I've been having a very good hit rate lately on smaller awards. This year, I've redeemed a ton of 25k and 35k awards for domestic, Canada, and Caribbean itineraries to markets that aren't very competitively fought over out of MCI.

For example, MCI to Belize is always $700 round-trip, no matter how you slice it. Belize isn't one of those places that pops up on the $199 weekend getaway list. So I booked 3 award seats on Delta through ATL - got the exact flights I wanted, even during the holiday season.

I also just booked 3 awards to Montreal. It's almost always $400+: not really a hotly-competitive destination out of KC. But AA had perfect Friday-Monday one-stop flights available for 25k per seat, so I took it.

I have always had great luck with hotels. Still do... I think my best successes with availability have been with Marriott, but HH and SPG aren't bad either.