WGretzky

entropy

85k against $360? doesn't seem great, maybe for HH points, but you can get much closer to 1c for MR...

mahasamatman

It all depends on how many points you have, what your earn and burn rates are, and what your checking account balance is.

RedSun

You do not need all that. There is a clear ball-park range. It is just insane (or broke) if you want to redeem 85k for $300 hotel.

Make sense if you get reward nights to burn before expiration. Not for points.

WGretzky

WGretzky

myperks

mahasamatman

If you have a million points and only $200, it makes perfect sense. Ditto if you earn more points than you can possibly use. You cannot sensibly draw conclusions with insufficient information.

Flying for Fun

At 1 cent per point, 85K is $850. If your hotel is $360 (which already includes F&B) you are potentially losing out on $490 in value daily. I would say this is an extremely poor redemption. Even at a value of 0.8 cents per point, the potential loss is $320. Looking the otherway around, you are getting 0.432 cents per points for your redemption.

Pay for the stay and use your points for an aspirational property elsewhere or book 4 nights and get a 5th night free at a category 5 for 140K. If you have 200K, you can stay 5 nights at a category 6. $360 per night for an all inclusive is pretty reasonable.

James

Flying for Fun

Sounds like the OP only has enough points for 2 nights on points and will pay for 2 nights for a stay of 4 nights total. If the OP had a "boat load" of points to burn, then why not use points for all nights and get a fifth night free if the scedule permits another day?

James

PrancingPonyGoldMember

The guiding rule should be - take the nightly cash rate in USD, (including taxes but not resort fees), and divide it by the points per night. If the result comes out to ~.008 or higher, it's a good redemption. If it's less than that, it's not the best use of your points. However, at the end of the day if you want to burn them anyway no one is going to stop you.

In this case $360/85,000 points comes out to .004, or less than half what I value the points at so I wouldn't do it, but everyone values these differently and decides what's worth it to them.

rny321

I normally don't redeem for less than 3/4 cent per point and aim for at least 1 cent each.

Valuations are subjective for a variety of reasons like the relative amounts of cash and points one has and when and where one travels. One other consideration is the cost to acquire points which can be done through stays, credit card use, or direct purchases. In the past SPG had sales where points were offered for roughly the equivalent of 3/4 of a cent and each dollar of SPG CC spending yielded 3 points. MR has offered points for less than 1 cents each, but currently sells them for 1 1/4 cents, and each dollar of MR CC spending yielded 2 points.

Although airlines attempt to sell points way above the value that I would consider, buying SPG points seemed like a reasonable value during sales. My reference when deciding what card to use for "unbonused" spending is a 2% cashback card, which would make the acquisition cost of MR points roughly 1 cent each. Alternatively, one could earn 1.5 UR points per dollar on a no fee Chase card combined with a Sapphire Reserve, which many would considered better the the 2% cashback option. There are other options, but my cursory analysis is easily adaptable to one's own preferences.

RedSun

False. Even if you get 1 million points and $200 for arguing purposes, you can still gift your points to your family and friends and get more than $200 back.

Loser is always a loser.

GetSetJetSet

IluvSQ

For comparison, I recently redeemed 87,500 points for a 6 night stay that would have cost USD 1,070.00 cash.
I felt that was good value.
Compare that to your use of almost the exact same number of points for a USD 360.00 value.