Originally Posted by turtleisland

Actually, I think Australia is one of the good values for an economy redemption.

Looking at some dates in mid-January, the fares are around $2200 for *A and $2100 for OW. Assuming 100% miles for the trip (no Elite bonus), that's 20,000 miles one would gain for the flight.

If the reward ticket is 80k, then it actually is 100k because of the lost opportunity cost. I'd estimate around $150 in fees.

So in this case, the value of the miles is 2cents/mile.

The other advantage of miles is being a bit more insulated from volatile air fare prices, depending on your program's reward availability.