In my view, there has been and will continue to be a huge devaluation in the worth of miles. UA's autumn, 2002 increases were in some cases a 50% increase in the miles needed for awards. Other airlines of interest to me such as Delta are already tough to get saver awards with and others like CO are just about impossible.

I think this pattern will continue and increase as airlines come face to face with the financial reality of most of the industry. UA Mileage Plus miles won't disappear in the bankruptcy but they won't be worth what they are today a year or two from now.

My strategy runs from this view and is to use as many miles as I can for travel I would otherwise take. I may begin using free travel to Europe rather than buying coach and upgrading, since on UA the upgrade to business class now costs 120k rountrip for 2 and the free travel is only 160. I'm booking domestic trips based on price, not loyalty, and hotels and car rentals are almost all on price unless the difference is only a few dollars.

Funny-I just read my words above. Using miles and not caring much about accumulating more. Sort of the start of thinking frequent flyer programs are worth much anymore.