I've always preferred points. If you have the flexibility to plan your travel reasonably far in advance the awards are relatively easy to come by. I'd probably never pay $5,000 for a business class ticket to Europe, but the ~60k points it took to redeem a business class award was more valuable to me than the $1,200 I could have earned had I gone the cash back route. Had I taken the cash, it would have cost more than that to fly coach. For me points are a no-brainer, but as has been said many times, it's different for everybody.