Originally Posted by
sdsearch
So another thing you may to consider is whether straight-through awards are available from another airport within reasonable driving distance. I and several people I know think nothing of flying to/from Nashville and driving 2ish hours to/from Huntsville rather than connecting on Barbie jets to Huntsville (even if awards aren't involved, if a nonstop is available to/from Nashville airport but less-reliable connections are required to/from Huntsville airport). Obviously, though, not every place in the country has a bigger airport just 2 or 3 hours away by car.
Nearest mainline United is probably New Orleans, which is 4+ hours home to airport. And if I was going to Japan, the spousal unit would probably prefer to overnight in Houston going there or back so we're talking a pretty big gap between paid and award tickets.
For transatlantic, Delta actually had good economy availability for many destinations at the 60-70K level with a departure 15-20 minutes from my house so best to use them that way rather than driving six hours or Tampa or Orlando for a saver *Alliance flight across the sea. (Yes, I live in a bizarre place where the Sky Peso is usually higher value than a United mile.)