Also, I think it is also important to figure how many miles you are getting for your $140 each trip. If your $1400 gave you enough miles for several tickets, that's another thing to consider. If each segment gives you a minimum of 500 miles, you book on-line for another 1000, then 10 trips gives you at least 40,000 miles. I just figured that my two trips to Brussels while AA had their bonus, one a fare at $279, one at $338 (in addition used 25% off coupons on the first and "bumped vouchers" on the second) netted about 72000 miles besides giving me platinum.(AA gave me and my husband EACH 9000 miles for a 2 1/2 hour delary on the tarmac for an oil leak. Didn't even have to write a letter - they just gave it. Now THAT was worth the extra week-end flight to Brussels over President's day week-end. My extra trip in the fall by giving me Gold, contributed because i was able to get enough miles on that first trip to Brussels (before Mar 1) to give 4 upgrades which I traded for 10,000 miles ( counted in that 72000). But in each case, only "one" more flight made the difference, and I did it really cheaply. I don't know if I would have done it otherwise unless there were places I wanted to go or people I wanted to see anyway.

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DtG