I think that there are other factors as well. First of all how many miles do you have in the ban? If very few - how you might use them (sparingly) might be different if you flew a lot for business and they came in faster than you could spend them. That being said, in spite of my having a lot of miles in the bank, (no business travel - all on my dime) I don't use a domestic ticket if there is a cheap ticket with LOTS of miles to gain. Flights to California for $200 are not worth using miles UNLESS, you need some flexibility and may be changing your dates, or there is a reduced mileage award availabile OR you want to make a stopover which would up the cost of a paid ticket. So you could some bang for your buck of $25K if you made a stopover. i also use reduced award tickets to Toronto which comes up frequently because Canadian destinations tend to me expensive for the number of miles you get. On the other hand, if there is a really cheap ticket, I spend the money. Used reduced award tickets to Bangor for my daughter - tickets to Bangor tend to be expensive, and we need the flexibility. We used 2 for 17,500 each. I used a 25K ticket departing from Bangor back to Chicago as I thought I might need flexibiilty and I was able to do a stopover in New York on my way to Chicago. If you have to change your dates or postpone your trip you won't be socked with a $100 fee.