Originally Posted by
drbobguy
While what newbie says about hotel transfers is true (9 potential hits is pretty amazing) keep in mind most of the transfers are hugely destructive in terms of total value of the points/miles. E.g. even for the most rewarding hits (5000 miles a piece) you are losing total points for the hotel transfers. If you have any use at all for the hotel points this is not such a great route. I mean 10,000 Hhonors points going to 850 US miles is pretty crappy, even if you're getting 5000 US miles in the process.
The exception of course is if you have orphaned points. Also you're right that e-rewards might be okay for this, but it pains me to think of the time it would take to get to $150 on e-rewards for 10,000 Hhonors points just to get 5,850 US miles out of the deal.
If the transfer ratios were better hotel transfers would be a great option, but as it stands they're pretty bad in my opinion.
I think one of the great tricks is getting cheap rentals. I got 4 rentals this time, all for under $20 each. Those are pretty cheap hits, if a little time consuming, but if you can work them into your schedule regularly then they're pretty easy.
True about hotel transfer, but for me, it's tougher to use hotel points than airline miles (I can use partners of US, not partners of Hyatt). 10000 HHonors points doesn't do as much for me as 5850 US miles. My last hit is a Hyatt transfer, which I get from 5000 Chase UR points. Yeah, it's a lot of points, but I don't have any other options, but these 5000 UR points net me 7000 US miles (2000 transfer + 5000 for a hit in the 30s).