Originally Posted by
RichardInSF
The rough general rule that I follow is that when at company X, the greatest value is obtained by getting X points.
But there is an important exception: if you hardly ever use company X, then the points would go to waste in a company X account, so should be converted.
Agreed but for Hyatt if you request miles at the start, you get 500 mi for the stay. If you request points you get 5 points / $ (and conversion ratio is 1 mile for every 2.5 points), so you need to have earned 1,250 points to get the alternative 500 miles. If your eligible charges for the stay is greater than $250 (room rate and eligible incidentals), you'd be better off taking points and converting them later.
This assumes that there is no special promo running for bonus miles (which seems to run once a year).