Frustrated with Ultimate Rewards!

[Anonymous]

I finally got the 40k bonus points from my CSP card and I went to book a hotel for my San Francisco trip in July. I had already found a hotel that I wanted to stay in, so I searched specifically for it on the UR site. It's coming up as $254 (20,389 points) per night when it's listed for $180/night everywhere else on the internet! What?!? I don't want to overpay so much even if it WILL technically be free! I thought it was supposed to be CHEAPER through the UR site?? 

[enharu]

try searching other hotels?

maybe this specific hotel isn't a partner hotel with UR?

Use it for flight redemption?

Normally UR prices are in line with what Expedia offers, from what I've seen. It can vary I suppose.

[Anonymous]

Expedia shows the $180 price

I'm using my Southwest reward miles for the flights. 

At this rate it would be better to just get a cash credit! Grrr. 

[jamesdwi]

I have found unless you lock your self into one or two hotels, its best to book via hotels.com, they give you a free night after 10 nights, and they average the cost of your stays, so if you spend 10 mights at a $100 a night hotel they give you a $100 credit. On top of it currently chase is giving 4 extra points per dollar spent at hotels.com if you go hotels.com via the UR mall.

[Cdnewmanpac]

Using UR points to book travel directly is rarely a great use of points. I often find the points required to book through the UR portal work out to about 1 cent per point when compared to the price at hotels.com, expedia, etc. while flights are often more closely matched.

Alternative 1: You are REALLY committed to that hotel. Book it on hotels.com or whatever, get a statement credit for the amount (18000 points) on your CSP. You get 1 cent per point, which is better than you would get booking through UR portal. Room is free, you use points.

Alternative 2: You are ok staying at a hotel affiliated with UR. Take, for example, the Hyatt Fisherman's Wharf. This is a really nice hotel that you can get for 15k hyatt gold passport points/night. Sign up for gold passport. Transfer 15k points from your UR account to your Hyatt account, then book. On hotels.com for a July 19th booking, the cost is >$300/night. You get almost 2 cents per point. Or if you want to be downtown, Hyatt Regency SF is wonderful. Still only 15k points via hyatt gold passport. 

I'm sure there are similar deals via Marriott or Ritz or Priority Club, but I'm more familiar with Hyatt SF hotels. The point is that this is the way most of us get the value from UR points that we talk about, not by using the UR travel portal to book. Except when booking short haul domestic flights, I can always do better converting to partners.

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys! Great info

[FutureBillionaire]

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@Cdnewmanpac wrote:

Using UR points to book travel directly is rarely a great use of points. I often find the points required to book through the UR portal work out to about 1 cent per point when compared to the price at hotels.com, expedia, etc. while flights are often more closely matched.

Alternative 1: You are REALLY committed to that hotel. Book it on hotels.com or whatever, get a statement credit for the amount (18000 points) on your CSP. You get 1 cent per point, which is better than you would get booking through UR portal. Room is free, you use points.

Alternative 2: You are ok staying at a hotel affiliated with UR. Take, for example, the Hyatt Fisherman's Wharf. This is a really nice hotel that you can get for 15k hyatt gold passport points/night. Sign up for gold passport. Transfer 15k points from your UR account to your Hyatt account, then book. On hotels.com for a July 19th booking, the cost is >$300/night. You get almost 2 cents per point. Or if you want to be downtown, Hyatt Regency SF is wonderful. Still only 15k points via hyatt gold passport. 

I'm sure there are similar deals via Marriott or Ritz or Priority Club, but I'm more familiar with Hyatt SF hotels. The point is that this is the way most of us get the value from UR points that we talk about, not by using the UR travel portal to book. Except when booking short haul domestic flights, I can always do better converting to partners.

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Excellent post here.