Trying to use them past NRT into Asia does seam almost hopeless.

I just gave in on my next vacation and went with an upgrade off of M. about $2300 and 50k miles for ATL<>BKK RT isn't that bad. And I am not like some of you guys with "infinite" miles.

Still, I will miss the days of using 140K miles of so for a free RT ticket across the pacific in C (or better yet, SQ's F class).

As an ATL captive there is not much to do other than make the best of it.