Best use of points
Jun 24, 2005, 8:29 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: New Orleans, LA
Programs: AA Platinum, SPG Gold, Marriott Gold, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 272
Best use of points
I cannot determine how to value my Starwood points. Is it better to use my points for a hotel stay or because of the bonus on transfers to airline programs it's better to save them for that and pay for the hotel room on Priceline or Hotwire. Can someone please help? Thanks.
Jun 24, 2005, 8:43 am
#2
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: NJ
Programs: UA LTG, AA LTG, Bonvoy LTP, IHG Plat, LHW Sterling
Posts: 2,408
Use them for hotels
The first thing to learn about flyer talk is someone will tell you to use the search function as this topic has been discussed before.
Personally I would use the points for hotel stays. As a general rule air travel costs the same or less than it did 30 years ago. Hotels on the other hand just keep getting more expensive... especially in Europe.
Premium class air travel? You could use them for this, but Id still rather spend a week in a Luxury hotel than 8 hours in business class.
Of course you can use your star points to xfer to airlines to top off accounts to get an award you are close to.
Personally I would use the points for hotel stays. As a general rule air travel costs the same or less than it did 30 years ago. Hotels on the other hand just keep getting more expensive... especially in Europe.
Premium class air travel? You could use them for this, but Id still rather spend a week in a Luxury hotel than 8 hours in business class.
Of course you can use your star points to xfer to airlines to top off accounts to get an award you are close to.
Jun 24, 2005, 8:51 am
#3
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It seems to me flights to Canada from the US have gone through the roof as of late. It takes $500 to fly to Toronto or Montreal. With my reduced mileage awards on AA thru Citibank Platinum Business Card I have been flying to Canada for 17,500 miles instead of the usual 25,000. If Starwood is going to give me a 5,000 mile bonus with 20,000 exchanged and I can get a 4* hotel for under $100 a night, isn't that a better use of the miles than to spend 7,000 points on the hotel stay?
Jun 24, 2005, 9:15 am
#4
Join Date: Feb 2000
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Originally Posted by tormapleaf
It seems to me flights to Canada from the US have gone through the roof as of late. It takes $500 to fly to Toronto or Montreal. With my reduced mileage awards on AA thru Citibank Platinum Business Card I have been flying to Canada for 17,500 miles instead of the usual 25,000. If Starwood is going to give me a 5,000 mile bonus with 20,000 exchanged and I can get a 4* hotel for under $100 a night, isn't that a better use of the miles than to spend 7,000 points on the hotel stay?
Do what you think is best for you.
Jun 24, 2005, 9:50 am
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: New Orleans, LA
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I travel mainly in North America, but I see what you mean when it comes to hotels in Europe. I thought there was a benchmark value of so many cents per point. Starwood told me it costs $25 for 500 points, so based on that, I figured 7,000 points for a Category 3 room come to $350USD, which is way more than the room is worth. Those AA Net Saver fares are a good deal, however, they are generally offered only in markets with non-stop service and restrict you with traveling outbound Saturday and return Monday or Tuesday. Thank you for your comments.
Jun 24, 2005, 10:44 am
#6
Join Date: Oct 2001
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Yeah, forget the Starwood $25 for 500 points valuation --- that allows *wood to make a tidy profit from each sale and does not really reflect the balance of the program.
On average, I assign my Starpoints approx 2 US cents per point. So, a cat 4 room for 10,000 points a night works out to about $200. That's my baseline average.
That means a cat 3 (7000) is ~ $140.
Use the 2 cent rule and you'll be far closer to reality. FWIW, I would agree with other posters that use of these points for hotel stays instead of airline miles is almost always the far better spend.
On average, I assign my Starpoints approx 2 US cents per point. So, a cat 4 room for 10,000 points a night works out to about $200. That's my baseline average.
That means a cat 3 (7000) is ~ $140.
Use the 2 cent rule and you'll be far closer to reality. FWIW, I would agree with other posters that use of these points for hotel stays instead of airline miles is almost always the far better spend.
Jun 24, 2005, 12:06 pm
#7
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: LAX
Programs: AA EXP 2MM
Posts: 2,080
Most of us probably agree on one thing: using points/miles for coach class air travel makes little sense. The question is whether to use them for premium class air travel (whether upgrades or award tix) or for hotel stays.
I used to transfer my Starpoints for use toward premium int'l air travel, figuring that while I can afford to pay out of pocket for just about any hotel room, premium air travel is totally out of reach. But lately I've been accumulating more airline miles than I can use. So I've switched to using points for hotel stays, and will probably continue to do so as long as my airline accounts are flush. YMMV.
