I booked a couple of business class returns last year (plus some domestic flights) from Auckland because they were *much* cheaper than others. I found the seats to be very comfortable on the 787 and the food and service to be on the good side of acceptable. For the price, it was great.

It was never about the miles but I need to book some intra-Asia flights and thought I'd check my balance; I have 53K miles.

To my surprise this doesn't even get me a one-way ticket from Japan to Thailand *in economy class*. (by way of comparison, I use 40K miles to fly SQ in business from Auckland to Singapore). A quick look through other redemptions seem equally poor.

Am I missing something or are the CZ miles almost useless?

Are there any particularly worthwhile redemptions/routes that are more interesting?

(sorry for the newbie questions)