Yup - I realized I blew it on the forum. Thanks for finding me!
I grew up in DC and lived in NYC for years. Great ideas, but I end up both places anyway, frequently.
In the end, I called and am using Star Alliance to spend $62.50 on each ticket to get to MSY. Hope it's fun.
By the way, I think these miles are SO old, that they predate the expiration rules. I suppose I could hang on to them, but they're not earning interest or anything. I'm using 25K to not pay for $220 tickets, but I'm paying $62.50, so I really am getting just over half a cent per mile. Pretty bad.