Miles vs Time

Oh my oh my!  I have always collected Air Miles.  Hell, I even wrote a book about collecting Air Miles (link posted below).  Until two years ago, my Air Miles were always collected in the Cash Miles option.  We would redeem our Air Miles every 95 Air Miles to save $10 off at Sobeys for groceries or at Shell for gas.  Then we would take that $10 and plop it on our mortgage as an extra payment. Slow and steady wins the race.

The flights I have explored for redeeming have been short haul flights. Any of the weekends that I have explored to take a flight to NYC or Boston, there was always a layover to the destination.
I was flexible and tried a lot of Friday to Sunday options, as well as late Thursday evenings and none worked for me.
 When I only have a short amount of time to travel, I find it worth my time and money to buy the direct flight for the under $500 return trip, then redeem Air Miles and pay the $145 taxes and fees. There is a point when I need to determine miles vs time.

Fast Forward to present day.  I cashed out Air Miles in July for a trip for 2 to an all inclusive vacation in Punta Cana.  Our flights have been changed 4 times.  The first change was leaving 2 hours later to arrive in Punta Cana.  The next two changes were by 10 minutes only.  And the last change was 2 hours later leaving Punta Cana. I am grateful because the trip is to an all inclusive and no plans are booked when we arrive so nothing is time sensitive. And I do have a free trip that cost me 23000 Air Miles and only $900

Our other trip is booked for the end of June to Orlando.  I know direct flights aren’t an option. This time of year so I was prepared for a milk run.  I got a call that the trip to Orlando was also getting its 4th flight change, this time a layover in a whole different city. AND arrives 2 .5 hours later!!!! This changes my plans in Orlando. We have plans the day we arrive and some changes needed to be made.

The customer service rep told me this happens all the time with travel plans.  I have not traveled a lot, but at least one flight vacation a year. I have never had this happen with paid flights. Have I always been lucky, or is this an issue when flying with points?  I have been told by many it only happens with points. Please share your comments.

I feel close to done with collecting air miles aggressively.  I will continue to use my card but I do plan to try to be more aware with my collecting. I am debating to now put my air miles options to cash miles, and save the miles to redeem for gas etc and bank up the cash since flights are so challenging in my experience. 

I did redeem Air Miles 2 weeks ago for 4 passes to Universal Studios.  This saved us over $1100 US dollars and cost 14400 Air Miles.  Perhaps saving for merchandise only is another avenue I will explore, and also less hassle.

What have been your experiences?


https://www.amazon.ca/Guide-Collecting-Air-Miles-Canada-ebook/dp/B07169ZK5R/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519504128&sr=8-1&keywords=a+guide+to+collecting+air+miles+in+canada&dpID=51LAp7sNrfL&preST=_SY445_QL70_&dpSrc=srch