I burned 150K (3X50K) for a domestic transcon to go to the Rose Bowl

the tickets were anywhere from 500-800 bucks each.. I say anywhere from b/c I had to wait until the the games were announced to buy my ticket and to travel New Years Eve and come back the 3rd Sat.. it was expensive.. when I finally got around to looking I was having problems finding 3 tickets under 2 grand (total) in coach; I did not want to shell out that kind of dough and since I had 665K miles I decided to go with it and just eat the miles.. plus the $15 in taxes ($5 X 3)...

not the best value but as someone said, I still have that 1800-2100 cash in my pocket and I should requalify for EXP next year so right off the bat that is another 200K earned back..

I don't know.. if you have the miles, sometimes its just more fun to keep the cash.. sure you can get more value if you try.. but sometimes stuff comes up that you want to do and well... thats more fun than trying to get the most for each and every mile