That's absolutely right. Stopever rules vary among airlines airlines of course. Delta in Europe is wonderful, where the stopover doesn't even have to be enroute! I've done TUL-HVR-IST-TUL where getting to Hanover required a round trip to Paris. This was a $1400 ticket, so that's 2.8 cents per mile.

Just last month we redeemed 25K intra-Europe Delta awards for LHR-MOW-PRG-LHR and MOW-PRG-ZRH-MOW and a 50K award for TUL-PRG-ZRH-TUL. It was a great multi-country overlapping vacation for the 3 of us.

The season of the redemption also changes the value of miles. To Europe, AA is 40K in the winter and 60K in the summer, while Delta is a flat 50K all year. For years my strategy was use Delta to earn miles in the winter and cash them in the summer on multi-city trips.

My redemption rule is generally 2 cents a mile, with a purchase rule of under a penny. However these are lowering now that I'm accuring 250K miles a year.

Another considerration that increases the value of reward tickets is that the dates can often be changed without penalty. This can be worth $150 or more a ticket. We changed the dates on all three of the Delta tickets mentioned above. Even if the dates don't change, but might, there's a value just like insurance has a value.

And don't forget that award miles can be reinstated if not used, which is much better than non-refundable.