The really unfortunate thing about using miles is the vigilance required to get any value from them. Truth be told, if you are habitual in your approach you can sometimes use miles even when mileage awards appear to be unavailable. That's because more award availability is released closer to the departure date in instances where load factors are below a certain point. Most people do not have the patience to call the airline several times a day, every day, until the award seats can be obtained.
Recently I was able to book a first class mileage seat on CX from HKG to LAX, but only after four solid weeks of calling AA daily. I finally got it about three or four days before departure from Hong Kong. Most people would have given up about a month earlier. The lesson is simple. Be extremely flexible in terms of your departure date/time/airline and don't give up until the very end. Anyone with 300,000 miles should be have the pick of the litter if they play their cards right and work the system.
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