How many miles saved are too many? when do you use?
 

I do use my saved miles once in a while but have now acculated over 350,000 miles.
I think there is a catch22 situation. I spend money to buy ticekts and accumulate miles to maintain my status but end up with too many miles unused. Fortunately, so far I have never let them expire.

When do you use your miles? At what point it is prudent to use them rather than paying for tickets?

If you pay for all your own travel, then I am not sure what the answer is. If you accumulate miles through business travel, use them to treat your nearest and dearest, or yourself to a nice holiday to make up for all those hours of your own time spent in airports over the years. A friend of mine used a glut of his to fly everyone in for a family reunion / special birthday trip.

Upgrades
Lounge membership
Free flights once I have gotten status or if the cost is too much
More upgrades

Because most of my trips are personal in nature (about 85+%, flown at least 100,000 miles for each of the last 6-8 years), I can usually plan my trips far enough ahead of time to take advantage of cheap fares. I also strive to maintain 1K each year on United. And, I might do a couple of MRs, even tho last year I did 154,000 BIS.

Right now, I have about 1.5 million MP miles.

I will use my miles when flying internationally, to get an F award. If I can't get a cheap domestic airfare, I will get an award. If I can get a cheap domestic ticket, I will use miles to upgrade.

I use my miles to save money .... and to guarantee that I do not have to fly in Y.

Longhaul upgrades (or longhaul F!)

All of the 1.5m miles I have redeemed over the last 6 years on CX have been for Y - J or J - F upgrades.

Business Class TATLs. Right now I'm sitting on enough miles for another trip, but it's too early to book since we're thinking April or May of next year.

I wouldn't be comfortable having more than a couple of year's worth of travel stored up in points. The airlines can, and have, devalued them and called it program "enhancements", and people who had happy dreams of redemptions for years of travel in retirement have been very disappointed.

It is a balance I am still trying to find. All my travel is personal and I am sitting on just over 250,000 miles over several programs, that is too high for my comfort. I don't want to see their value lost by holding but am having a hard time finding uses that both fit my travel needs and are a redemption value without jeopardizing my elite requalification.

I went wild on the US Grand Slam, they are my largest pile but the roundtrip/openjaw restrictions and redemption fees make it difficult to find a place in my travels. AA are all too tempting to spend given the oneway abilities and the ease of finding low awards.

My travel calendar is pretty much set through November, I just need to decide how to best allot award/cash.

I would say what you've got now is a good float. I would redeem for a trip, and not necessarily aim to use up "all" your miles..

Then again, you never know when your miles will dilute in value, or vanish.. so purposefully have a plan for redemption.

I've had as much as 700,000 in the account but ff accounts are not bank accounts. Starting around 2001, I started to burn miles. My comfort level is 50,000 miles. I no longer very many miles so upgrades are no longer a good use of miles, it's coach trips. I still have 200,000 in Delta, too much for comfort. The other airlines have low balances.

Burn them as fast as earn them (with modest balance) because mileage always devalues over time.

im a hoarder... ideally, id use them for upgrades on personal travel but i find most upgrade schemes a terrible value... so i end up hoarding

its not so much that i dont want to use miles for redemption, its just that i dont have the opportunity to. i log a certain mileage for work, and top off status with paid personal travel. with the PITTANCE of vacation time allowed typical of most US employers, i just cant squeeze in redeemed trips

:td:

When I have enough to:
1) Upgrade (usually from J to F)
2) Redeem biz or first tickets.

Im similar..a hoarder that is

mine primarily come from business travel.

I use them for one of two things though
1. for my kids to go with me
2. for long haul j/f int'l travel

i've got about 1.8M miles on 3 airlines, most are on AA

I always like to keep 500K AA in the bank for an emergency, something special pops up quickly etc..

I am just about to burn 450-600K on int'l J to AU for my kids and I this summer.. just needto pull the trigger now

I'm surprised to see folks with 7 digit balances. I guess it could work either way, they could be de-valued at some point:(, or possibly some airline program enhancement could make them more usable and valuable over time.

The various ways of obtaining miles at low costs the last few years makes it unlikely airlines would make any changes to make miles more valuable.