Originally Posted by YOWandbeyond

It would make more sense, but since we're travelling over the Christmas holidays, it's not an option. There weren't/aren't any rewards seats on ANYTHING except United... regardless of which direction we went in (Pacific or Atlantic, via USA or not)

As for being "worth it", the question was less one re: points and more one re: whether it's worth going at all.

In the end, we decided to bite the bullet and go. Two weeks in Japan > 15 hours on United. And maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.