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Old Nov 25, 2017 | 12:38 pm
  #13  
t1c
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Join Date: May 2013
Location: DTW
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Posts: 872
Originally Posted by sdsearch
1. Points are devalued at the same destinations perhaps. But you may find that you later will travel to destinations where points are a better value because of the destination. (Africa and the Middle East are teeming with low-category hotels which would be high category if in the USA. But if all your travels are in the USA now, "burning" those points because you don't realize you'll travel to whether they're much more valueable in a few years could be counter-productive.

2. Points you can earn easily now, even if devalued, may be more valuable than points you can't earn easily later. You have to look at replenishing cost, not just devaluation. In some cases, replenishing cost goes up way faster than devaluation does, and in that case devaluation is the lesser of two evils.

3. Using up points just to use them up, when you don't have a good use for them, may be "waste" at least as much value as devaluation would, maybe even much more.

If you can afford to easily earn points faster than you can use them now, but you know you'll have a harder time earning points later, does it really makes sense to "throw away" all those points now just because they might devalue??

The thing is, you have do to do math on devaluation, and not just assume it is will make your points "worthless". It will make them worth less by some amount, and the amount matters (in how it compares to current "forced" uses of those points).
+1
I only use my MR for overseas travel, always coming from both points and miles from my travel packages...
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