Companion pass question

I just opened the two SWA cards and should finish the spend before statements close, how fast do the points post? I have four trips I want to book before March 31st. Three just husband and myself, those I'm less worried about because our list of places we want to go is long and I'll just book what fits his ability to take Friday off of work best.

Do I need to leave all the points in my account until I hit 110,000 or can I book as soon as some post?

AUS- New York City
Family of 4
Thinking about late July (I used to warn people NY was awful in July, but after years in Austin I think we would survive)

It looks like it is about 16,000 RR points round trip each. 38,000 RR for the four of us, 3 on points 1 on pass. That seems really low...

I am also looking for hotel recommendations. For NYC. We would like to go for a week and I'd like to try to stay at least three nights on points somewhere.

Since I'm just starting out I don't have points in any other programs yet, but I do have about 83,000 Member Rewards points (and a 75k targeted offer for AEG Open I just received, a few days after opening that SWA business line, I wonder if that is related?).

I will have 100,000 AA miles, but those are already assigned for a trip to Europe in 14 months (and I will need more, I know).

I can open maybe one more card, but not with Chase, right now.
My husband has not opened any in a year, but the plan was to wait 2-3 months to spread things out (meeting bonus spends, calling to switch to no fee after 11 months, and such).

We hope to use the SWA companion pass for one long weekend somewhere every six weeks or so. So I'm looking for a hotel program for domestic stays where either I'm staying for free/low cost on those stays and/or earning towards our trip to Europe in 2015.