I am in the US as well, although west coast, and I find Avios to be a great deal for AA and AS flight up and down the west coast. There are awards within a certain mileage band that are only 7500 avios each way, which AA would charge 12.5k Aadvantage miles for. Also, now that AA domestic are fared as business and not first, you can get those same routes for 15k avios (2x multiplier, instead of 3x) which is cheaper than AAdvatage redemption by 10k miles.