Not Just for Frequent Flyers

A Website designed for frequent flyers and mileage accumulators, www.flyertalk.com, can be useful for people who travel less often, too. They publish information on unusually low air fares, credit cards that offer good deals on mileage, and other helpful tips like an article on the best restaurants in American airports (that must have been a challenge to write.) Forums provide a chance for travellers to exchange information with each other.
Some of the fares strike me as amazingly good--for example, American is giving passengers from Houston or Chicago rates of not much more than $500 for round trips to Istanbul on some dates in April, 2013. This site attracts the kind of person who wonders whether it is possible to do a turnaround on this fare and return on the same plane without ever having seen Istanbul, not something I would recommend, since Istanbul is one of the world's great cities. (And I haven't been back for a long time, so this deal is of interest.)
Other deals mentioned on the site today are on United, Chicago to Tel Aviv return for $694 and Louisville to Sacramento for $166 return. Check the forums called "mileage runs" for similar bargains. A mileage run is a trip you take primarily for the purpose of accumulating frequent flyer miles.
A post by www.frugaltravelguy.com on the site suggests that while mileage is great, when accumulating it you should also factor in the value of your time, the opportunity cost of losing time with family, friends or hobbies. Like anything else, accumulating miles can be taken too far.