I've taken Brancatelli's advice to heart. I've burned over 3 million miles in the past 5 years. I'm one of those that need a vacation from my vacations. I believe miles will continue to deteriorate in value, but more importantly, the raison d'etre of accumulating miles, to vacation worldwide in nice historic, scenic or cultural spots will also continue to be undermined by events outside our control, wars, politics, pollution, rampant tourism, even our own health, financial or family events. I've rather take advantage of my and my spouse's current state of health and the airlines current state of health and go where we can. So what if we have 0 miles banked when we're retired. We can always go fishing, if fishing still exists.