I usually redeem for peak week coach seats to Caribbean Islands. For Presidents week 2010 I got six AAdvantage award seats for JFK- SXM. IN the past I have done the same to STT, AUA, and SKB. Those seat usually go for $1000 or more.

On the hotel side, I have redeemed Christmas, Presidents and Easter week at various properties including Hilton Whistler, Westin St. John, Westin Mont Tremblant, Hyatt Aruba, Westin Aruba, Hilton Los Cabos, Hilton Barbados, and Hilton Key West (when it was a Hilton). Those room go for $400 to $900 a night.

I am very pleased with the value of my redemptions.

Long haul international F.

I've had a rather mixed bag so far.

With American I used 260,000 for two OneWorld J class tickets on a US-Rome-Brazil-Mexico-US trip. I have also used some for a last minute ticket for myself to Michigan, for family and friends to come visit me, and for Admirals Club memberships. Right now I'm saving up for another OneWorld J ticket.

With NW/Delta I've used them for friends to come visit me.

With United I've used a lot of them for upgrades. I got to try the new 767 J class seat last year. I've also used a lot for the Red Carpet Club and for friends to come visit me.

With USAirways I used some for a friend to take a trip he couldn't afford to, for a friend and I to go to San Francisco and for a friend of mine to accompany me to Savannah. I now only earn US miles with my Bank of America Check Card so they're accululating rather slowly.

In my pre-flyertalk days I used them for domestic tickets and upgrades.

Since discovering FT last November I've accumulated 300K miles on AA and am planning in an around the world vacation flown in J, maybe F if I earn enough.

upgrades on longhaul after running out of SWU's (TATL, TPAC, NA-SA)

award tickets when the fare would be too steep

Primarily for business-class trips to Europe, then domestic trips for relatives and very occasionally when I need to travel domestic at a specific time but the prices are too high. I've managed to get tickets at the lowest mile level for almost every trip on NW, UA, SK and AA, but suspect that I will no longer be able to accomplish this on DL.

Oh, I upgraded a couple of NW Europe flights with miles on a B fare several years back. Forgot about that.

Same here, Rudi taught me that trick in the 90's. Up until that time I would save the miles for a free business class ticket, but he pointed out that buying a cheap coach ticket and using miles to upgrade resulted in the flight earning miles and counting for elite status (and the miles counted toward Million Miler status as well). It also allowed you to fly in business more often.

These days, though, as was mentioned elsewhere in this thread, the miles cost for upgrades has greatly increased (particularly for the discounted coach tickets) or requires a cash co-pay, if miles can even be used to upgrade (some fares are not eligible for upgrade no matter how many miles you offer). So, I don't upgrade internationally with miles as much as I used to, although I still do so occasionally.

My largest outlay of miles is once a year my S.O. and I will take an international vacation in business or first to some exotic place. Using miles for such tickets is the best "cents per mile" redemption, and certainly helps V's mood.

I also occasionally use my miles to get tickets for vacation visits by relatives and friends, and once or twice have used them to get last-minute tickets for myself where the cost of buying the ticket would have been outrageous.

International Premium Cabins. Preferably XF but XC when travelling with family. This is by far the best bang for your buck. No comparison to domestic travel in any cabin. We never use miles for international upgrades but will use for transcons.

I used to use for last minute domestic getaways but now I am going for the gold with international rewards/upgrades.

Upgrades for long trips ...sponsoring upgrades for friends and family that otherwise would of never seen F in their life.

Mileage upgrade that includes domestic that I knew as a low/mid tier elite I had no chance to clear and longer than 6 hrs flight time. eg. BOS-DFW-YVR, 7.5-8 hrs of F.

Also do reward long haul F/J ticket provided I can save up frequently enough

#1. International first or business awards to europe and asia.

#2. More often but much less fun, last-minute short trips (350 miles) to small aiports where the fares are always high. The route doesn't have first class so coach awards always.

Ideally for international TATL or TPAC business class seats and upgrades or Hawaii upgrades.

As a practical matter that has become difficult on UA the last few years due to *A blocking and obnoxious inventory controls. And the upgrades will soon be a worse deal due to the heinous co-pays (ditto for AA and CO).

Also would like to have used for coach travel to Cancun and Orlando but found that impossible during peak season on all major carriers.

As a result the only miles I've burned last year were for my infant on SFO-BOS-SFO. Well worth the 25k cost even though she could have travelled on my lap for free, as she slept the whole way. The only thing that pissed me off is that UA would not refund 5k when it launched an award sale.

I think I have found the best use for my miles :-)

The future mrs gdaily is living in Ukraine, and she needs to get a visa for every trip/country we visits. The problem is that she needs to show a return ticket when applying for the visa. And it is not 100% that she gets the visa...

So I book a refundable ticket with miles, she applies for visa showing this ticket, and if she gets the visa, we cancel this ticket and buy her a cheapo ticket instead.

For my self, I have used miles mostly for upgrades to biz on long flights.

Economy class for domestic US and international vacation travel.

I can't justify spending 2x the miles to fly up front, for just a few hours of less-uncomfortable travel.