All of my miles have been used for Saver Awards on Star Alliance. Some trips include:

* Japan in 2004
* London in 2006
* Hong Kong in 2007
* Thailand & Japan in 2009

Re: OP. I do the earning on leisure trips on my own dime, always on a coach fare code. Usually it's by bottom fishing spot-special or hub-attack fares (DL/NW sometimes take aim at CLT for those). Sometimes a real "gift" comes along in the form on a mistake fare that also earns usable miles. Thanks to the economy lately even the WN/FL-match fares can look pricey, and my flying on DL/NW has dropped a bit. Free upgrades are never objected to.

Burning is for leisure trips, also in the back. SE Asia is a favorite target, and it's important to maximize value with stopovers, open jaws and things like that. HNL as a stopover for Asia trips is nice, for example. Domestically a favorite target is Alaska in September at 25K RT.

The high-water mark had to be a 60-day summer 2006 odyssey with Australia (CNS), New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Fiji and Samoa grafted onto a SE Asia trip with MNL-GUM-CNS on CO a key connecting link. Took 7 total tickets, 4 of them as awards, and 125K miles.

Take LAX-HKG, for example.

It's a 15 hour flight and the difference between Y and C is ~20k miles, or 2/3 of a credit card application.

Having experienced both products (Y and C on CX), the decision is a no-brainer. What's more, F for an additional 12.5k miles is also a no-brainer.

On the domestic front, I agree with you.

For a trip AUStin - SYD, Mrs. Middle_Seat and I flew Economy Plus on UA. Had to pay a couple of hundred dollars for the Economy Plus membership, and used it again for a domestic trip before it expired.

All other trips, we try for exit rows.

New to FF
 

For those of you who use your miles for International F and J tickets, how many miles do you normally accumulate in a year? Also what percentage of those miles come from something other than actual miles flown?

I will b flying about 4-5 Tran-Pacific r/t and some domestic flights back in the US next year. That seems like a lot to me but at that rate it will be years before I can afford to purchase an international F class ticket with only miles. Am I missing something or do I just not fly as much as I feel that I do.

I flew a bit more than that for a 10 year stretch up until mid 2008, and have dropped to (an accrual rate of) less than 50k per year since. However, around the same time my travel tailed off, I started to get more serious about credit cards and related schemes, and have never felt richer (in terms of miles and points).

Part of the problem with flying a lot of transpacs in Y (since you didn't mention a biz class travel policy, I'm making this assumption), is that you end up burning a lot of miles on upgrades (either directly or via trade) so the net result isn't so impressive.

Applying for credit cards, by contrast, can be done from the comfort of your own home (i.e. soar legs and jet lag don't enter the picture).

How do the taxes and fees compare for Y and the premium cabins? 20k additional miles sounds like a relatively small price to pay, but I was always under the impression that the taxes/fees for a C or F redemption represented a substantial additional cost...

Taking your LAX-HKG example, how much are the taxes/fees for a CX award ticket in C? In F?

If using AA miles, the taxes/fees should be identical in all service classes and AA does not collect YQ for award redemptions. (BTW, it's possible that there are exceptions to both of these rules, but I've never encountered any.)

The only case I think think of where premium awards entail higher taxes are flights to/from LHR because they have a luxury tax there.

Vacations with the family - mostly Caribbean, Hawaii, western US, etc. I may be the oddball, but I'd much rather take three coach flights to Hawaii, Aruba, Grand Cayman, etc. for week long vacations than a single J/F flight to Europe, Asia, etc. Sitting in a comfy seat and getting free drinks is nice, but it's only for a few hours, vs. the week of the actual vacation I'm traveling to.

My guess is, those who took the J/F seats to Europe, Asia and Australia, dont just fly there and back for the sake of flying although flying in comfort is a big added plus. They also spent week(s) long actual vacation, too. We spent 6 1/2 weeks earlier this year doing an AA OW130C to the Pacific Region involving 7 countries and 11 cities. On top of the comfort afforded by lieflat seats over Pacific, lounge access in airports also is a valuable benefit. :)

It also depends on where you are in relation to where you go. For folks on the East Coast, going to Hawaii in coach is kind of tough. Likewise for folks on the West Coast, going to Europe in coach is also tough, but is much less so for folks on the East Coast.

The flights to Asia and Australia are just waaaay too long to endure in coach to many people, even for folks on the West Coast. The flatbed seat, even the lieflat seat, really makes HUGE difference.

Coach across the Pacific. I go someplace I would never go without miles. Exit rows are just fine for me, I can sleep without a problem.

What you use miles for all depends upon your goals and interests. Here are some thoughts on the topic of Mileage Redemptions.

I'll give an example based on what I'm most familiar with (and has nice roundish numbers) -- flying SFO-NRT is a bit over 10,000 miles roundtrip. With United, a saver business award to Japan is 120,000 miles -- so it'd take 12 trips to get there free up front (well, middle or above :p ) using the base miles you earn. However, most airlines give a bonus to elites -- United gives a 100% bonus to Premier Exec & 1K on most fares. Reach those levels and it'll only take 6 trips (earning 20,000 per trip). Add in some credit card spend or other bonus offers (shopping, hotels, tax payment promos, etc) and it should be possible for you to get such an business award in a year with 4/5 RT.

I'm not so enthralled by those numbers (though, your math is correct). Back when the C award was 90k and F was 120k (1 year ago), it sort of made sense.

However, one year on, I can't be bothered to think about going out of my way to give UA money just to keep well pumping.

I recently advised all of my friends that fly international Y frequently to pitch their bosses on the idea of reimbursing them for FF redemptions based on lowest available fares. 3 of 10 bosses went for it, and now these folks are loaded with US miles going into 2010. While they won't earn status miles on their flights, they will be in C or F most of the time. Availability isn't as bad as some make it out to be. The drawbacks to this road are that change/cancelation penalties are steep.

ETA: I feel compelled to clarify my miles buying advice as a precautionary measure for those that could be inclined to overdo it, so here are the basics:
-US miles are currently a bargain until the end of the year, both using the transfer/purchase system (~1.2 cpm) and the 250% shopping bonus (~.72 cpm)
-the window on the latter may already be closed because transactions are supposed to post by 12/31
-US miles are superior to UA miles for trips to Europe and Asia for two reasons: 1) no Starnet filtering; and 2) lower award levels in C/F
-on the downside, US charges close-in booking fees and their tickets are very inflexible once booked
-if I had a boss willing to reimburse based on eco fares and 5-6 Asia trips planned, I'd probably buy enough miles to cover 3 trips in C or F
-for the remaining 2-3 trips, I'd try my best to use other miles that I'd accumulated
-I'd also make sure to have status in a program that would benefit me the one or two times that I had to cross the Pacific on a revenue fare

1990's and early 2000s: upgrades, upgrades, upgrades

since then: most of the time: multiple bedroom suites, club level when possible, at resorts, mostly Starwood. Sometimes: business class reward tickets