2013 planning may prove to be disappointing for those planning purchased PQMs as part of their strategy for status achievement, but who knows?

 

On the first and second they only cut the price to around 17.5 cents. On the third PAMs dropped to 10.6c or so. Gotta love yield management.

 

I just checked my upcoming international itineraries, and the PQMs that were $0.085/mile are now $0.145/mile. Did the $0.085/mile offer actually draw so many buyers that they had to raise the price by 70.58823%? I'm surprised if it did. I wasn't tempted at $0.085/mile.

Pricing of accelerator miles is something that has always perplexed me. Is it a psychological move? I really don't get it.

 

They want a 178.00 for a 1000eqm. Ha ha, no thanks. (33.00 plus 145.00)

Last week it was too much but a lot less (33.00 + 85.00 = 118.00)

Ridiculous

 

The price for Elite Maximizer changed in the past week from 8.5 cpm to 14.5 cpm. This is way too expensive for early in the year.

 

Maybe we are looking at this the wrong way. Perhaps they are doing us a favor by making the price so absurdly high that we will all save our money by refusing to buy miles that we may not even need by the end of the year.

I bought a few last year, then didn't need them at year end, so that was nothing but money thrown out the window. Won't be making that mistake this year! Money in the bank beats miles in the bank any way you look at it.