DaniellaAdler

Hi all,

I'm new here, so please tell me if this belongs somewhere else and I'll post it there instead.

I'm new to points earning / redeeming, and I'm ready for my first redemption. I'm trying to find something good-value (rather than great value).

I have about 170k SPG points, about the same in MR, and my partner has about 100k MR and about 50K UR.

Ideally, we'd like to fly to New Zealand at the end of 2019, to get there in the summer and give us time and flexibility to research and book a trip for about 3 weeks using our miles.
Another option, if we can't make our combination of points work for New Zealand, is a 1.5 to 2-week trip to Spain (Madrid, Barcelona, wherever), as a short trip in Jan. or Feb. 2019 just to get away, since we haven't been anywhere for a while.
Other destinations of interest include Tanzania for 2020 (since we want to go in July for the great migration and we've committed to spending 2019 July in Tahoe), other Europe destinations, Hong Kong, and Morocco.

I'm fine flying economy if it saves me points - i dont care about being comfortable on planes, but my partner gets pretty uncomfortable and it would be nice to get him a business or first class flight on a long journey and prove to him that all this credit card churning and stress yields a nice reward.

I spent a while on TPG, FrequentMiler, and similar sites trying to figure out the best way to maximize points, but I'm still not sure where to transfer my points to and where I should be looking for good redemptions.

We are both lawyers, so we can take time off, but last-minute is not an option for us.

I would love some tips on where to look to combine our UR, SPG and/or MR points and where we can search for some good redemptions.

Thank you, kind Flyertalk folk!

EDIT: Starting in NYC, with the possibility of starting in LAX or SFO if we fly there separately.