I spent waaaaay too much money on travel last year. This year I have less time to travel due to the ole work schedule, and I need to trim my travel budget (I didn't have a budget last year). So the time to spend miles is when I am not sure when can I travel? Last minute, just to get out of town, go to a hockey game, visit a friend, for one day kind of thing travel costs an arm and a leg. The miles are therapy. Can't put a price on that.

I used to hoard my miles, and then I decided to use my first award ticket to go to a FT get-together. No regrets. Me and 7 good-looking guys at an Irish pub. What a deal.

macatak44, welcome to flyertalk, and go first class to europe. I just got a FC award ticket EUG-VIE for 80,000 miles for a friend (who's never flown FC or had status) for his birthday. Paid ticket would have cost over 7000 dollars. I've never seen him so excited and now he is looking into collecting miles through phone, dining and other means.

Linda