I am not sure if this is the right place for this or if it should be posted in each airline .I began collecting my miles thinking of using them 10+years from now in retirement ,but I now see the error of my ways.My flying is on my dime and only for vacation.I am silver w/Continental and have 675000 with them,335000 with AA,233000 with Delta.My idea is to go far (Asia) and Biz.class if possable with my wife .Also maybe AA reward in coach Nyc-eze for 100000 each in Feb/March 2009.Thought of a Quantas reward also.My best time to travel is begining of January to March 15.The last reward travel for me was EWP-Peking.Iam based in NYC.

I will be glad to help you burn them. I think I'd like to go on an Round the World trip in Biz or FC. That would burn up 220k or 280k depending on class of service. Since I don't want to seem to be a piggy, I'm sure someone else will help you burn more of your miles.

With so many miles, it's just a matter of picking where and when you want to go. Congratulations on accumulating so many miles, and have fun riding around up front! Given Qantas good reputation for F service, redeeming your CO miles there would be best value. Redeem your DL miles on Singapore Air, as they almost always rate amongst the top three in quality of service.

For more details on that option, click here:

http://www.delta.com/skymiles/use_mi...ards/index.jsp

AA? Use those for British Air or Cathay Pacific F. Folks rave about both. And don't forget LAN to South America.

Ahhh, so fun to daydream about the possibilities.

I don't know how old your parents are, but F class tickets would make a great gift for them to travel in comfort.

Thanks for the ideas,no parents.ATW would be nice,I had not given much thought to that,I will run it by my wife.

If you really want to burn your miles quickly, feel free to tranfer them to my account. hehehehehe

I found a little game-playing can be fun.

I picked a few destinations to which I would like to travel (EZE, NRT, CPT were a few) and then periodically checked the award travel to find a good mileage deal. If you are flexible with dates and locations, you might find a decent deal.

I recently saw a good deal on a CO flight to NRT in BF for only 120,000 miles that was only 3 weeks away. I had a nice trip.

I'm going to Israel next summer.. I'll take 120,000 Delta miles

(Not quite what you had in mind right?)

Actually, maybe you can go with us!

I will be happy to solve your predicament right this minute...just simply deposit the miles in my accounts!!

Or do nothing and they'll keep on being devalued.

I know that is may not apply, but you should send them to Malta. An amazing little island country in the middle of the Med. Easy to get to northern africa or europe from there... clean, very safe (malta actually makes most of the currency for the world, so VERY safe) and amazingly beautiful! Good luck.

Don't forget you may have a free stop over when you fly internation flight... Mostly direct.. Perhaps you can use it to NYC --> NRT (stop over) --> Hong Kong? or you should ask if it works going to PEK???

While you cannot combine miles from different airlines, remember that until Continental Airlines officially joins the Star Alliance, it is still a SkyTeam member along with Delta Air Lines.

This means that you can redeem your Delta SkyMiles for one award ticket and your Continental OnePass miles for another to the same destinations on the same flights and aircraft. It may be a little tricky to coordinate, but it is possible.

This way, you are that much closer to eliminating your Delta Air Lines SkyMiles, and you can use the remainder of your Continental Airlines OnePass miles once it officially joins the Star Alliance, allowing you to fly on such Star Alliance airlines as Lufthansa, and to certain destinations more easily accessible on Star Alliance than on SkyTeam. Also, you have silver status in the Continental Airlines OnePass program, so you will still be eligible for elite benefits such as earning a bonus amount of OnePass miles and a small chance for upgrades, so I would use up the OnePass miles last.

The point of this is that, if I were you, I would attempt to use your miles from one airline at a time via the process of elimination so that you have fewer frequent flier programs about which you need to maintain your miles.

This is merely a suggestion to consider.

You should also be aware that you can transfer miles to hotels. This works out esp. well w/AA to Hilton. You can transfer 150,000 miles/year and get 2 points for each mile.

Living in NYC you certainly have a plethora of choices. I certainly wouldn't sit on them for another 10 years. They won't be worth any more than they are now!

Be flexible, be ready to travel on short notice, and have fun. Carnarsie had some excellent advice, especially the CO situation.

For RTW, DL is often said to have the best product. Check the DL thread and you'll find a great thread on that, including personal experiences and comments about their RTW desk in SLC. An award RTW is even more flexible than a paid one, from what I've read.

I used to hang onto the miles, too, but one day realized (as the airlines devalued the currency) that was not a sound strategy and I have never looked back. I certainly am not usually in the position of being able to justify the cost of a B or Y ticket so I love using miles for that purpose.

Good luck and let us know how you made out!