Good post. Some comments:

Rapid Rewards is an award winning program. While awards expire in 12 months, you get a free RT after 4RT flights on any flight (with the exception of about 10 blackout dates) that has a seat if booked on the net. That is equivalant to 8000 AA miles (500miles* 2 * 4trips. In addition for the FF there is the Companion Pass that lets you bring your "other" on a flight for free, even on an award ticket. Lately I have been burning many AA miles using Anytime awards because AA has no regular award inventory. While WN won't take you to Paris, they can take you and the kids to Orlando, Tampa, DC, Corpus, Ft Lauderdale,San Francisco, South Padre, LA, Boston, Vegas, Pacific NW, Salt Lake and even Midland Texas. Finally the awards are fully transferable. They make outstanding Christmas gifts