Let me add one more thing: The very general consensus that I have noted on FT as to the best use of reward miles, in terms of what you get for the mileage cost, is international, long haul (i.e. trans atlantic or trans pacific) first/business class travel. If you compare the mileage cost to the average ticket price, it is a wonderful the value. Other than that, I use them for emergency short notice travel in which I can't find a reasonable ticket price. Last night I used 25K for a round trip MIA to BNA (Nashville) flight for my wife due to a family emergency. It was either 25K in miles to use the airport close to us, or $400+ and a road trip to FLL in rush hour traffic. Granted, a 1600 mile round trip is a pretty inefficent way to spend 25k AA miles, but it was a toss up, so I used it.