I'm in a quandry.. I have about 1/2 mil miles (Ya nothing to some of you I know but still).. and I'm finding it increasingly more difficult to justify using them when there are such great deals to just about everywhere..

e.g. -- I really want to go to SIN for absolutely no good reason.. and would use miles.. but the arefares only about $600 for goodness sake!.. Would you burn 40k miles or prefer to earn another 40 to add to the collection?

I guess you could save up for the first class trips on CX/BA.. but I get so many free upgrades on AA its just as easy to pay that $600 and fly half way in business class..

Anyone else having this problem, or should I just get over myself and book first on miles and drink lots of Krug?

I usually use my miles for family. That way, I still earn the miles on the trip but my family gets to come along. Living in Europe when my family is all in the US provides easy excuse to use up my miles so that they can visit me.

What about taking a friend or family member on that trip to Singapore with you. You earn the miles and they burn them.

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http://www.benjaminwagner.com
Great music!

Mileage valuation is oft-discussed and there are differing opinions; my own benchmark is about 1.666 cents per (though I'm thinking of lowering to 1.5 cents). I go to Asia a lot, so the pay-or-burn issue comes up quite a bit.

When burning miles, I make sure to milk things like stopovers or open jaws that come with awards but not lowest-fare paid flights. Stopping in HNL en route to Asia, when I can get it, is great. Am also working on a BKK vacation via Europe routing on Star Alliance (for 70K coach rather than 60K) with about a 5-6 day Europe stopover. 10K extra to tack on a Europe stop to Asia seems like a bargain; the only drawback is having to fly 2/3 of the way around the world in both directions. Stuff like that, if it's your thing, can add a lot of hidden value to award tickets.

It's definitely risky to keep piling up miles; even if no bankruptcies affect things, I think the ratio of unredeemed miles to seats will continue to. Some airlines like CO are said to be so bad about "standard" award availability that they've effectively devalued miles by 50% by making unrestricted awards the only way to go. Lots of baby boomers retiring in 2011 and after could be using fat mileage balances at half, a third or even a quarter of the value the miles had when earned.

I wish I had that problem! Actually, I have a miniature version, deciding whether to spend 25K of my 250K+ CO miles SPN-NRT, when there are $300-$400 round trips for the 3522 mile round trip (including "500 mile" SPN-GUM connection on the outbound).

As "worthless" as CO miles are, and not even being elite on them any more, I still find myself taking the miles (even though I should be crediting them to NW, but I want my online booking bonus!). I think Redhead's idea is good. For someone with more miles than he can use, and too little time, I'm sure any relatives from England would enjoy a visit to New York, or perhaps you can further ingratiate yourself with your inlaws.

I have spent enough miles on my wife's relatives visiting to or from the Philippines. Also, I think RustyC is 100% correct that miles are not a good long-term savings account, and are well-spent on trips that would cost extra if paid in cash. As Randy says, "Earn and burn!"

I bought a lot of Starwood >> QF miles in now-dashed Concord hopes, but I'm sure I'll be able to visit friends and relatives in Europe sometime over the next few years.

Finally, Brian-AAFlyer I want to thank you for being such an extremely hospitable host on 25 March 2003 when you took me around to the CX and AA lounges in NRT. It was a pleasure meeting you, and if you and your wife ever want to visit Saipan, the door will always be open.

This is an easy one for me.
I always spend my miles as soon as I reach a reward I want. I always use them for F class travel on BA so as soon as I hit the 240-300k each year that I need I cash them in. I never use them for coach travel as I can buy a ticket for a not much. If you look at my account in regularly goes from 300k to 0 and then back up again during the year.

I/We have decided to use them for nice holidays each year rather than saving them up.

My problem is that I want to maintain status, so I end up buying tickets that I should probably have used miles for.

I keep my mileage balance within reason by giving awards to friends, family and travel companions (who are usually in one of the other two categories as well, or I wouldn't waste miles on them).

All my miles (and hotel points, which I generally convert into miles) are reserved for international upgrade awards. Hate that coach!

Much more bang for the buck by using the miles for business class (either an upgrade or a Business class award) than for coach tickets. About double the miles gets you 5X the award ticket value.

I do exactly the same thing, no reason to use miles for a trip that I can buy for $300. I use miles in large chunks for trips that would be significantly more expensive using cash.

My balance rarely climbs over 100K and I rarely fly international (though I do fly a good deal domestic). In the past, miles were used to upgrade to First on mid-cons / transcons, but with UA upping that 50% (10K to 15K), I generally sit in Coach now, adding to my "stash".

I did cash in 25K for a UA saver award (my first) SEA-GSO as that route is about impossible to get under $400 (and often under $500) in general, much less for late summer.

My SEA-NRT trip in Japan will be an XC award ticket if it ends up just me going, as 90K seems better than a $1000 H fare and 60K for an upgrade.

I use awards for places like Hawaii and summer business class to Europe - places where I'm never going to get a rock-bottom airfare from the Midwest. (Winter/spring to Europe, on the other hand, is a wonderful way to earn miles!)

Whenever I use an award, I always look for good stopovers to do: to me, that's the one main thing that an award gives you over buying a cheap ticket. For a 4-week honeymoon last year, we milked the stopover and open jaw rules to the max, using two award itineraries to visit 2 Hawaiian islands, 3 mainland US cities, and Europe.

The last category of award I book is the last-minute domestic ticket. If I absolutely need to go somewhere last-minute and the lowest fare on any airline is over $400 or so, I will redeem miles. Obviously that doesn't deliver the theoretical bang for the buck that int'l C/F redemptions do, but it delivers real cash to my pocket, which is worthwhile to me even if that's only 1 penny per mile.

The other side effect of redeemed last minute (and being willing to part with 40K) is that many times you can get an F seat on at least some of your segments. Depending on day/time/destination of course...