<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by sipples:
Just make sure all those miles don't expire before you can enjoy them. One little trick is to donate 100 miles from an account to charity, and that satisfies the "activity" requirement in most programs.</font>
NW is the exception to this. Activity is considered adding to the account, not subtracting.
I agree with
gleff about AA. My history with them has been fantastic (but I have status). On UA I've had success using their partner AC for awards with no difficulty, always first choice of flights.
NW has been a bit of a dice roll but in fairness I was looking for some of the more difficult US-European awards at the best times - I did end of up getting what I needed.
You'll likely not have any problems with hotel awards, Hilton being the only one with capacity controls of significance.
Good luck buring the miles!