Different strokes for different folks. My in-laws always fly economy because they're relatively short and prefer to save cash (and to be fair domestic F is not all that special). My parents flew economy until they retired (also to save cash) but now go business class TATL because they get it. When I was young and poor I rarely redeemed for F because it was tough for me to earn miles and my body was able to recover quickly from a redeye. Now I earn plenty of miles from business travel, I have difficulty sleeping on planes, and it takes me a week to recover from jetlag, So I'm happy to do C x 4 when my family goes TATL or TPAC - which admittedly isn't every year. Miles are always depreciating (read: award prices are always increasing) so it makes sense to burn them for C rather then using for a cramped economy seat and hoarding them. Particularly if OP is right.