Originally Posted by Thunderroad

+1. Exactly. The various cent/mile calculations can come in handy, but the bottom line is a personal one. My wife and I redeem them almost exclusively for international J and F vacation flights that we'd never pay $$ for--so we can't pretend that the miles are worth the the tickets' cash value, but love using them that way anyway And on a couple of occasions we've converted AA miles to HH points to be able to stay at fantastic Hilton resorts. But you might well be comfortable in Y or have different mileage balances, which of course is perfectly fine. At some point just cash them in for a trip(s) you like, and don't worry about whether you're squeezing the maximum value out of them.