Looked for a thread on this, but couldn't find one so I'm doing it the old fashioned way.

Just booked an award trip in J to Europe for next May, I was amazed to find availability on good routings this late, but good things come to those who wait, I've heard.

Anyways, taking about 10 days, including travel to go and check out Barcelona and Amsterdam and am sitting on about 180,000 points to do it with. What're the best practices for booking these properties? Same as flights, do it as far out as possible? Is there a good time frame to book?

We're staying 4 nights in Amsterdam and 3 in Barcelona (missed the free 5th night, unfortunately), and I want to figure it out sooner than later. I'm a platinum this year as I stayed 84 nights in a row this summer working on a project and as I understand it you only receive the platinum benefits for the remainder of the same year you earned the status. In other words I will not have these benefits in 2015.

Checking into Amsterdam on 5/23, checking into Barcelona on 5/27, leaving on 5/30.

Any info/best practices on how to book would be much appreciated!