Originally Posted by
lkar
[Seems to me a sticky or general Cash and Points thread might be a good idea, but in the meantime, here's a tidbit about this new program.]
Cat 1 2827 points saved and earned for $50. 1.76 cents per point.
Cat 2 4412 points saved and earned for $55. 1.24 cents per point.
Cat 3 6488 points saved and earned for $75. 1.15 cents per point.
Cat 4 8150 points saved and earned for $100. 1.22 cents per point.
Cat 5 10812 points saved and earned for $125. 1.16 cents per point.
Cat 6 13475 points saved and earned for $150. 1.11 cents per point.
Cat 7 16950 points saved and earned for $300. 1.77 cents per point.
What I think cannot be generalized is the taxes that must be paid on the cash co-pay, which will differ by hotel. These costs need to be added back in, so the numbers above are the baseline.
Taxes are usually a non-trivial amount and I think they need to be considered. A quick online check suggests that (at least in the US) taxes average about 14% of the room rate. As an example, that makes the $50 really $57 at Cat 1, 2.016 cents per point.
But then I need to consider the points I earn (through my credit card) on $57. If I use a Hyatt card, I'll get 3* 57 = 171 points. So, a Diamond recovers 2998 points for $57, 1.90 cents per point.
But then I'm a Platinum! My numbers change a little.
and how do I value a stay credit? It might be worth zero or it might be worth $70, the cost of a mattress run.
This gets complicated. It wouldn't be too hard to build a web form for this calculation (except for the stay credit part) and would be a nice blog addition. But how does that earn credit card referrals?