Got you. And, yes, I agree, if you have some big trip in sight, and there is award availability, sometimes the transfer of these things into airline miles makes them far more valuable than their use as cash for buying US tickets. I may be in that camp soon enough.

For the moment, however, I'm one of these folks fairly squeezed for time but getting a fair amount out of US status. In this case, the calculus may be a shade different. First, as you get close to a status boundary, 5000-7500 PQMs can be worth a lot. I don't want to exaggerate, but what if we said $300? I value US miles at 1.5cpm, and let's say, with the miles flown and double-credited as a CP, I am getting 12,500 off the 100,000 MR points spend on a US ticket or tickets. That's another $185. Not sure what the value is of a likely F upgrade on a domestic Y purchase, but it's worth something. Anyhow, before you know it, the expenditure of those 100,000 MRs on US Y tickets has a value to me of not 1.0cpp(oint), but something like 1.5 or 1.6cpp. So even if I could wave a magic wand and turn the 100,000 MR points into 100,000 US DMs (or, via, Avios, 84,000 US DMs), I don't see myself as any better off value-wise. I'd have to have something right in the line of sight (low fare 95,000 DM Envoy RT to Europe) to feel different.

Unless I am not doing the math right, which is always a possiblity.