I have approx. 2.5M miles (mostly AA, BA, Qantas).

For my domestic trips, I can usually find good fares on AA or B6, so I choose to pay cash and accumulate more miles.

Like many FT'ers, I mostly use my miles for premium cabin int'l trips.

I am concerned about sitting on a big pile of miles that are losing value, but I'm not inclined to burn the miles (e.g., 25-50K miles on a domestic trip where the fare is <$400.

If I had as much in my bank accounts as I do miles, I would retire. Forget about travel. Vegetate! As my friend put it after I gave him a C award for 120k, "The Great Accountant in The SKY" is keeping score and will look after you.

I think the max I had at once was around 250k AA miles, ever since then I have the itch to burn some once I get over 100k. Latest use was 150k for OWA from both wife and my accounts. Took us down to less than 25k each which was a scary feeling... but then we realized how much value we got out of those 150k mile tickets and quickly forgot how many we had left!

I tend to agree with most around here though. I like to have around 75k or so in my account so that I can book either a pricey domestic ticket or a random international one without having to worry about cost.

Besides BankDirect, I don't know of a way to earn mileage interest like you do on USD ... so not a good comparison to me :). Maybe someone will come up with a "wAAll street" exchange where you can invest miles and double your mileage account every 9 years too??

And "A dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow", changed over to "A mile today is worth more than a mile tomorrow" doesn't quite sound like the same tune either :).

I'm in the same boat. I earn faster than I can redeem them but not for the sake of not trying. I wish I could redeem more, but unfortunately there are priorities in life other than vacation. I have over 3 million miles across various airlines and over 2 million hotel points.

This thread cracks me up. I know I'm not alone here, although it seems I'm in the minority, but saving is a good thing. Austerity builds self-discipline. Its OK to say no to yourself once in a while. And this notion of points "losing value" is something you've been sold by the airlines. In my opinion you can never save enough. Churn and earn as much as you can and take enough vacations as your job/life allows. You don't know what tomorrow will bring so its always nice to have some savings for a rainy day. ;)

obviously there are a great many factors...including, how many people you are redeeming for, how much you fly for work, etc.

For me, I redeem for international C or F as soon as I have enough miles in my account. But I don't fly for work, just a couple of paid segments domestic a year and one big international trip. I don't see any reason to build some giant balance.

I am curious about those of you who are chasing status though. If you have millions of miles in your account, why not just cash them in for F seats. Isn't that at least as good as having status?

I don't think my argument is against austerity, per se -- but like others here, I simply accumulate more than I can use. And I use fairly freely -- this year I'll fly myself and a friend to Paris in J, myself to Sydney in J, my parents to Colorado, a friend home from Jackson Hole, use miles to pay for my AC membership and still end up ahead. You do reach a point where the accumulation becomes more than you need (not that I'm complaining, mind you).

I hold about 1.5 mil, for retirement next year, but worry that USA carriers will start fuel surcharges like the foreign ones, and make miles worthless.

I just read where ANA's new fuel surcharge to Tokyo is $400 and European carriers are often more.

I know a bubble when I see one :D:D:D I'm living the good life spending miles as fast as I can earn them.

Flipping houses in Southern California was great in 2006..... but it kinda sucked if you still owned a lot of SoCal real estate in 2008. The shear ease and trivial amount of effort it takes to raise enormous FF account balances these days is telling. Banks are minting miles faster than they were turning out sub prime mortgages a couple of years back. If it's too good to be true.................. Enjoy it while it lasts. Like all bubbles, this bubble is bound to end poorly. I can't tell you if it will be next year or 10 years from now but the current system whereby I get a free First Class trip to Asia for practically nothing every time I turn around, seems like an unsustainable business model.

I think you're using the word "bubble" a bit freely here. Airlines know how many miles they issue, and how they want to manage the situation. There is gonna be no crisis. They will "mint" more and more miles, as they have been. And they are gonna keep devaluing them like always. Saving huge hoards of miles for use later rather than now is not a perfect strategy but neither is burning them inefficiently.