Travel Hacking w/ CSR to get to California from the East Coast over the holidays

[catccc]

I have lots of CSR points, and I want to maximize their use.  (Booked tickets for DH and I to Hawaii in the fall for 25K points each!)

We will be flying from the Philadelphia area (PHL, BWI, maybe EWR if it's a deal) to the SF/Bay Area in December.  I don't have dates set yet, but it's going to be when everyone else needs to fly for the holidays, unfortunately.  So I'm thinking there won't be tons of award space during that time?  My plan currently is to hope for a reasonably priced flight thru the chase travel portal and redeem at 1.5 cents per point there. 

Any tips on reducing my cost (in points) on this one?

[geekette]

I wasn't able to find saver space from RDU to SJC or SFO any time this summer, so we went with the 1.5x redemption. 

[Ocinfo]

Hacking wise, the best advice I have is to consider traveling on the actual holiday. This may not be an option depending on if your talking Christmas (hard) versus Thanksgiving (easier to make dinner). Prices are usually cheap and no crowds plus the 3 hour time difference means you could fly early in the AM and then have the whole day at your destination. I've flown on Thanksgiving (as well as worked on the holiday for a private jet operator for several years) and it's extremely low demand.


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[catccc]

Thanks guys!  I am fine flying on Christmas day, so that's a good tip.  I'll have to check that DH and kids are cool with it, too.

I may go with the 1.5 redemption... I think it's relatively early to be booking Christmas travel, so I may wait a month or two and see what some of the low cost carrier prices are like once they release schedules.  Southwest is only booking thru 11/3 at this point.