in November 2012 i redeemed 270,000 UA miles leaving a balance of <25,000. my account is back up to >200,000. 100% based on flying, hotel partner stays, car rentals. no CC earning.

many members here maintain balances of >400-500,000 miles. some in the millions.

because of constantly changing values, mostly to our detriment, i plan to burn down my UA pile in the near future.

in a typical year i burn around 75-100,000 miles and earn between 125-200,000.

this year i expect to earn about 150,000 mostly on AS and spend about 250,000, exclusively on UA.