I used to transfer my Starpoints for use toward premium int'l air travel, figuring that while I can afford to pay out of pocket for just about any hotel room, premium air travel is totally out of reach. But lately I've been accumulating more airline miles than I can use. So I've switched to using points for hotel stays, and will probably continue to do so as long as my airline accounts are flush. YMMV.
Jun 24, 2005, 12:36 pm
#8
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Only rarely does it make sense to me to convert SPG points into airline miles
- to top off an account for a specific award
- when the airline award you're after is int'l F to an expensive destination, I could see transferring 120k SPG --> 150k AA miles if you had an F award JFK-PPT/PPT-SYD/SYD-LAX-JFK on hold (which requires 145k AA miles and would cost ~ $12k).
- during a special conversion bonus, e.g. double BA miles where 20k SPG points = 50k BA miles
- to CX, where 60k Asia Miles gets you 5000 miles of Business Class flying (most East Coast to Europe destinations using BA)
In general what you want to look for is
(1) cash & points awards, these make for excellent values
(2) redemptions when hotels are almost full but standard awards are available, or redemptions duirng a hotel's high season, in other words when room rates are particularly high
No matter what, keep your points in Starwood until you need them elsewhere.
As for a dollar-value to shoot for... lots of differing opinions, but frankly my usual procedure is just to burn points on my leisure stays because frankly I have lots of points (they'll never be worth more than they are today, they're only worth something to the extent they displace money spent). I just burned through a whole bunch of points in a way that some on this board would think foolish -- 176,000 points for 5 nights at Bora Bora Nui. Not the best return on a per-point basis, perhaps, but I probably wasn't going to spend the money to stay there and I've very glad that I did stay there. Frankly it's an experiential reward, for an experience I wouldn't have had otherwise.
- to top off an account for a specific award
- when the airline award you're after is int'l F to an expensive destination, I could see transferring 120k SPG --> 150k AA miles if you had an F award JFK-PPT/PPT-SYD/SYD-LAX-JFK on hold (which requires 145k AA miles and would cost ~ $12k).
- during a special conversion bonus, e.g. double BA miles where 20k SPG points = 50k BA miles
- to CX, where 60k Asia Miles gets you 5000 miles of Business Class flying (most East Coast to Europe destinations using BA)
In general what you want to look for is
(1) cash & points awards, these make for excellent values
(2) redemptions when hotels are almost full but standard awards are available, or redemptions duirng a hotel's high season, in other words when room rates are particularly high
No matter what, keep your points in Starwood until you need them elsewhere.
As for a dollar-value to shoot for... lots of differing opinions, but frankly my usual procedure is just to burn points on my leisure stays because frankly I have lots of points (they'll never be worth more than they are today, they're only worth something to the extent they displace money spent). I just burned through a whole bunch of points in a way that some on this board would think foolish -- 176,000 points for 5 nights at Bora Bora Nui. Not the best return on a per-point basis, perhaps, but I probably wasn't going to spend the money to stay there and I've very glad that I did stay there. Frankly it's an experiential reward, for an experience I wouldn't have had otherwise.
Jun 25, 2005, 1:41 pm
#9
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: San Rafael, CA
Programs: Life SPG Plat, 7X NH DIA
Posts: 2,840
I am a fan of getting both hotel and air miles with my *points.
Nights and flight!
50K Miles + 5 nights @ a Cat 3 = 60,000 *points
50K Miles + 5 nights @ a Cat 4 = 70,000 *points
Nights and flight!
50K Miles + 5 nights @ a Cat 3 = 60,000 *points
50K Miles + 5 nights @ a Cat 4 = 70,000 *points
Jun 25, 2005, 4:40 pm
#10
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Coconut Creek, FL
Programs: AA Lifetime Platinum-3 MM Marriott Lifetime Plat Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 980
Nights and flights are always the best. Often I move miles into my favorite account...in this case AA because that is the best use of miles. Instead of paying for 5 nights (50,000 cat 4) I get 50,000 miles in my air account and basically get 5 nights for 20,000 points.
Rob
Rob
Jun 25, 2005, 5:44 pm
#11
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 327
Originally Posted by schoflyer
I am a fan of getting both hotel and air miles with my *points.
Nights and flight!
50K Miles + 5 nights @ a Cat 3 = 60,000 *points
50K Miles + 5 nights @ a Cat 4 = 70,000 *points
Nights and flight!
