It's perfectly wonderful to know that this thread is surviving well! I recently made it through "the ceiling" and crossed 25,000 but at that juncture decided that 5,000 AA miles were too puny to go for, so I decided to exchange for an award at 30,000 instead. I mean, it's A LOT easier to earn 5,000 miles from flying - 2,000 actual miles, 2,000 elite bonus miles, and 1,000 promo miles!

I HAVE to come up with more trips... am losing out on the journal-writing competition!!