Originally Posted by
Irka
Thanks! And thank you taking the time to explain this to me! So should I just buy the VGCs at Meijer/Kroger? Then buy MOs at Meijer or Walmart ? And I'm still not understanding if I have to pay about $11-12 for every 1000 points is that really a good deal? Seems like I need about 7000-10000 SPG points for all these hotels per night. So I'm still spending about $70-$110 on activation fees for one night stay. Do I just have a bad CC and I should look at other more advantageous ones? Or I'm doing the calculation all wrong?
only you can decide if paying those fees for that hotel room is a good deal. one place to start is looking at how much the room costs to pay cash. then deciding what amount you would be willing to pay in cash for the room( if the room is 1000 per night but you would never pay over 200 for a room then its really only worth 200 not 1000)
also how soon are you planning on making the trip, you could just spend your regular monthly spend ( gas groceries target runs and the like ) to the card and get points that way.
to add complications to your calculations you also need to compare the spend to a 2% cash back card like the citi double cash card. it has no annual fee and you get two percent cash back on all purchases. if you are not earning more that 2cents per SPG point it is better to spend on the 2% cash back card and sue cash to pay for additional nights.
hope this is not too complicated.
as a final note you may want to ask these type of questions in the "New to MS" thread. you may find more help in that thread