Hi,
I am completely lost with what to do with our mileage program.
Here is the story, I am not completely illerate with FF miles, but things seems to be so bad right now, I dont know which way to go.

We fly to france at least once a year, sometimes twice. We either go to Paris or Marseille.We like Air france a lot, I don't like to go through Amsterdam the transfer sucks. I like going through Madrid because my sister lives there but frankly not a big fan of AA..

We used to have Citi credit card and redeem for flight for 60,000 points.
That is gone, and now very expensive to fly to Marseille (120,000 on average, 1 point for 1 cent)
plus cashback sucks

Hubby also has 65,000 miles on united, but it is not a great airline for france, so expensive too. probably we will use these for domestic flights rewards

We went for BA credit cards bonus (great) but fees are outrageous ($850 for 2 flights) and there is NO availability whatsoever..because of all the promo, plus all the strikes.. tried booking xmas and next may (2011) .. nothing

So what should be my strategy? we are used to get about a couple of free flights every year or so. with our credit cards mostly . I like not spending $2400 on 1 week "vacation-marathon"to see the family. We usually use miles for that and spend money on real trips

Are these days simply over?
spending is highly on groceries, dining