It seems that when you accumulate hundreds of thousand of ff miles or hotel poitns or Amex points there are difficulties to use them to your best advantage:
1-Some friends say they are saving them for after retiring. Then they are upset that in the meantime they are devalued, plus harder to use them. So they are not a good investment to put away.
2-Give it to charity: their CPA says you cannot deduct it and just give money or equivalent.
3-Give it to relatives: sometimes this is appreciated sometimes it becames a headache. Sometimes becomes an unappreciated item that is expected since it is "free" without any return.
4-To fly: if you do that you do not get new miles and have more problems qualifying for the current or next year status requiements.

What are your practices or plans, and what are reasons?

The best use for airline miles seems to be upgrades. You earn miles and get to travel in premium cabins.

Saving them for my baby girl's first trip to DisneyWorld

I am burning miles this year and next, might last three years.... bought only one ticket this year as a 2p so won't be 2p next year. I will buy the E+ seating on a yearly basis with the deal currently afoot, about $300+....for next year if available.

I just decided to cash out over the next 2 or 3 years. I expect the miles to be worth slightly less each year and am re-evaluating how I will fly. Soon there will be new private opportunities with smaller jets, so I want to become more flexible. I have nothing against United. I find it is a good time for me to realize value from the miles I have. I have not had a speck of trouble getting the flights I want, and think very highly of the mileage plus progam and those who work there.

For the most part United consolidation will continue, whether it's to sqeeze employees, or some other form of management. This type of patterning may at some point in the future go too far, and integrity becomes breached. I prefer to not have a heavy investment as this possibility appears on the horizon.

now I wish there were a provision within all airlines to combine stray miles that people like me may have in varous airlines we never use and give them as awards to people stuck in New Orleans, etc!

Example, my wife and I have about 7,000 each on Singapore Airlines and some others on Continental, etc. Combined, that's 14k in what could be a nice United ticket. Someone else in here with another 11k on a SA partner could combine in to get some lucky cat a ticket to get out of there and go stay with relatives someplace dry, because United is a partner in the Star Aliance and PR goes a long long way when trying to help victimes of such disasters!

But it won't happen so whatever.

Instead, I selfishly gain my miles for my own vacation needs, try to donate monies or good to charities that may never really get there, and then complain when my own flights get delayed even though the new real reason will be because of how all of this storm has affected air travel in general nationwide!

Oh well...
I am saving all my own AA miles right now for a trip to Tahiti some day with my wife!

MM

Here's a thought: Do away with the oil standard! Now's the best chance ever!

Using some to get my share of upgrades and award tkts and saving whatever I can to get a nice first class tkt for my son to India.

I fly US Air mostly, but AA miles have a great use since they can be doubled up into HHonors (Hilton) points and then used for hotel rooms. Any AA miles I pickup from now on will be saved up until I hit 75,000 again to use their 6 night stay certs for 150,000 points (you need to be a Silver which you can get from the Hilton CC). It might not be the greatest $$ use of miles but it is how I like to use them since I use mine for leisure travel.

I use my US Air miles to guarentee upgrades on long flights mostly.

goalie g/f (and also a f/t'er ) lives in atl so it's free tix for her to come visit or meet me in las for a long w/e

Millions of miles earned for many years here.I rarely have a big problem using them.
Except to Australia.The # 1 thing a program user has to understand is where they will be flying and how they will be redeeming.
The second tied with the first is knowing where to bank them.One must keep options open.Heaven help those that say bank all of their 500,000 miles in Continental and expect that free trip to Hawaii or Paris in First/Biz Class

Without Flyertalk and a clear strategy one is in danger of earning miles and being subject far to often to "got miles and no way to use them" syndrome.
I frequently do mileage makeovers for friends,clients and strangers to give them a future with their hard earned mile currencies.That usually keeps them excited rather then frustrated by the programs. And a good chance in using what they have earned.It has taken me years to get it right.And you have to stay on top of it.
Miles can also help with free hotel nights or be used for upgrades as others have mentioned.Or for lunch or dinner.....Many options.....
Sure we all have concern about a program going belly up or inflation.......
But those similar risks are everywhere today in or out of frequency programs

Have much gratitude to our community and the Inside Flyer folks for giving me the passion and education of earning and redeeming miles.
The true frequent travelers ultimate art form ^

deleted

Save them for retirement!

The downside of saving them for retirement is that they get devalued. For instance, when I first started flying with UA back in 1992, they offered tiered bonuses that are no longer available: 10,000 free miles when you flew 35,000 actual miles, and an additional 10,000 when you hit 45K, 55K, etc. They also offered discounted award travel for a second person on the same reservation (though I think that had to be in business or first). Both of those benefits are gone. Are you willing to wait years and see if the airlines, in general, raise award levels to higher amounts, or restrict their use even more?

I am retired. I have not saved up my miles for retirement. I use them every year. In the last few weeks I've redeemed miles for trips that are a little too expensive for me to pay for: Australia (my 10th time using miles to that country), and New Zealand (my third time there). I also have upcoming trips to Ireland and Spain on miles.

I accumulate my miles on inexpensive routes, and generally spend them on routes that would be costly. I'll continue to do that in retirement.

Up until this year, I--like others, would use them for international upgrades on AA. But, now with AA's _____ co-pay ("____" = YAMV, Your Adjectvie May Vary), I'm re-thinking that practice.

I've used the majority of mines to get upgrades to premium cabins or cash in rewards for premium class.

We will have a lot of miles and points when we retire. Sure, they will be devalued, but, what the heck, it is still a whole bunch of free travel. Free travel for retired folks is a very good thing.

It is really easy for us to rack up miles while we are still employed. We each get at least 200,000 miles per year from flying, but where we really rack up the miles is in using credit cards for business expenses. When we retire, we will no longer have that opportunity available to us, so we are making hay while the sun shines.

We spend a few as we go along. Our daughter usually finagles a couple of free tickets a year and, if I have to take a trip on an airline where I hold no status, I will upgrade with miles. I try to keep a few hundred thousand in the bank for each airline I am likely to fly, just for upgrade purposes. If I find myself in a situation where the hotel I want for a trade show is running something insane like $550 Euros per night, I will use points, but usually we just keep them in the bank to enjoy when we finally have the time to go where and do what we want.