I had an interesting conversation with Larry Kellner at the first CO DO about points. We were leaning on the back wall during the raffle (I think they gave away miles in 50K and 100K lots) and I asked him about the value of a mile. The really fascinating thing he told me was that CO actually tracks the miles to flights and credits awards against similar revenue trips.

For example, if I'm using 100,000 OnePass miles for tickets to Hawaii, the system will go back and find flights where I earned miles that are similar in cost basis to the Hawaii ticket. The miles are then charged to the cost of that flight. This is how they keep the cost of miles in the CO system balanced. (We didn't go into the miles for sale issue.)

I must have said something like "how can you possible keep track of that" which is when he told me about the magic computer he has where he can enter your OP number and see your entire history...

FWIW
DLM