Here is my situation: I have almost 570K Points sitting in my account right now and I have no plan to stay at any hotels right now. I'm thinking about cash in one or two packages with cat 6 or 7 hotel today and make a reservation somewhere. Most possible travel destination for this year is either Australia or a beach location somewhere tropical. Not interested in Hawaii as I have already planned timeshare vacation there at least once this year. So, my dilemma right now is which cat hotel should I go after and if I need to make a backup reservation before tomorrow, which one should I choose?
Also, any idea on which airline should I get the miles with? I'm a 1K with UA but have no status with any other airlines.