Join Date: Aug 2017
Location: Stilllwater OK (SWO)
Programs: AAdvantage ExecPlat, World of Hyatt Globalist, plain "member" of Marriott, IHG, enterprise, etc.
Posts: 1,846
Once I bought points because I had a very specific trip where the points redemption value was high and I didn't have enough points to cover it. It was a sort of aspirational stay, and in hindsight, the hotel still wasn't worth the cost in points (IMO).
But generally, between points earned on travel for work, and promotions, and some earning from the CC of bonus points, the points coming in my account are enough to cover the points going out for the redemptions that are more than 2 cents/pt. And heck, there are a LOT of Cat3-5s in my ordinary leisure travels that are never worth more than ~1-1.5 pt/cent when I am staying anyways.
And yes, as pointed out by WasKnown, accounting for earnings rate as shown above, as well as promotions, applicable parking fees, taxes, etc, which can all very quickly tip the scales back and forth a few times if you want to be very exacting about it.