I have a really hard time redeeming for more than 1.2 cents per point. I really don't care about premium classes too much so I am always looking at economy tickets. Its rare that I need a ticket which cost much more than 1.2 cent per mile when factoring in the lost miles. I guess this is partly because I live in Chicago which has pretty competitive fares.

Tickets to Asia tend to be about 70K miles and another 14K in lost miles plus about 80 in taxes. So at 1.2 cents that is $1088. You can usually buy a ticket for that much IMO.

Tickets to India are 80K and 16K lost miles plus 100 in taxes. That's about $1250. $1100 to India is pretty normal.

Tickets to Australia are 80K and 18K lost miles plus another $80 or so in taxes. That is again about $1250 and generally that is more than the cost of a ticket to Australia.

Tickets to europe are 55K. Add about 120 in taxes and 11K lost miles. That comes to $912 at 1.2 cpm. You'll pay more than this in peak summer but that is the only time. Last year I only paid $575 in August to Zurich anyways.

Domestic tickets are 25K and I rarely spend over $250.

Tickets to Hawaii, AK, Mexico, Caribbean, central America and south America tend to yield better values. These are generally what I am saving my miles for. Last minute domestic tickets could be beneficial, though I almost never need those and have enough miles for 15 last minute tickets. Also with WN it would probably be difficult to spend more then $600 on a last minute RT.

None of this even accounts for the fact that awards are generally way more difficult to find than the lowest fare classes. This obstacle makes miles worth way less to me.

Because of my experience I find that I always burn if the miles are yielding 1.2 cpm or better. Its very rare that I can achieve this number. Consequently I have been receiving more miles than I can burn. I'm starting to get better results with BA miles since the free stopover is essentially getting me 2 domestic tickets for 25K miles.

I know my 1.2 cpm is much lower than most of flyertalk but I can only explain it in that almost every FT member seems to be depending on premium class awards to yield numbers like 2 cpm or better. If not premium class travel than its generally some tiny town with no low fare carriers and $500 domestic tickets.

So am I missing anything. Who is getting a better yield without using premium classes or uncompetitive airports.