Last year around this time, my mindset was inclined towards "burn at almost every opportunity" because dynamic pricing was starting to get ugly and I feared the miles were going to continue to depreciate until we hit ~1.2 cpm across the board.

While my devaluation fear remains to an extent, I no longer feel any sense of panic or urgency. Basically, while getting free tickets to places like Denver isn't nearly as exciting/gratifying as SQ Suites, it's kind of liberating to spend miles on mundane trips without really thinking much.

BUT the main reason I'm no longer inclined to blow my entire stash on unnecessary premium class longhauls is that the immense value of simply having a lot of miles on hand to insure against fare increases fully hit me.