A subscriber was going to cancel his flight and was offered a credit of $500 with that airline – or 100,000 miles, so he emailed to ask me what I would do.
Since this is a common dilemma due to the current circumstances of many canceled flights, I thought I’d share my response as a blog post.
But that’s me. You have to decide what’s right for you, so here’s the long answer:
- A $500 credit is worth $500 next time you fly with that airline. No more, & no less.
- If you get points… That’s a different story.
- 100,000 Frontier points are worth about $500 as a worst-case scenario.
- 100,000 Frontier points can be worth as much as $1500.
- Side note – it’s rare, and it takes some digging, but 100,000 points with some airlines can be worth exponentially more than $500 or $1000. (I once redeemed 106,000 points for two $12,000 flights in a suite on Singapore Air.)
So if you like the idea of gaming the system to get more than a dollar for dollar refund out of a canceled flight, you can stretch points much farther than a cash credit.
If you’re not comfortable with learning how to maximize the value of frequent flyer points, I’d recommend seeing if you can get a cash refund first. Only after you’ve verified you can’t get a refund would I recommend taking a travel credit.
–Joel