When Mr Canuck and I lived in France and it the BAEC tier point thresholds were low enough to be achievable even for leisure travel, we booked revenue flights for me and reward flights for him, so I managed to hang onto Gold status for several years.

We used miles to fly relatives to visit us or to visit each other. My best experience with the gift of miles involved booking a ticket through Aeroplan a few years ago for my aunt (who had limited means), so that she could visit my mother, who had late stage lung cancer and wasn't expected to live much longer. Unfortunately, my mom died before my aunt could make the trip. When I posted a question on the FT board (the night before my mother died) about the best way to contact Air Canada and Aeroplan to change revenue and reward tickets, a very kind Flyertalker put me in directly touch with a senior Aeroplan representative. She took on complete responsibility for getting flights sorted out, including getting seats released on flights that had no reward seats left, so that my aunt could make it to the funeral. Change fees waived, of course. I appreciated the the effort made in the circumstances to release seats and waive fees. What I appreciated even more was the sympathy of strangers (on Flyertalk and at Aeroplan) and their efforts to put my mind and my aunt's mind at ease, so that we could focus on what was important. Of course, I wished that my aunt had been able to use the ticket for its intended purpose, but I am very happy with the result.