You only get 0.5 cents per point if you do cash back. You get 1 cent per point redeeming for gift cards. Transferring the points to a travel partner is worth ~1.5 cents per point for domestic economy travel. If you redeem it for international business class travel you can get around 14-15 cents per point (Especially if you transfer points when there is a transfer bonus going on).

Once you fly international business class, it's so hard to go back to economy! My family is flying business class to Crete in a couple weeks. I'm really looking forward to it.