I will like the opposition for my career.

That is an excellent calculation and puts a great value and light on the upgrade though I just bought a $750 ticket to Asia and it would be 30k miles and $600 each way for an upgrade (1.2 hour domestic and 14+h long haul flights) so I’ll have to process the literal value and the actual cost at the end of the day (though it would be nice to go Polaris and get into the lounge). Thanks!

At the same mileage cost, I’d DEFINITELY go with United above Copa… does that answer your question?

I’d just add a fifth category – mileage upgrades.

Depending on the fare class of the ticket, the route(s), the stock & inventory, and the demand, upgrades from United Economy to Premium Plus start around 5k miles (generally with no co-pay); upgrades from United Economy to United Polaris business generally begin at 15k miles, usually with a co-pay beginning at around $500.

Let’s say a round-trip Economy ticket from the US to Europe costs around $1k and the equivalent Business class ticket costs ~$8k (using the example fares from above, with rounding). Then, let’s say that a one-way mileage upgrade costs 20k miles + $500 co-pay. So, round-trip upgrades amount to 40k miles + $1k.

The difference in fare cost is $8k – $1k = $7k. Subtract the $1k co-pay, which yields a difference attributable to the mileage value of $6k. Divide the $6k value by the 40k miles, which results in a whopping $0.15 or 15 cents per mile value!!

So, you can even assume higher value of your miles, up to 15+ cents per mile, depending on your use case. Of course, true value to YOU comes from your personal preferences and priorities.

Just thought I’d add this fifth use case for everyone’s edification.

Feel free to reach out to me with any clarifying questions or the like via email at chad@mlds.ai.

Thanks!