Originally Posted by sharmaintl

djc225, my welcome to FlyerTalk from me too. You will find a lot of great info on the value of airline miles and loyalty to an airline in this forum and on BoardingArea.com, this site's sister site that hosts several great blogs for frequent fliers (including my blog). Here is also a link to a blog post I wrote answering the very question you asked:

Is Accumulating Airlines Miles worth it?