<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by nsx:
For value, it's hard to beat Southwest's Rapid Rewards. With double credit, you can fly 4 short and cheap round-trips (totalling $300 to $400) and get the virtual equivalent of a full-fare coast-to-coast US domestic ticket. The percentage value returned on your travel purchase is incredible.
If you don't normally fly Southwest, you can buy $16k of US Savings Bonds online using the Southwest Visa card and pick up a free ticket.
The Southwest tickets won't take you Europe or Hawaii, but they are very useful indeed for domestic travel in peak periods or on short notice.</font>
I have a friend who flies MCI-STL segments on Southwest all the time for work, usually for about $100 R/T.
He gets a completely absurd number of free tickets to use for Vegas, Florida, the west coast, etc.
He and his family enjoy flying that particular airline, so the free tickets have great value to him. Certainly, for a very specific type of flyer, Rapid Rewards is an unbeatable FF program.