Really your title should be "2008" not "2009" as would have made far more sense to burn miles (as you did) by booking before the large increases in award chart requirements and upgrade co-pays on UA, AA and DL.

At this point the increases are all effective (exception: UA's upgrade changes don't take effect until 7/01) and the mileage requirements are unlikely to increase again for another year or two. So there is no rush to redeem anymore.

In some sense 2009 may be a better year to buy tickets (assuming you have the money) rather than use miles, as there will be many sales due to shrinking demand. Whereas in 2008, prices were very high so using miles was a sound proposition.

I wish I could have cashed in some miles (and briefly sketched out a couple of nice itineraries) but family obiligations will preclude the types of international trips that would have been the best use of miles under the old award charts, so I have nothing planned.