I also would take the miles since they do not expire as long as you take a flight that credits toward the FF account in a given period of time or you get some other credit for points. The problem with these certificates is that they are usually "capacity controlled" or some such nonsence that makes them difficult to use for travel. They also typically charge some kind of service fee for this, like you have to go to the ticket counter to use and they charge for ticket counter transactions. Unfortunately, as everyone has said rarely do the airlines rise to the occasion anymore. I believe it is primarily because the business travel system has used volume to apply leverage to airlines to lower ticket rates and eliminate shopping around for service. I can't pick my carrier except for vacations, and when I complain about poor service my travel department could care less. They get their kudos by claiming they save the company money. Now if I got abused and the company said they were taking their business elsewhere I think something would change. Wishful thinking.