So, here is my dilema. I need to travel from CA to VA in august. I have 20,000 + miles, I need a little over 4,000 miles. I had intended to fly myself and kids back, but my oldest has school exspenses for the fall that I can't pay for and also pay to fly them back. So, now I am looking at trying to book the cheapest way possible for myself, and I got an email today saying the miles were reduced in price to .025 per miles. Looks like I can buy the remaining miles I need to purchase my ticket for under the cost of the ticket itself. I have never booked a reward ticket, so not sure how it works first of all, and if it is worth buying the miles to book the ticket or just buying the ticket outright and saving the miles for another trip. Not sure of the cost affiliated, if buying the miles and using them to book a ticket costs the same (fees for using miles for a ticket?), then I should probably just book my ticket outright and save the miles for another future trip. Checking all airlines in the area, flying United remains the cheapest and convienent, since I am at a small airport, and driving to a larger one takes time, gas and by the end of it, does make up for a small savings. So, it seems like a no brainer to me, to keep flying with United and banking my miles.