When you have millions of miles, have traveled 80% of the time this year, just want some time at home and dread the idea of going to the mall for holiday shopping -- yes, it can be worth it.

It may be a much worse value to turn 20K miles into a $100 gift card -- but the gift card is appreciated far more by the recipient.
The sad thing is, I have gifted miles and free tickets to some recipients before that ended up either going unused or turned into a hassle (booking the ticket, hearing the tales after their trip about what a hassle security is these days...).