Originally Posted by jerseyfinn

. . . my feeling is they are worth whatever the same trip would have cost me . . . it is not so important to calculate the dollar value of a point but rather which reward package/option is provides the best value.

I completely agree with hershmeister.

The MR program is comprised of a variety of members ( business or leisure travlers, and Marriott timeshare owners ) who earn their points via different means and with different goals in mind. There is no one single boilerplate method of fixing the value of MR points and it all boils down to how a member earns their points, and how they redeem their points.

A leisure traveler may accumlate points more slowly and hence elect to redeem for single night stays or for multiple nights. A road warrior has this option as well as the choice to build up a sizable stack of MR points and go for a travel package. Most Marriott timeshare owners accumulate big chunks of MR points and also select the travel package.

My own perspective is that of a multiple week Marriott timeshare owner who also accumulates leisure stays with Marriott. For me, the travel package is the best value because of the 7 day hotel certificate and the 120K FF miles.

What is the "real value" to me? It's all relative to the time and destination we want to visit and the FF miles that we utilize. In our case, we select prime foreign hotel destinations where room rates are higher, and we use our FF miles for upgrade seats instead of award travel. We are still putting money out of pocket to do MR travel, but careful planning brings us significantly more value than we would receive out of pocket.

Our formula does not work for everyone. But the MR program has something in it for everyone who takes the time to earn points and find a use which suits their goals and needs.

Barry