I'm one of your cheapskate, back-of-the-plane, best deal wins travelers when I spend my own buck, but I fly enough to easily be 1P each year. I've always been fortunate to find what I need on United for within $200 or so of the competition so this hasn't been a problem. However, due to a family emergency, I need to book something along the lines of FRA-CID this weekend and United's price is $700 higher than the competition.

To spend $500 to fly KLM/NWA or $1200 on UAL all the way? Are the miles and E+ worth that? How do other FTers rate the "value" of flying United, when the monetary value is clearly at a disadvantage?

Just curious...