Thanks all for the good news, and of course very glad that I could count on peeps here to have the info.

Yes, I knew there had been dialog about the 4 pd segments rule and whether it was enforced or not. But as pointed out by others it's the lifetime part that I wasn't sure of, since the web page I was looking at on the 4 segments did not comment on lifetime status.

And sdsearch - totally agree sometimes it doesn't pay to use miles for smaller trips or if you get a better deal - keep them for something that does pay. That will come into play even more as fees for using them are likely to mount...

Thanks again!

FTF