Originally Posted by
Polytonic
That's exactly it though. Would I pay $700+ a night to stay at the NY Edition, or 1500€ for the St. Regis Rome? Absolutely not, but I've stayed at both on certificates where the stated figures were the going rate at the time. I felt it was good value, and that's exactly what I mean by points/certs buying experiences I wouldn't otherwise go for with cash.
If we strictly looked at this from a "points" perspective, sure, those same 85000 points (if they were points and not a cert) could have gotten me two nights at a different property, but at the end of the day, I only have so many vacation days, so the ability to get more nights isn't necessarily as valuable to me as the ability to get a nicer room for the same price.
For sure those are great redemptions but they just don’t work for most of us. I’m not going to NYC or Rome or a resort for just 1 night and I’m not spending $1k on a room for the other night nor will I waste at least an hour switching properties (not to mention unpacking) to switch tj a cheaper property for the free night.
For me one night leisure stays typically are airport properties which are typically cheap or can take 35k certs or maybe Napa if i can get around 2nt minimum.