Welcome to FlyerTalk, Julie. At the heart of your inquiry is age old debate of quality versus quantity. Would you prefer to take less frequent "free" trips and travel in style or not? For me, I usually burn my miles on international trips in economy, as tempting as it is to spend more miles to sit up front. See, with an economy reward, I can afford to bring my fiancee with me, for example, to Europe rather than traveling alone in more spledor. With that said, I am making a special exception for future travel to Australia where I can't bear the though of being a captive in the back of the bus on a 15 hour flight.

You will find that many FlyerTalkers almost exclusively use their miles to upgrade and/or claim premium cabin awards. At the same time, these same FlyerTalkers often bemoan the use of miles for economy travel. I'm not saying that they're wrong, but you might want to consider that they wear different shoes from you.

Specifically, many of our friends and acquaintances on this board have huge mileage balances in the hundeds of thousands, even millions. Under those circumstances, the expense of 100,000 miles for a transatlantic first class seat be a drop in the bucket. But if it takes you several years to build up that many miles, it may be a steep pill to swallow.

So, above all, consider your own mileage accrual potential (and your own financial resources when you purchase an economy class ticket and burn the miles to upgrade) when you contemplate in what level of luxury to travel. For me, I'd rather maximize the use of my limited miles to see more of the world even if it means traveling in less comfort. Your miles, of course, may vary.

[This message has been edited by cAAl (edited 08-20-2003).]