Originally Posted by
CJKatl
Yes and no. Marriott hotels in Beijing tend to be under $100/night, which means you are only getting at most $700 in value out of your hotel points on this. Many of us would pay cash at that price and save the cert for something more valuable. By comparison, the JW Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay Resort & Spa is $413/night or $2,891 for the same seven nights and is also Cat 5. The Atlanta Waverley is $227/night, or $1,598 for the seven nights and the Orlando Airport Ren is $232/night or $1,624/seven. In terms of your redemption being a good deal because hotels in Beijing have a low redemption rate and are nice, plus the package itself is a good deal, yes, it's a deal, but in dollar cash-in terms many would not bother using points here and would bank them for another usage.
The CY is around $100/ni ... but I was looking to use at the JW Marriott, which is running around $220/ni .... $1,540 total + taxes... so I think this is not a bad deal (and I want to stay at a place where I can spoil the Mrs. a bit)... even though value can be maximized somewhere else. I'm combining this with the ridiculous $500 r.t. fares from SFO and this is going to be a very cheap trip to knock off another couple of bucket list items - seeing the Great Wall and the Terracotta Warriors. Will bank the UA miles for something down the road... maybe some first class on Singapore Airlines.
