darthbimmer provided solid advice...that's what I do do 9 out of 10 times.
Originally Posted by
Bohemiana
Our big trip next year is to South Africa and I already found that the hotels are very cheap but have very high point redemption rates, so we would pay cash for those. No other use for the points that I can see in the near future.
Just to offer you a counter and something I do once in a while is during a "big trip". With a big trip to SA, total expenses will be signficanlty more than smaller/shorter trips to SF or Boston. Although the redemption in SA is less than the 0.9 cpp that you would receive in SF/Boston (but more than 0.7 cpp), I would considering redeeming points in SA to reduce the overall expenses to South Africa. It makes the trip more cash manageable (and sometimes possible).