To strike the right tone here, I will preface this by saying that I understand that individuals will use their hard-earned miles in different ways.

Yet, when I received a thank you message from a close friend about an upgrade that I was able to gift to him on his recent flight, I thought back and realized that I rarely use my own miles, or upgrades. Of course it helps that I'm a OW Emerald, so many of the benefits I will get without much of a struggle on a paid ticket.

Instead, I gift them to family or friends to be able to give them opportunities to travel that they would not otherwise have.

There must be some great instances of fellow Flyertalkers doing some good with their benefits. The purpose here is not to brag, but rather to share great experiences, and perhaps motivate others to do the same. Care to share?