<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">edited to ask: how does one bold an alphabet?</font>
Do you mean a
Capital letter?
For me it doesn't really matter where the events are because if it is inexpensive than I will buy the ticket and if it is expensive than I will turn in miles.
For example there is going to be an event in dus-summer of 2003 (see my profile) and as soon as 365 days before event rolls around magic111 will be looking for a chance to redeem miles as I do not expect cheapo tix to Germany in the summer. Of course if inepensive tix do show up then I will turn the award back in and purchase tix.