50K Miles + 5 nights @ a Cat 3 = 60,000 *points
50K Miles + 5 nights @ a Cat 4 = 70,000 *points
The airline portion uses 40000*points since you get 5000 airline bonus miles if you convert 20000*points to miles... so Cat 3 hotel portion costs 20000*points and 30000*points for Cat 4
Jun 25, 2005, 8:34 pm
#12
Join Date: May 1998
Location: australia
Posts: 5,763
Originally Posted by money_opp
The airline portion uses 40000*points since you get 5000 airline bonus miles if you convert 20000*points to miles... so Cat 3 hotel portion costs 20000*points and 30000*points for Cat 4
Edited because my post was absolute nonsense!
Last edited by 3544quebec; Jun 25, 2005 at 8:38 pm
Jun 25, 2005, 8:57 pm
#13
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Posts: 326
Originally Posted by sbtinme
Yeah, forget the Starwood $25 for 500 points valuation --- that allows *wood to make a tidy profit from each sale and does not really reflect the balance of the program.
On average, I assign my Starpoints approx 2 US cents per point. So, a cat 4 room for 10,000 points a night works out to about $200. That's my baseline average.
That means a cat 3 (7000) is ~ $140.
Use the 2 cent rule and you'll be far closer to reality. FWIW, I would agree with other posters that use of these points for hotel stays instead of airline miles is almost always the far better spend.
On average, I assign my Starpoints approx 2 US cents per point. So, a cat 4 room for 10,000 points a night works out to about $200. That's my baseline average.
That means a cat 3 (7000) is ~ $140.
Use the 2 cent rule and you'll be far closer to reality. FWIW, I would agree with other posters that use of these points for hotel stays instead of airline miles is almost always the far better spend.
You're pretty close to my assessment. The true value of the point, in my opinion, is a bit closer to 2.5 cents.
Mike
Jun 26, 2005, 3:14 am
#14
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 905
your flights and night calculation is off
sorry to burst your flights and nights calculation, but 5 nights at a cat 4 would not usually cost you 50,000 points as there is the pay for 4 (in points), get 1 free thing they have, so it would actually cost u only 40,000 points.
therefore the correct comparison is 5 nights for 40,000 points
or 5 nights plus 50,000 miles for 70,000 points, so basically on flights and nights you are getting 50,000 miles for 30,000 (70k-40k) spg points, which is better than the usual conversion to airline miles of 30k->35k, but not the double value (20k->50k) that you mentioned and i too used to think we would get until i noticed this.
r
therefore the correct comparison is 5 nights for 40,000 points
or 5 nights plus 50,000 miles for 70,000 points, so basically on flights and nights you are getting 50,000 miles for 30,000 (70k-40k) spg points, which is better than the usual conversion to airline miles of 30k->35k, but not the double value (20k->50k) that you mentioned and i too used to think we would get until i noticed this.
r
Originally Posted by robertw477
Nights and flights are always the best. Often I move miles into my favorite account...in this case AA because that is the best use of miles. Instead of paying for 5 nights (50,000 cat 4) I get 50,000 miles in my air account and basically get 5 nights for 20,000 points.
Rob
Rob
Jun 26, 2005, 7:01 am
#15
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Austin, TX
Programs: Platinum AA, Gold Skymiles, *wood Platinum
Posts: 342
All the above math is very good. (Btw, welcome to Flyertalk!)
I generally use my points to ensure that I get a hotel room in the location I want to be in. I.e. Los Angeles.
While it is possible to stay in Ontario, or Pasadena or something, I prefer Santa Monica or Westwood. Since Santa Monica is quite a bit more expensive (Can be 30-50% more expensive) I like using points. I also use my Starpoints for resorts.
When I use my points at resorts, I allow myself to to spend more on things I wouldn't usually buy like long massages, golf rounds, nice bottles of wine, etc.
I generally find with 21 days advanced notice, I can get a cheap airfare. That rarely matters in the hotel world. High season is high season.
I generally use my points to ensure that I get a hotel room in the location I want to be in. I.e. Los Angeles.
While it is possible to stay in Ontario, or Pasadena or something, I prefer Santa Monica or Westwood. Since Santa Monica is quite a bit more expensive (Can be 30-50% more expensive) I like using points. I also use my Starpoints for resorts.
When I use my points at resorts, I allow myself to to spend more on things I wouldn't usually buy like long massages, golf rounds, nice bottles of wine, etc.
I generally find with 21 days advanced notice, I can get a cheap airfare. That rarely matters in the hotel world. High season is high season.