While many programs have devalued points/miles, I still feel it is worth holding onto the points/miles until I get the award I want. However, that is because I know that eventually I will get enough miles for that award, even if the award costs 25% more when I want it. I try to get about 6-10 cents/mile when I use an award ticket (like IND-JFK-FRA-CPT-JNB-VFA-JNB-MUC-IAD-IND in business class, which would cost $8k-$12k, for 110k miles), so using miles on a very cheap coach ticket just for the sake of using them (I have a friend who will use 25k miles to fly STL-MIA when a ticket would cost $150) does not make sense to me. However, to someone who does not earn many miles and just wants a free ticket somewhere certainly can justify this because they might never have enough miles for, or need, a "real" award.