Since I'm not all that tall and the Silver Elite roulette game occasionally spins out out a First Class upgrade for me, I've never cashed in miles for an upgrade. We generally use FF tix for summer travel to Canadian destinations where, for some reason, the fares tend to be high but the award seats seem to be available too. Like many others here, I'm a rather active manager of the family's accounts to make sure we max out in every respect that we possibly can. For those of you who are "gifters", what a wonderful gesture that is!