Okay, that headline was a teaser. I've booked a Singapore Air F award (SFO-HKG) with 140,000 Delta miles and a Thailand Air business class award (HKG to Thailand) with 30,000 United miles. Do you know how much those two RTs would cost, even through a discounter? Well, I don't (it's a lot more than I'd be willing to pay), but I'm sure it's a ton of dough.

In three previous years, I booked SFO-LHR RTs on Virgin Atlantic using Delta miles -- Upper Class, mind you!

One can reasonably complain about tight availability here or there. However, to those who start the many threads about miles being worthless, I say hooey.