Originally Posted by
halfswede
So, basically I'm using 37,500 miles to cover $195 worth of ticket; I know! Terribly inefficient use of miles!

That's almost exactly $0.005/mile, which is what the redemption rate is for many of the cash-equivalent awards in the Amex Membership Rewards program. I always thought that those were a terrible redemption rate, but assumed that some people must redeem for them because the Amex catalog is full of them.
To answer your question, I think your redemption is on the low end of things, but certainly people have done worse.