Thanks again everyone for your responses - they are all very much in line with what I am thinking.

To AX9465 who recommended a Citi card that offers some status benefits - any information you may know about this would be greatly appreciated. I checked out their site but could not find anything - we currently have a Citi Platinum Select card so I would have no problem asking for it to be re-affinitized to such a program if it still exists.

It seems as though my best hope here is to convince the CFO that their miles are better spent when folks need to travel internationally, and that my $200 fares are not a great use of 25K+ miles/points/whatever. As for flying the cheapest carrier (which it seems AA never is these days on my routes ) I am just going to have to deal with that.

Thanks again - any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I consider myself somewhat proficient at this stuff but far from an expert and always able to learn something new on FT...

best, Lewis