Originally Posted by
avogadro
Thanks for the lengthy reply trashing my post!
I see you posting on here all the time. You must have some actual insights into how to optimize earning or spending? I'd love to hear them.
I am simple:
(1) Set a threshold of 2 cents per point. For personal travel, travel to where I want to go when I want to go: pay cash when cash rates are cheaper than that, pay points when cash rates are higher than that. And if points and cash are too expensive I just don't go there. Over time, raise/lower this threshold based on whether points are accumulating or depleting too fast.
(2). Use WoH CC for most ordinary purchases (but especially bonus categories), as long as above threshold is still 2 cents per point (or more) and I am not accumulating too many points. If I am accumulating points, instead of moving the redemption below 2 cents per point, I shift CC spend to 2% cash back card (or, now, consider AAdvantage LPs on that card instead).
(3). Certs in = Certs out.
(4). Enjoy travel and life and don't obsess over squeezing out marginal values in the program. Moving hotels mid-vacation to optimize use of a Cat7 cert sucks, MSing sounds like a headache, etc. Squeezing out marginal value of travel programs feels like a richer's person version of grocery store couponing. Like, my time is way more valuable to me (financially, or mentally) than whatever value I am getting from that.
All in all, I end up with 40-60 nights BIB and 20-40 nights from the CC. About half my BIB nights are for work, the other half are for fun.
Points in my account bounces around between 10K-200K points through the year. Usually in a year, we have a couple trips paying $200-400 a night at a Cat 4-7 hotel, but the majority of nights the rest of the year are using points at Cat1-3s in the region (where cash rates very often > 0.02*points required). And a big part of that pattern is that I generally avoid paying more than $400 or 20,000 points a night because few hotels are worth it, so for Cats 5 and up, I am only staying if cash rates are less than $400, and in that case, that is below my 2 cent redemption line. Most of my redemptions are about 2.5-3.5 cents per point, but a few might be 2.0-2.5 still.
With threshold bonuses, I always choose the 10K points. 4 TSUs are plenty for the 4 weeks of vacations with the kid where I want/need a suite (and a suite is available and actually worthwhile)