Examples where people have received 6 or 8 cents "value" per mile can easily be found, but that doesn't mean miles are worth 6-8 cents each. Many people may say that, but their behavior is another matter. If miles were worth 6-8 cents each (or even 2 cents each), why didn't more people take advantage of the ValueMags promotion? Why is InsideFlyer not selling bazillions of subscriptions with its current bonus promotion of 3000 miles per? Why do people not stock up on airline miles at 2 or 2.5 cents each by buying up to the maximum directly from the airlines?

We should be looking at what the lowest redemption value you actually WOULD use miles for as the "true" value. If you would redeem 25K miles for an award ticket instead of paying $475 out of your pocket for the domestic leisure coach fare (non-reimbursable by your employer), then it's difficult to say miles are worth 2 cents each.

For me, it's about 1.3 cents per mile. That doesn't mean I don't receive more value for my miles, as I very frequently do. It's simply that is the point at which I switch to using miles rather than paying cash.