Originally Posted by blindfaith
...Mr Blindfaith got more pleasure than the "price" paid for two RT...
Which brings up another point. I often give award flights to friends and relatives. They appreciate the tickets more than a check for the fare, perhaps because they're thinking of how many miles I must have spent on airplanes to earn those miles. (I don't volunteer information about elite bonuses, promos, and so on. In this situation, as the saying goes, "what they don't know won't hurt them.")
These have mostly been in economy. Since the recipients weren't used to F travel, had often never flown in front, that wasn't a problem. Using miles still made the gift worth more that the money would have been. (One F gift was to fly my then-85-year-old aunt TUS-EWR to her grandniece's wedding. That was definitely worth the 40K.)