FT newb here. I hope I'm putting this in the right forum. If not, please tell me and I'll move it.

My wife and I are planning a trip to Spain and want to use points as much as possible. Currently, we'll have about 70k+ UR points by the end of 2012, once I get my CSP spend finished, and 27k UA miles. I have the Chase Trifecta in place, so the UR balance will continue to grow. I can probably get one more app spree in before it's time to book everything - perhaps in February or March of next year. I was borderline on the CSP approval, but will be in better shape by then, with scores in the 720-740 range. I put about $2k/month through my cards, so most spends are within reach, outside of some of the larger business card spends. That said, I may app for an Ink card this week and if this whole Ink/Bluebird/Vanilla Reload thing works out, my UR points balance may inflate significantly.

I expect we'll want to stay in some more rustic places, so I think the points would be better spent on airfare, rather than hotels, and we can pay for accommodations wherever we may end up. My thought is to focus on *A points. I signed up for the Aegean 2k bonus and should be able to get *A Silver through them by the end of the year. How can I best bump the miles/points to maximize value and get a nice flight out there? App spree? Which cards? SPG? UA Explorer? I guess we could also do a pair of Citi AA cards and fly one way on *A and back on Oneworld, although I won't have any status with AA by then.

Thoughts? Thanks!