Still have jetlag from my trip to BKK. I'm keeping all sorts of weird hours!

The reason I ask, is the temptation, after mounting 165,000 miles is to blow them on a F ticket to some place in Asia. A handful of years ago, I did just that, blow loads of miles on trips to BKK in F. After awhile found it silly and a waste of miles. Now I use miles for standard awards to Asia for family member to join me on trips or for segment upgrades. With only making 3 to 6 trips to BKK each year I always ran the prospect of a lose of status if I used one or more of the trips on miles in F.

My relatively new idea for the last several years to gain space on long haul trips: I book in E+ try and get no one by me. I let everyone board then I go to the desk about 10 minutes before they close the gate and ask if there is any seats on the airplane where I can catch some sleep. I've always had luck finding the 4 open seats on a 747 or 5 open on a 777 and go to them and set up shop. This takes the guess work out of...is this seat taken or not...will someone step in and move into seats I want to go to once the door closes and so on... However, I do feel odd when I have 4 seats in the center and several rows on my left and right are 3 deep! I just remind myself that with planning you reap it's reward.