yucci18

I have got 200k points sitting in my PC account.

One of the reasons why I am yet to redeem them is I get literally no benefits on award stays. I am an RA (earned) and I seem to have a hard time finding hotel stays...

For the points break, I can never align them towards my holiday plans

For last minute rewards, hardly ever there is one hotel in Australia or it would be in the middle of nowhere...

For IC stays, the value of points and paying cash is almost the same... I value them at .7c each... So 40k is about $280 and 50k is about $350.
And if I pay for them, I would get a nice suite, mini bar etc full benefits...

I have a holiday coming up in Japan Bali and shanghai... I didn't find any value in redeeming them either (happy to be proved wrong)...

And I don't have one night stay somewhere... Some holiday inn is only $80 per night so that makes no sense to redeem points either...

So any ideas? I was seriously considering sending them to airline miles...

Thanks in advance.

Raffles

There seems to be a flaw in your logic here!

How can you value them at .7c, when you cannot justify using them at .7c?!

Anyway, you will presumably not be RA for ever. Once you lose that status (and PC points don't expire) you will be getting your .7c of value.

Your RA status is also worthless at CP's, HI's etc, and in many cities that is all you get to choose from, so your .7c should be achievable.

Ironically, that is the same value I use (well, 0.5p but it works out the same) and I find I can usually use them at that value. Some of the best deals end up being Holiday Inn Express / Holiday Inn properties, oddly, especially airport properties. However, hotels in Europe are generally more expensive than elsewhere.

Airline miles is crazy. You are getting .2c a point based on 1c/mile. One day in 5 years time you will find yourself paying $400 a night for a New York or Paris hotel and bitterly regretting the 4 nights of IC Times Square / IC Paris you gave away!

view-with-a-room

The number of points is often noted on the welcome letter and so a higher number of points is to your advantage. All things being equal the client with a higher number of points is booked into the higher room with the balcony. So simply having the 200K points on the books is to your advantage.

nvoi

happend with me several times - perfect use of PC points

piiit

Sure? Without checking how those were generated?

yucci18

Thank you

I think I will save them for NY or Paris or HI stays

I was planning to use them for IC but I think I will pay for IC since it costs almost the same as how i value those points but I get benefits using cash.

Thanks again

heer84

From my personal experience, there are quite a lot of IC's that honour RA benefits - although some more then others. As mentioned above, there are certain cities where room's are becoming very expensive. Also bear in mind that IHG will probably increase the points required per room night soon - so you will probably see your points devalued further.

I don't know about you, but I am a BA Executive club member, and seeing as I will have to pay taxes and surcharges on my flights - the conversation to air miles has even less value to me

soitgoes

I'm having trouble understanding your logic. "It costs almost the same as how i value those points" is a great time to redeem. You value the points that way because they have that sort of redemption value.

TheBeerHunter

Huh?

soitgoes

Some hotels do seem to use point balance as a means of assigning upgrades, but it is a ridiculous method for them to use.

yucci18

For HI CP etc, if the points = cash value, then I will redeem.

However for IC, I would rather pay instead of redeeming points. Eg, $350 cash for IC stay, I will get mini bar, upgrade, club, movie etc all the RA benefits. If I redeem points, it's value is still $350. However, I don't get any benefits out of it. So the marginal benefits are greater when paying cash for the room.

For HI etc, yes, you are right. It makes sense to redeem them when points value >= cash. Since benefits are not that different.

Unterwegs

Same here. I don't redeem for ICs unless i know for sure that i will get the RA benefits. I value the points at around 0.5 US-cents. In addition i need to re qualify for RA and usually am only around 50 nights a year.

I usually give nights away to friends - book for them and make a note in the reservation. Or I use them when hotels are extremely expensive (last year in Nuremberg the HI was outrageous - something like 300 Euroes per night during a trade show, but still available for points, also the CP in Zuerich is a good place to use points).