Originally Posted by guv1976

If you have a rough idea (routes and time of year) of your future redemptions, you can do some dummy award searches now on both aa.com and alaskaair.com (no log-in required) to get an idea of what each currently has available, noting both mileage cost and carrier surcharges, if any.

You do not say whether you are near an international gateway, or whether connecting travel is needed for long-haul travel. If you are near a gateway and your long-haul travel is to/from Europe, Avios can provide good value for travel on Iberia. (If you end up getting the Chase Sapphire Preferred card for the trip insurance, the Chase Ultimate Rewards points which that card earns are convertible to Avios 1:1 -- and occasionally, Chase offers a transfer bonus.)