Originally Posted by
Troopers
darthbimmer provided solid advice...that's what I do do 9 out of 10 times.
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).
I kind of agree with this. I am currently booking a three week long trip to Japan and was perfectly fine in redeeming nights below my usual $70/10k value, since keeping the cash low is what makes this long trip even possible in the first place. Till i came across a hotel which is $90 per night or 35k points, or a C&P of 20k points and $100 (wait, what?). Traveling in the offseason can render C&P values completely useless since they are fixed and the cash value is not.
Anyway, I would use the points for Boston/SF as well since the value is pretty decent.