Lkar,

Have you considered buying BMI miles. The regular price is under 2 cents each. You can use cash and miles awards so you don't need that many miles and the cash portion is about 1 cent per mile so the award only cost about 1.5 cents per mile

Even better C awards are cheaper than AA. You can actually buy a C award to Europe for about $1075 cash. You also get free stopovers, and one way awards. Plus star has much better availability IMO. Only downside is fuel surcharges.