Via: Lufthansa World Shop
So you’ve collected a massive amount of airline miles and have accumulated an account balance with six, seven or even eight digits. Many carriers have online catalogs where you can shop for everything from stupid essentials (if you’re the person who blew 16,000 Lufthansa miles for an umbrella, please call us) to legitimate – if overpriced – luxuries like a new BMW i3. The experts will tell you that buying merchandise is one of the worst ways you can spend those miles, but what do you want more: an airfare expert’s approval or a Bluetooth-powered espresso machine?
Here are five of the most ridiculously expensive things you can buy with your airline miles – and no, the coffee beans aren’t included.
Via Emirates High Street
Emirates: If you’re a whisky drinker (or if you’re already drunk) maybe you wouldn’t hesitate to spend 514,684 miles on a bottle of Springbank Whisky in the Emirates High Street shop. The 40-year-old single malt retails for more than $2,300 per bottle – and only 134 bottles were ever produced. Or you could just buy a $55 bottle of Springbank 10 year and cash those miles in for an actual trip to Scotland…for your entire family.
Via: Flying Blue Store
Air France: The priciest item in the airline’s Flying Blue Store is this Bluetooth-powered espresso machine, which you can control from an app on your iPad or Android tablet. If you want an espresso machine that prepares 16 different coffee specialties and is smarter than the average toddler, be prepared to pay either 596,743 miles or €1,399 ($1,571) on Amazon.de. For that price, it should be packaged with an actual barista who will hand-deliver the macchiato to wherever you and your iPad are sitting. And he better spell your name right on the cup.
Via Finnair Plusshop
Finnair: The spendiest thing you can buy in Finnair’s Plusshop is the iconic ball chair from equally iconic Finnish furniture designer Eero Aarnio. The chair was designed in 1963, which explains why it looks half timeless, half like you shopped at George Jetson’s yard sale. If you want to excitedly swivel around in one of these, you can spend 2,960,000 Plus points in the Plusshop – or pay €7,400 ($8,360) in cash. Meanwhile, a book of all of Aarnio’s furniture designs will set you back $55.
Via Qantas Store
Qantas: The Technogym Kinesis™ Personal is an exercise system that looks like a cross between incomprehensible modern art and something that was retrieved from a medieval dungeon. It’s also available in the Qantas Store for 2,653,710 points and, although its system of Alpha, Beta and Gamma cables (no, really), might not turn you into Mr. Olympia, but it will make you sound pretentious as hell when you talk about how, with the Kinesis, “different muscles are simultaneously and synergistically activated.” How can you put a price tag on that?
Via Mileage Plus Awards
United: The Breitling Navitimer 01 watch costs roughly the same amount as a SmartCar – more than $16,000 – or it’s available in the United Mileage Plus shop for a whopping 2,896,400 miles. Is that the best use of that mileage balance? Not at all, but you’ll look beyond elegant when you’re looking at the departure times of all the flights you didn’t take.