While I do think F and J are grossly overpriced (most of the time), I don't think they are grossly overrated (also, most of the time). Certainly, on a long-haul international flight where I am traveling for work and have to (a) absolutely minimize the time I spend getting in and out of the airport, (b) go to work immediately after getting off a red-eye, or (c) do tons of work on the plane--which for me requires a lot of pieces of paper spread around and sometimes a laptop--flying in the front of the plane and checking in as quickly as possible really are rather critical. It's either that or spend another day away from home so that I can get to my destination a day early--not something I want to do, given the number of days I'm away from home anyway.

At the same time, when I'm on vacation, usually I don't care about sitting up front--unless it's an insanely long flight. The only time I did use miles to fly in first class, real first, was when I flew to Mongolia for vacation. That was a triumph of booking (PHL-ORD-NRT-ICN-ULN, on two separate tickets), and it was totally worth the 180,000 miles I spent for it.

My feelings exactly. There's usually little point in domestic F, unless you are very tall (I am not) or going home after a very long and hard day (sometimes I am, and then I really appreciate it).