Originally Posted by
shipcamein
If I were trying to accumulate 500K miles, it would be for two business class tickets, together, to Europe, not several different domestic coach fares…no?
I don't know...would you? Are 2 J seats to Europe what you want?
When I accumulate Star Alliance miles (the US and UA miles in your example), I'm usually after long-haul J. Using your example, that would be two J seats to Europe on the same flights, one redeemed with the 100k US and one redeemed with the 100k UA.
When I accumulate BA Avios, it's about half for domestic U.S. coach and half for Aer Lingus coach.
I agree that saying "I have 500,000 total miles" isn't necessarily useful information, but people around here are generally pretty conscious of avoiding leaving large swaths of orphaned miles lying around.