@SouthJamaica wrote:
@K-in-Boston wrote:@SouthJamaica how on earth can you possibly be getting such bad redemptions? Pretty much the worst case I could see would be converting to Delta SkyMiles and redeeming for Main Cabin domestic airfare and that would still be 0.5 cpp, making this a "5% back" offer. Even trying to find a bad redemption for a Marriott award, I can't see anything under 0.6 cpp. I suppose if you can find a really good cash booking right now (quite likely with demand being so low at the moment) anything is possible, but that's certainly not the norm.
A cursory search of a few random cities is giving me 1.73 cpp at Fairfield Inn & Suites Tampa North, 1.2 cpp at Courtyard Boise Downtown, 2.02 cpp at Ritz-Carlton Central Park, and 2.09 cpp at The Chatwal NYC. Those are all "slightly" better than the 0.3 cpp you're stating. When you're calculating point value with Marriott, are you comparing the full price for all nights with taxes included and not accidentally calculating the total points needed for an award by the average nightly rate (easy to do because of the way Marriott displays those values side by side)?
I've used a few million Marriott points over the past few years. I've had as high as 6 cpp and one single stay at 1.1 cpp, but I am rather consistently in the 1.5 to 2.5 cpp range.
You're right that I was reading it wrong the other day. I just did a search and got this:
25k points for a $117 room ( .468 cents)
17500 points for a $175 room (1.0 cents)
25k points for a $136 room ( .544 cents)
60k points for a $401 room ( .668 cents)
You're right that I was comparing apples to oranges the other day, because I was looking at point total for 2-day stay and comparing it to the cash price for one night. But usually I'm just searching for 1 day, and the above numbers are better than what I usually find. I don't think I've ever before found anything with a 1 cent value or even the .668 cent value. I think usually I've gotten around .4 cents per point.
But now I'm curious, what are the good ways to redeem them?
I caught your strike-through on the previous post as I hit the reply button and went back. I was going to say that I can see 50k for a sub-$200 room being a possibility right now. That would be a standard Category 6 or Off-Peak Category 7 property, which would mean you're looking at Ritz-Carlton or St. Regis type properties or possibly Marriott and Sheraton properties in normally very high demand areas such as Times Square. Since the points total seemed to be for 2 days, that's for a much lower category hotel - and certainly there are probably some really good cash values right now.
With hotels, it's really going to depend on where and when you're going, and what the cash price would be. One definite thing to take advantage of would be the 5th night free; if you are staying in 5 night increments that automatically increases your value by 25%. Using points for a hotel booking right now may not be a good value as demand is at an all-time low and cheap cash rates are likely as they try to get any business they can. But looking ahead into the future a bit when the hotels are optimistic that things will start to get back to normal, the redemption rates vs the cash prices are much better.
A fairly typical use of Marriott points might be to convert them to Virgin Atlantic miles for booking a Delta J or F award. If we move 240k Marriott points to Virgin, that becomes 100k Virgin miles. We'll use random dates in November and fly from Minneapolis to Paris round-trip in business class, which costs 100k miles plus $150.45 in taxes and fees. Subtracting the taxes and fees from the cash price, that gives us 2.35 cpp for our Marriott points.
@K-in-Boston wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@K-in-Boston wrote:@SouthJamaica how on earth can you possibly be getting such bad redemptions? Pretty much the worst case I could see would be converting to Delta SkyMiles and redeeming for Main Cabin domestic airfare and that would still be 0.5 cpp, making this a "5% back" offer. Even trying to find a bad redemption for a Marriott award, I can't see anything under 0.6 cpp. I suppose if you can find a really good cash booking right now (quite likely with demand being so low at the moment) anything is possible, but that's certainly not the norm.
A cursory search of a few random cities is giving me 1.73 cpp at Fairfield Inn & Suites Tampa North, 1.2 cpp at Courtyard Boise Downtown, 2.02 cpp at Ritz-Carlton Central Park, and 2.09 cpp at The Chatwal NYC. Those are all "slightly" better than the 0.3 cpp you're stating. When you're calculating point value with Marriott, are you comparing the full price for all nights with taxes included and not accidentally calculating the total points needed for an award by the average nightly rate (easy to do because of the way Marriott displays those values side by side)?
I've used a few million Marriott points over the past few years. I've had as high as 6 cpp and one single stay at 1.1 cpp, but I am rather consistently in the 1.5 to 2.5 cpp range.
You're right that I was reading it wrong the other day. I just did a search and got this:
25k points for a $117 room ( .468 cents)
17500 points for a $175 room (1.0 cents)
25k points for a $136 room ( .544 cents)
60k points for a $401 room ( .668 cents)
You're right that I was comparing apples to oranges the other day, because I was looking at point total for 2-day stay and comparing it to the cash price for one night. But usually I'm just searching for 1 day, and the above numbers are better than what I usually find. I don't think I've ever before found anything with a 1 cent value or even the .668 cent value. I think usually I've gotten around .4 cents per point.
But now I'm curious, what are the good ways to redeem them?
I caught your strike-through on the previous post as I hit the reply button and went back. I was going to say that I can see 50k for a sub-$200 room being a possibility right now. That would be a standard Category 6 or Off-Peak Category 7 property, which would mean you're looking at Ritz-Carlton or St. Regis type properties or possibly Marriott and Sheraton properties in normally very high demand areas such as Times Square. Since the points total seemed to be for 2 days, that's for a much lower category hotel - and certainly there are probably some really good cash values right now.
With hotels, it's really going to depend on where and when you're going, and what the cash price would be. One definite thing to take advantage of would be the 5th night free; if you are staying in 5 night increments that automatically increases your value by 25%. Using points for a hotel booking right now may not be a good value as demand is at an all-time low and cheap cash rates are likely as they try to get any business they can. But looking ahead into the future a bit when the hotels are optimistic that things will start to get back to normal, the redemption rates vs the cash prices are much better.
A fairly typical use of Marriott points might be to convert them to Virgin Atlantic miles for booking a Delta J or F award. If we move 240k Marriott points to Virgin, that becomes 100k Virgin miles. We'll use random dates in November and fly from Minneapolis to Paris round-trip in business class, which costs 100k miles plus $150.45 in taxes and fees. Subtracting the taxes and fees from the cash price, that gives us 2.35 cpp for our Marriott points.
I guess the reality for me is that since I am basically a budget traveler, and a small time one at that, the value for me is in the sub 1-cent category. I never would stay in the same hotel for 5 nights; I wouldn't be caught dead in business class*; I rarely travel overseas.
* Unless of course someone else was paying for it.
