while redeeming 25K miles for domestic tix just to go from point A to point B is not the most efficient way to use your miles, when you throw in the one allowable stopover on either outbound or inbound leg, plus one allowable open jaw, your 25K tix suddenly becomes a lot more valuable.

most of our domestic travels involved coast to coast, we seldom redeem our miles for that because lots of time one can get a cheapo tix for $250 or less. the time we redeem 25K planAAhead w/ AA is when we plan for a stopover, and sometimes also need an open jaw. we used to travel to LAX on award tix, took off from there to Pacific region for a 2-week trip on a paid tix, back to LAX, continued our journey on the award tix, to our "final" destination either in Canada or somewhere else in U.S., spend a few days, then return home. the journey we traveled on award tix, if priced as paid tix, usually ran $600+. couple years ago we made a trip to Alaska, then to Seattle from there we went to Vancouver ... all on award tix, travelled on AA and AS. The AAdvantage desk agent was very good and very patient to find out we can go to SEA from ANC with 25K award, vs 40K award if we go to YVR. The routing if on paid tix, would be close to $800.

When you actually put a $ value on your "potential" redemption, you can then see which way is the most efficient way to use your miles. jmho.