One thing is that, domestically, connections are frequently much cheaper but annoying. RDU-LGA-ORD is frequently available on weekday mornings for 9500 miles, while the nonstop might be 11k in the off-season and 18-20k now that we are approaching summer. That said, I never see connections through CLT, it's always LGA or occasionally PIT.

I've burned off about 200k in the last year, all domestic and mostly on variations of the above. I'm generally getting 1.3c per mile, or else I either buy a revenue ticket and credit to BA, or buy on a different airline. Now that the Flagship Lounges are open again, I will mostly buy award tickets into ORD (lifetime AA Gold) and revenue tickets out of ORD (BA Silver).