I hear your frustration. I've come to realize that miles are worth far less than what they once were. I will no longer pay hardly any meaningful opportunity cost to get an FF mile. If I have to take 1 cent out of my pocket to get 1 FF mile, I won't do it. (I used to do maybe a cent and a quarter, thinking I could get a near-term return of a cent and a half or two cents on the mile.) Now I'll maybe pay a half-cent. Usually I find myself collecting hotel points instead, where I have better luck redeeming and the return on investment is both easy to document and quick to complete.

My biggest FF mile stash is AA. I'm burning the miles wherever I can, directly as much domestic travel as possible to WN and YX, and in general sending close to zero revenue in the direction of the legacy carriers. For the most part, I'm getting out of the legacy-FF-mile game, playing it with AA only where necessary (e.g., for certain biz travel and int'l travel) because they've given me a lifetime status.