I, too, am just getting started in this hobby, but I don't have nearly the points collection you do. The best advice I've been given so far is to set your travel goals and work from there. I have a goal to travel Europe for a month, so I am saving up points to fly the airline that I want to fly (AA) and hotel points for IHG because they have properties in every city that I want to see. The more specific your goal, the better advice you'll get on the forums here because there is someone here that has done what you want to do, possibly with nothing but points.

With your random 9k points, I'd see if the points programs have the ability to donate miles to charity if you don't think you'll ever use them, and hold on to the US miles, those will come in handy when they merge the US/AA programs.