Almost every week someone asks me “how the heck do you take pictures on airplanes without feeling like a complete freak?” Well, the easy answer is, I don’t — I take one for the team. I take pictures on airplanes like a freak so I can pass along my experiences to y’all.

Frankly, I’ve never had an issue taking pictures in international first class. Usually everyone has enough personal space to the point that nobody’s weird looks can bother you. And overall I’ve been quite pleased with the Canon Digital Rebel I use. However, during my most recent trip to Frankfurt in Delta business class, I realized just how much of a freak my picture taking seemed to make me. I swear the southern gentlemen seated across from me in business class (with a cowboy hat and curved mustache, of course) thought I was assembling bombs for Al-Qaeda when I was switching my lenses around.

Anyway, I’ve also noticed that lately I’ve ended up just leaving my camera at the hotel when in foreign cities, especially in Europe. In Asia I can’t blend in no matter what, but in Europe I have a chance… until I pull out my huge camera bag and fanny pack (okay, maybe I made that second part up).

Anyway, it has occurred to me that I need a second camera. I’m not quite ready to retire my Digital Rebel, though I find myself in more and more situations where I need a camera that’s better than my iPhone but not quite as bulky as my Digital Rebel.

I’m hoping for a camera with a rechargable battery, that shoots well without flash (for all those hours I spend on airplanes), and has somewhat decent zoom. Most importantly, it has to be small.

With that in mind, does anyone have any suggestions? I’m open to just about anything. I’ll be buying one in the next month, so if anyone knows of any specials or anticipates any specials on a decent camera soon, I’m all ears. That being said, I’m more concerned about quality than price (within reason), so if there’s a great camera that’s not on special, I’m fine with that too.

I’m an equal opportunity miles/points collector. I love airline miles and I love hotel points. Together, they can form the perfect vacation. However, while I’ve loved getting more into collecting hotel points over the past couple of years, they do give me a headache compared to airline miles. Let me explain.

When it comes to flights, I find it incredibly easy to decide whether I will use miles or pay for a ticket. I have a simple policy: I pay for domestic tickets and redeem miles for international tickets. Why? Because my upgrades domestically clear over 99% of the time, not to mention I travel entirely for leisure, meaning I can go wherever the low fares will take me. While I also travel exclusively for leisure internationally, I far prefer the comfort of first class (or business class), though I’m not willing to pay $25,000 for a ticket. Therefore, I obviously end up using miles.

At the same time, when it comes to valuing airline miles it’s important to keep in mind that the “value” of an award ticket shouldn’t be equal to the revenue cost of an airline ticket. In other words, if I redeem 125,000 miles for a ticket that would cost $25,000, I wouldn’t for a second claim that I’m getting 20 cents of “value” out of each mile, because I wouldn’t in a million years spend $25,000 on a ticket. Instead I might say that I’m reasonably getting two cents of “value” per mile (by my standard), since I would be willing to pay $2,500 for that ticket. So in other words, I rarely have a need to actually value miles. If I can find an international premium cabin ticket to a destination I want to visit, I’m getting a good value.

Now let’s talk about hotel points and what makes them “special.” As I mentioned above, I would never actually pay for a normally priced premium cabin international ticket. The cost is just too high. Hotels are a different story though. There are some nice hotels I would instinctively use points for (for example, any hotel beginning with the words “Park” and “Hyatt”), even if it’s not entirely rational.

Here’s an example: I’m thinking of staying at a Park Hyatt hotel which would cost 15,000 points per night, or has a revenue rate of $290USD per night. Before reading on, ask yourself, would you use points or pay for the stay?

I’m guessing most of you said, “use points.” Why pay nearly $300 per night when you can have the stay for “free?”

And that was my initial reaction as well — “of course I’m going to use points, I don’t want to pay nearly $300 per night for a hotel.” Well, based on what I’ve read, typically Hyatt points are considered to be worth anywhere from 1.5 to 2.0 cents each, which seems like a fair valuation. I realize just how tough it is to apply that standard, though, when actually making a reservation. At 2.0 cents per point a hotel room would need to cost at least $300 per night for one to logically use points in this situation. Let’s even take the value of 1.5 cents per point. At that rate, we’re valuing this at $225 (15,000 points x 1.5 cents each), meaning using points is $65 per night cheaper than paying for the room. But I’m conveniently forgetting to include the points I’m not earning for the stay (at least 2,000 points per night, though probably much more if there’s a promotion), the stay and night credit I’m not earning for the stay, not to mention the fact that I could use a confirmed suite upgrade for my reservation on a revenue stay, while I couldn’t for an award stay.

