feels like Delta. They started the inability to use miles at low awards.

I'm not interested in first class or business class air travel. I just want to get there. This year I've redeemed SMF-Duluth in July (United; 25K); SMF-Brussels, return from Rome in October (American; 40K); and SMF-Washington in November (Continental; 2 persons, 50K). I've paid for SMF-PHL (UA, in April, $297) and SMF-LAX (SWA, in March). That's my entire flight activity for the year, other than the floatplane to Isle Royale, MI. The last two awards were from credit card bonuses. I have banked for future use 35K on US Air and likely 50K from Sapphire.

Most of our domestic and NA travel is "back of the plane". Simply because a lot of our flights out of JAX are on small Embraers - only the pilot is in the front of the plane . But - for long haul flights - we like the front. I think we're getting too old to be comfy in the back of the plane on a trip like EWR to Tokyo (12-13 hours).

In terms of NA flights - since our dates are usually flexible - we can often get pretty good fares to large cities. I would guess however that a trip to Duluth from anywhere would be pretty expensive (did a quick fare check for a trip in October - JAX/LAX is $370 - JAX/Chicago is $290 - JAX/Duluth is $500). Doesn't make sense to use miles for relatively cheap flights IMO. OTOH - miles might make sense for Duluth. Robyn

OT: Keeping in mind that about the only fixed income I do is callable CDs - treasuries (both coupon and STRIPS) - and munis - and that most is buy and hold - I recommend Zionsdirect ("Bonds for Less") - E*Trade - and Fidelity - in that order. I actually suggest having accounts at all 3 to cross-check prices and inventory. A lot of the prices are the same - and a fair amount of inventory overlaps - because all 3 firms are members of Bonddesk and get most of their offerings from Bonddesk:

http://www.bonddeskgroup.com/

Still - it's good to cross-check. Also to check bond trading histories (easy to do on certain websites these days - to see if the offering price makes any sense). There are pretty much no mark-ups on these bonds - you pay commissions based on what you buy (flat $10.95 per trade at Zionsdirect - which is why I like it the best). Still - the ask price from the seller may be good - bad or indifferent. That's where looking at the trading histories comes into play.

I do trade a bit - longer term position trading - mostly in JNK and STRIPS. The commissions on JNK are pretty much the same at all 3 places. Robyn

The odd thing about Delta is that when it had an "alliance" (or whatever it was) with CO - you could often get Delta reward flights on the CO website cheaper than you could get them on the Delta website. That is still true of the CO website - and some of the flights it offers on other carriers (like Air Canada if I recall correctly). You have to be a little careful though - because some flights that would be front of plane BF on CO in 2 class planes are middle of plane business-class on flights that have 3 classes of service. That isn't always true though. We once got a CO reward ticket on Virgin Atlantic "Upper Class" (MCO to London). I think that may be the only time I've ever been in the front of a plane that had 3 classes of service.

I don't purport to understand the logic behind any of this - because there doesn't seem to be any! Robyn