The question is whether to use only miles, or buy a ticket for a small portion of a trip.

Prompted by many articles and posts my wife and I decided we ought to book a trip somewhere to use up some of our Frequent Flyer miles. I asked my wife where she wanted to go and one of the places she mentioned was Egypt. Perhaps this was because we had some friends that were just there and had a great time. The two FF programs where we have miles is with NWA and AA. To travel to Egypt using NWA is 90,000 miles. On AA I was told it is 75,000. On the other hand it occurred to me that to fly to just across the Mediterrian to someplace like Greece or Turkey would require far less miles. Perhaps as little as 50,000 miles during off-season. I thought the flights from Istanbul, Athens, or even Cyprus to Cairo would be relatively short and could be found cheaply. Doing a quick search I found flights from Athens and Istanbul look to be available for less than $300 RT. Of course taxes and fees are a big part of the ticket cost.

Another destination might be Tawian, where the same sort of thing happen with fewer miles needed to fly to China/mainland or Japan.

Does it makes sense to use miles to fly to a European destination and then take a short hop on a regional carrier and perhaps save from 25,000 to 40,000 miles each.

I'd definitely get an award to ATH then fly Aegean across the Med. It's only 1.5 hour to Cairo and they're reliable, with reasonable prices and great service.
However, it's generally not a good idea to use your miles for Economy class travel. Get a business class award to Athens and arrive in good condition!

I think that using your miles for a low season roundtrip on AA to enither ATH os IST, and then buying a ticket for your onward journey to Cairo is an excellent plan. Not only is it a smart use of your miles, it gives you an opportunity to visit another country or two.

Personally, I would recommend that you make IST your first destination and that you consider a stopover somewhere in Europe depending upon your carrier. There are great connections between IST and CAI.

I would forget Cyprus (LCA) as the times of arrival and departure are usually at the most inconvenient of times and compared to (say) IST, it is rather a boring destination (not to mention expensive) for a short stopover.

Thanks for the input. I am glad some others see some wisdom in what I am proposing. Bondiboy, this was along the lines that I was thinking. While we want to use up some miles we want to use our miles wisely.

Cyprus sounds like an interesting place to go, but does not seem the most practical.

Given a choice it seems like Athens of Istanbul would seem the easiest destination to go via miles and then the cheapest to find a flight onward. (Any other ideas?) At this point it seems like I have one vote for Greece and one for Turkey. I am thinking that Turkey might be a cheaper place to lay over for a couple days and provide some easy sightseeing.

What are the "cons" for a layover in Athens?

If you don't want to stay in Athens and you're only going there for the connection, overnighting near the airport won't be straightforward. However, it does have great public transport links to the city, so you'll be alright as long as you aren't flying at 05:30 or some such.
I can't think of any other half-serious problem with Athens or its airport.

In thinking about this perhaps I should rephrase my question. Where would be a better place to layover and spend a couple days, Athens or Istanbul? Cost is somewhat of a factor.

When I flew to Egypt I used a miles ticket for U.S. to Athens and then bought a ticket from Athens to Cairo direct on Aegean airlines. It was around $200 - $300 dollars but worked out well for me. I also was interested in seeing Athens as well. I'd recommend a one to two day stopover to see the sights there. The city doesn't have as much to see as London or Rome so I think you can see the highlights in 2 days.

Just back from first time in IST. It is no Paris (at least from the non-Turkish, tourist POV), but it is certainly worth 3/4 days. I especially like the Haga Sophia which may well be the oldest (and one of the biggest) buildings in the world. IST is a lot more interesting than Athens.

Keep in mind that Turkey, long famous for being inexpensive, is that no longer. It is now, more or less, part of the Eurozone, at least in the tourist part of IST, and prices are on a par with, say, Spain. Double, at least, any prices you see quoted in any guide book more than a couple of months old.

IMHO, a biz ticket to IST from the US is very good value for miles. It is about as far as you can go for 90K or so. Iberia (AA partner) has good service to IST.

I would choose IST as the euro isn't the choice of currency there, plus I can give you some insight on where to stay cheap and nice!....
I used my SKyMiles last year to go to IST on a F ticket.....well worth it!