To Buy Points or Not to Buy, that is the question

This South African trip has me stuck.  I need to secure air tickets before US Air does anything with their pending merger to American Airlines because one of the sweet spots in their award chart happens to be South Africa and I hope to take advantage of that before it goes away for good.  To get to South Africa via a US Air Star Alliance partner I need 70K dividend miles RT for each economy seat or 110,00K RT for each business class seat.  The business option has a lie flat seat and being this will be the 6th longest flight in existence a lie flat seat might be enough reason to fly business class.  Problem is I only have 156K US Airways dividend miles points.  I need three seats total.  156K points are good for 2 RT economy seats with some points to spare.  One business class and one economy seat  are 180K dividend miles currently leaving me with a 24K shortage.  There in lies the problem.  I can't determine which option to utilize.  Ultimately, I would love 3 business class seats but given that I hope to ticket the seats next month I won't be acquiring enough miles with all my tricks for three buiness class seats  (330K dividend miles) so one of us  is flying economy and they may be riding with a partner if I can't figure a path to follow.  I also have 63K United miles (another Star Alliance partner) but have a 17K point shortage for a RT economy seat booked thru United (they require 80K for a RT to South Africa).  It all has to boil down to my ROI (return on investment).   Economy seats for the time period I'm considering are going run $1900 each and the business class seat about $6300, thats about $10,100 in airfare and I'd be paying a little less than 10% of that to purchase the points needed to make up the shortages.  BUT, if I go for 2 business class seats and 1 economy seat I'd be getting $14,500 worth of airfare for about an 12% investment.  It's all a little overwhelming as both United and US Air have bonus points promotions running right now to go along with points purchases.  So for the next few hours I'll be caught up in this triangle of which seating type to select.  I just wanted to share with my readers some of what is involved in the thought process behind acquiring ticketed award seats.  There are many more options available to me but for various reasons my choices have been narrowed to Start Alliance partners and by a full accounting of the various points I have on hand.  Stay tuned as the decision will need to be made soon.
  

Thanks, Dad

I have been patiently waiting for two months for my father to receive an email.  Let me explain, I dragged my father’s good credit into my quest for points.  He likes local travel here and there so I “pay” him with hotel stays.  He’s not interested in flying to exotic locales, or even flying to Florida does not happen to be on his wish list of travel destinations.  He likes getting in his car and driving to whatever festival or seminar interests him at the time.  Like everyone of us reading this post he has recurring expenses and if I can direct those required monthly spends to earn a maximum number of points that eventually will transfer to me “why not?”.  Of course it doesn’t hurt to add “don’t you want your grandkids to have this travel opportunity?”  When US Airways was running their sign-up for the Barclays US Airways MasterCard minus the annual fee, I had him apply. 

With my Asia trip all mapped out and the points turned into ticketed travel my thoughts turn to the next upcoming destination, South Africa.  I already have enough hotel points to stay 15 nights but I’m short about 90K on the airline miles.  All my efforts have now been concentrated on how to quickly acquire those miles without additional expense.  I already own two Barclay’s US MasterCard’s and I am using those cards for all my expenses but still needed dad’s help.  He signed up for the card, was approved and instructed, by me, to put one small charge (as in a cup of coffee) on the card.  After the purchase was complete I had him put the card in a drawer and told him not to touch it for anything.  He continued using his Club Carlson card for his everyday purchases.  Two months to the day after that one charge was complete I asked my dad to check his inbox for an email from Barclays and sure enough it was there…..

15,000 bonus miles are waiting for you Dear xxxx, You can already earn miles for every purchase with your new US Airways Dividend Miles® MasterCard®. And with this special offer, your card is now more rewarding than ever. Earn 15,000 bonus miles when you spend over $750 in new purchases each month in May, June and July.¹ Getting away is easier than you think. Every purchase gets you closer to getting away. Filling up your gas tank. Dining out. Booking your next vacation. Even monthly expenses, like cell phone and utility bills, will earn miles when you pay with your card. Best of all, for a limited time, all these new purchases can also add up to 15,000 bonus miles! Start racking up the miles! Just use your card every time you make a purchase to take advantage of this great offer. Remember, you need to spend over $750 in new purchases each month from May through July to qualify. You'll be redeeming your bonus miles for award travel in no time at all!

Soon as he read it to me I told him to dig out the card and start using it and if he had any problem meeting the monthly minimum spend to call me and I’d help him out.  So how did I did I know to expect the email?  The information has been reported in several blogs and I decided to try it out with him and it worked.  He’ll retire the Club Carlson card for the next 3 months to concentrate his spends for acquiring the 15K bonus, after all isn't that what dad's with good credit are for?