Need help picking a carrier
 

Its time for me to gamble, and I figure I might as well hedge my bet by getting information from people who know more than me!

The situation: Citi TYN fixed point redemption is disappearing. I was planning on using the fixed points next summer for a flight to Cape Town, SA. Unfortunately that is disappearing.

My current thoughts: Find an airline that flies my route (CHI - CPT) and redeem the 90k and use the voucher.

Potential pitfalls: Change of carriers, extremely long flights (EG 40 hrs instead of 22 hrs).

However I need to make sure that a) I'm better off doing this than just using promotions (and signups) and my platinum amex with x3 and x5 bonus to get however many points I'll need at variable, and b) what carrier should I pick. The travel will be in June or July. I do have some flexibility in dates but I can only shift a few days in either direction. However from what I've seen shifting dates changes options.

I'm going to be down for World Cup, and I can't give exact dates because I don't have them myself yet, which is another part of this headache.

Any thoughts are most appreciated.