But again, going back to the “big picture,” why would I spend $290 per night on a hotel when I could just use points? I guess the decision making process is a bit easier for those of you that travel for work, since you don’t directly “pay” for accruing points. But like many others, I often mattress run. A mattress run that costs me $90 or so nets me about 6,000 points, which is right on the cusp of the value above.

And while I’m on the subject, I think redeeming for very high end properties (think hotels like the Park Hyatt Paris) isn’t that easy of a decision either. A night costs 22,000 points, which are “worth” anywhere from $330 to $440 depending on how much you value Hyatt points at. At that point I would probably just say “screw it, I’m staying at the Holiday Inn Express.”

Ah, the complex world of miles and points. Where do you stand? In the above example of $290 vs. 15,000 Hyatt points, which would you do, and why? Am curious to hear some other perspectives on this…

It’s time for a reader photo. Thanks to calgary_jay for sending in this one.

Correct Answer: Kijŏng-dong, North Korea
Winner: Patrick

If you’d like your photo featured, please email it to me at onemileatatime@hotmail.com, along with the correct answer.

As many of you probably know, the US Mint lets you buy dollar coins at face value with free overnight shipping with your credit card. In other words, $1,000 in coins earns you 1,000 (or more) points on your favorite loyalty credit card. Now, the Mint used to have virtually no restrictions, so people often ordered tens of thousands of dollars worth of coins in a month. For whatever reason, I didn’t consider the offer worthwhile at the time.

Then a while back the Mint tightened the rules a bit, only allowing you to purchase $1,000 worth of coins every 10 days, unless you apply for an “exception” (which I haven’t). The funny thing is, I’ve actually gotten back into “the game” since they tightened the rules. At the same time, many would argue it’s not worthwhile anymore because of the small amounts, but I argued it wasn’t worthwhile back then (simply because dragging $5,000 worth of coins to the bank at once will “kill” the deal for many of us pretty quickly, since many banks will stop taking them after a while).

Anyway, with $1,000 worth of coins every 10 days, we’re looking at about 36 orders every year, or 36,000 miles. If you’re using the Hilton Surpass card, that’s almost Hilton Diamond status (which is earned for $40,000 in spend). If you’re using an SPG card, I would value those points at over two cents each, so you’re basically looking at an extra $800+/year in rewards. Well worth it, especially if, ahem, “spending” the coins doesn’t take you any extra time. I go to the place that I, ahem, “spend coins” anyway once or twice a week, and I’ve never had a problem bringing in a relatively small number of coins ($500-1,000) each time.

So an extra $800+/year for basically nothing is quite nice, in my book!

Historically, American Airlines has been about as stingy as they get when it comes to status matching. While most US airlines will match an equivalent elite tier with another carrier, American has always more or less told elites at other airlines looking to switch to pound sand. Instead they offer paid “challenges,” which are open to everyone.

Well, as reported by The Wandering Aramean, it appears as if American is, on a selective basis, offering somewhat lucrative challenges to their top published tier status, Executive Platinum. While it’s not published anywhere, this FlyerTalk thread suggests that American is offering some United 1K/Global Services members an Executive Platinum challenge, whereby they give the member Platinum status up front, and then require one to earn 25,000 points within 90 days to earn Executive Platinum status. Now, “points” are not the same as elite qualifying miles. You only earn half a point per mile in cheaper fare buckets, so for us mileage runners, that would be 50,000 flown miles within 90 days.

I know it sounds like a lot, but coming from American, this is about as generous as it gets. It’s certainly better than starting from nothing, and also better than paying for a challenge. But it doesn’t compare to the 1K status match opportunity United is offering American Executive Platinum members.

So if you’re interested in “sampling” the dAArkside and giving them 100,000 miles/year of your business, consider contacting them and seeing what kind of a bone they’ll throw you.

Lufthansa has announced via email and Twitter that San Francisco will be their next A380 destination. The new service will begin on May 10.

Now, not to cause mass hysteria, but the A380 isn’t quite loaded into the system yet (the flight still shows as being operated by a 747), and there is really good first class award space for later in the year, even for two people. So if you want to fly Lufthansa A380 first class, which isn’t otherwise available on a Star Alliance award ticket, book NOW.