Originally Posted by
Flying for Fun
Excellent, I have 440K MR & 3K SPG left (xferd 75K to KrisFlyer for 2 J awards) and thought of going that way too but decided to just go with a single Cat 8 TP and attach it to a week-long stay in Sydney during peak Southern Hemisphere summer. Ultimately, I would prefer an SPG property there but happy with the Marriott too if I can't change later. Marriott is currently Cat 8 going to Cat 5, SPG 5 staying at 5. Worst case scenario I overpay 30K, best case I get the preferred hotel and 30K back. I can live with that.
I don't want to completely deplete my MR account. It is nice to have a small stach for those last minute trips or for short stopovers when pricing is at a premium.
If maximizing value, the extra AS Miles would be the way to go if you are looking for international premium cabin flights. As an MVPG75K I don't redeem for awards within the AS network but I do earn about 240K RDM annually with AS so I am not so focused to spend additional dollars for the extra TP.
That is my evaluation for me.
If you are familiar with the AS program and it suits your needs, the $900 SPG purchase (regardless of the value of the certificate) is still much cheaper that the ~$3450 to buy 120K AS miles (un-bonused) through Alaska. 120K is enough for J North America - Australia return on one partner if you find availability.
Great stuff. Thanks! Yeah, your situation is interesting. I think the Sydney option is a great one if you go that way. All of the hotels in Sydney are so expensive so that makes a lot of sense I think.
I definitely thought long and hard about option 2 from above (or even going with a current Marriott Cat 9 package) as I was considering the Marriott property in Crete. The Tier 1-3 was also appealing because I love staying at the Ritz in Marina Del Rey and could easily do a week there. But ultimately, the airline miles are more important to me than the hotel points, mostly just because I have a lot of Hilton points, a decent stash of Radisson points, and I can transfer Chase UR points to Hyatt if needed. I'm also not opposed to AirBnbs when traveling in some circumstances (I can use my Chase Ink Bold at Staples and get 5X points there).
AS miles are much harder for me to come by, so that's why that makes sense and it looks like I'm ultimately leaning towards option 4 from above. The big wildcard of course is if the 7 day hotel packages are indeed cancelled, what the return is going to be. I don't know if it's going to be made whole and I'm not expecting it to be, but I do also think it's going to be better than 45K points for the whole package as well. I just think there would be an uproar if it was
that bad. So I guess we'll see.