So for the fall semester it costed him $1805.32 in cash, but if you factor in the value of the points that rises to $6295.30. He also mentioned that he spent 45972 minutes on commuting. If you factor the value of time (eg. minimum wage), the "cost" rises further to $17,788.30.
[1] obtained from googling "[points program] value"
Valuing miles us a tricky thing to do because it depends on factors each are personal, and in this case unknown. I get that the airline has a book-value for them, but that's not the same as value-to-me.
Firstly, unlike $ they can expire. So it's not like you can save them forever. I recently had 15 000 miles expire, simply because there was nothing I wanted, or needed, that I could spend them on.
Secondly they're not universal. To follow the article, i can't spend them on rent. So they really only have a value if I can trade them for something I would/could have spent $ on. So sure, upgrades are nice, but not like essential.
It's the same with time. You can be time-rich or time-poor. You can be cash-rich or cash-poor. Typically your priorities will be to reduce poorness. Rich people spend cash to get more time. Cash-poor people spend time to get more cash.
Miles-rich follows the same argument.
So it's not so easy to put a $ price on miles or time. Clearly the equation will vary from one person to another.
Incidentally given the choice of commuting or working minimum wage, I'll choose commuting all day long. Especially if that commuting is eyes-free, so I can use that time in a productive or entertaining way.
At least when I was in the Bay Area around 4 years ago, it was possible to get a 3 bedroom apartment right by Ashby BART for $3,000/mo. So yeah I don’t think this worked in this persons favor especially given the miserable schedule
So 10 months. At the quoted amount of 5592, that's 559 dollars a month. Do you think you could find a reasonable, safe, clean place to live in the Berkely area for 560 / mo? A quick search says no.
>Do you think you could find a reasonable, safe, clean place to live in the Berkely area for 560 / mo? A quick search says no.
But to get that low quoted amount, you need to ignore the value of the frequent flyer miles used, and the value of his time spent commuting. If you factor those in, the cost is about $17.8k for the fall semester alone, plenty of money to get a nice place to live.
Sorry I'm not understanding the point you're trying to make. This person handed over the 5500 in cash, not the 17.8k you quoted, correct? It's not like they had a budget of 17.8k, because they wouldn't have gotten those miles had they not been flying in the first place.
> And the point they were trying to prove in the post is it was possible for others.
Qualifying for sign up rewards is doable by almost anyone with decent credit. And if you didn't have the credit, you wouldn't be able to get the lease anyway.
Did you also do the math for how long it takes to accrue that many points and how much money you need to spend to get access to them? I don't see any evidence that you considered those factors.
Yep. Here are the amounts with the value of the miles factored in[1]:
>$1366.06 on Alaska, 307500 Alaska miles
307500 Alaska miles * 1.2 cents/mile = $3690
>$380.86 on Southwest, 43732 Southwest points
43732 Southwest points * 1.5 cents/point = $655.98
>$42.80 on United, 5500 United miles
5500 United miles * 1.2 cents/mile = $66
>$15.60 on Avianca, 6500 Avianca miles
6500 Avianca miles * 1.2 cents/mile = $78
So for the fall semester it costed him $1805.32 in cash, but if you factor in the value of the points that rises to $6295.30. He also mentioned that he spent 45972 minutes on commuting. If you factor the value of time (eg. minimum wage), the "cost" rises further to $17,788.30.
[1] obtained from googling "[points program] value"