But not always. Sure, when you find low hotel rates, book 'em and keep your points. Save the points for when you can't find good, cheap hotels.

A few of my redemptions:

- Sheraton at Oktoberfest, a confirmed suite big enough for 4 guys, 8500 pts/nt. Would have been several hundred euros per night no matter how we sliced it.

- Two suites for four nights in Times Square for Thanksgiving, 290k HH points. Got that one for this year, booked in March under the old rates. Booked for four adults per suite, although we may only end up with 6 or so there. That's probably $750/nt., even if I could get Priceline to accept a base bid of $200 for three 4* rooms on one of their max-demand weekends. (They go for $150-180/nt. on normal-demand weekends.)

- Several Spring Break resort stays in mid- to high-category Starwoods. Westin PVR, Westin Key West, etc. High occupancy hotels where getting a desirable room was important and being in the Priceline room overlooking the dumpster wouldn't have been nearly as fun. Sure, PVR and EYW probably have Holiday Inns somewhere but even though wouldn't be cheap during max-demand periods. Dropping $150/nt. for a Holiday Inn vs. using points to get Platinum perks at a good resort? That's an easy choice.

- "Prime" hotels for special events. Westin Pasadena for the Rose Bowl, Westin Berlin, W Union Square (NYC), and Sheraton Chicago for those cities' marathons, etc. I'm sure somebody out there Pricelined hotels for every one of those events...and then had to deal with bad rooms in packed hotels, more hassle/travel time to get to the events, and probably rates that aren't as dirt-cheap as you'd think if the hotel is at all desirable.

I think there's a time and place for everything. Used Priceline for an HIX in rural Iowa recently...saved $50 or so, just to give up some PC points. But I'm glad I have hotel points for the places where other options are all pretty bad.