That isn't the value - that's the price. Here's the value from my real-life experience. I used AP for YYZ-ZRH for Mrs. B1 and purchased a revenue ticket for the same trip at the same time for me. The ticket without tax was about $700 and the AP without fees was 80,000 miles (Avenue Rewards because no Classic was available - but low fares obviously were). So the value of one AP unit in this case was $0.00875, or less than 1 cent. The good thing about money is that you can spend it elsewhere. The good thing about AP, as a kickback from a vendor, it's better than most things that aren't money.