Using AA Miles for the First Time

Hi all!

I'm a newbie to this miles and points game. So far, I've accumulated about 80,000 AAdvantage miles for the past 6 months. I haven't booked a ticket with miles yet so far.

Before I go ahead and book a ticket from Boston to Los Angeles (LAX) for the first week of July, I was just wondering if there are other ways or options to use the least number of miles as possible. For example, would it be better to use AA miles to book on other flights, etc?

Thanks!