Need to buy points - as many as possible
 

So here's the dilemma:

I have been assigned to work at a remote location. Following are my options:

1 - Hilton (Hampton Inn) - approx 170 / night
1 - Marriott - Townplace - approx 210 / night
1 - La Quinta

Even though the Marriott is $210 / night. The point stay is 50,000 for 5 nights (1 night free) - category 2. Most of my stays are 5 nights:

So,
I could stay at Hilton
- spend $170 x 5 plus another 18% (taxes and fees) = $1003 / week
- earn 170 x 5 x 44 (Diamond / credit card / promotion) = 37,400 points per week

I could stay at Marriott
- use 50,000 points / stay until I run out of points.
or
- $210 x 5 plus another 18% (taxes and fees) = 1239
- earn approx 30,000 bonvoy points

in terms of value even though the 50,000 points are for the $210 / night hotel, I compare it with the other option at $170.

So 50,000 points to avoid $1000 spend. so 2 cents / point.

Question: where and how do i buy more Marriott points.

Waiting for a promotion where the bonus to buy is 100% or so. I understand I am limited at 80,000 / yr so a total of $160,000.

Convert Amex Membership rewards into Marriott ?
Convert Southwest points into Marriott ?
Convert chase rewards points into Marriott ?

Your work won't reimburse your hotel??

Per the T&Cs: A member may purchase or receive as a gift a combined maximum of 50,000 points per calendar year.
So you're limited to a week of points for purchase, unless you catch a promo as you said. Those 50k points will cost $625. Opportunity cost is the $625 + the estimated 30k points in earning you mentioned so don't forget to factor that, since that is several nights worth of 'lost' points earn.

Can't predict when/if the next point buy promo will come up unfortunately. As you mentioned, only other option is converting points since that doesn't count to the above 50k buy/gift limit.

Work provides per-diem. It's upto me how to use that.

my expenses:"
- hotels
- airlines
- parking
- rental cars
- food.

What would be the value of using those points elsewhere (i.e. not for this set of work trips)? And what would you use those $1000s on if not toward this set of trips?

category 2 hotels at remote site locations.
- those 50,000 points could be used to pay for a 5 days stay at a hotel which typically costs $95-100 at some (most )other sites or in this case to pay for a $210/ night hotel.

- I have booked vacations before where I ended up using higher redemption rates for category 6 hotels. '

This.

Your choices are really:

1) Hampton Inn: $1,003 but get 37,400 HH points --> if we value HH points at $0.005 (YMMV), then it's $1,003 - (37,400 * $0.005) --> $1,003 - $187 --> $816
2a) Townplace: $625 to buy 50,000 Bonvoy points
2b) Townplace: $1,239 but get 30,000 --> if we value Bonvoy points at $0.008 (YMMV), then it's $1,239 - (30,000 * $0.008) --> $1,239 - $240 = $999
3) La Quinta: $__

The stay/night credits may have value to you if they help you earn status. And you may prefer one of these hotels over the other.

So would you rather pay $816, $625, $999, or $__ to stay at the Hampton, Townplace, or La Quinta?

If you have friends or family members with accounts, they can buy points (or earn from credit card bonuses) and transfer to you. Each person can transfer a max of 100,000 to you per calendar year, but you can receive up to 500,000 points per calendar year.

Really interesting thread. I've had plenty of experience with jobs where there's a cash M&IE per diem reimbursement, but never seen it on the hotel side. Is this a federal gig? If I could have had that in all my years doing govt work, I'd have slept under bridges. :D

Could you get a better overall deal (and make your points last longer) with points + cash ?

Cut/Paste from Marriott Bonvoy's T&Cs: https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/terms/default.mi

2.8.a. In accordance with the conditions for transferring Points as described in Section 1.6.c., a Member can transfer up to a maximum of 100,000 Points per calendar to another Membership Account as long as both Accounts are in good standing and have each been open for at least thirty (30) days with qualifying activity, ninety (90) days without qualifying activity (see 2.8.b). A Member can receive up to a maximum of 500,000 Points per calendar year from other Membership Accounts as long as the Accounts are in good standing and have each been open for at least thirty (30) days with qualifying activity, ninety (90) days without qualifying activity.

I think this math is correct, however, this is the math for 5 nights. I think OP has multiple 5 night stays coming up. If that is the case, I think another factor is how many total nights there will be. Would need to see if you are able to earn status with any of the chains. Also, if you have a Marriott credit card, would supplement your points earning, offsetting some of the expense. If not, might be worth getting one since the 15 night credit from them gets you instantly to Silver, and 10% bonus points.

Possible to do a status challenge as well? Depending on total nights.

Totally agree, shimps1. I kept it to a single five-night stay to align with the 50,000 points maximum purchase per year. Any more complications and we'd need to open Excel to do the calculations :D

It's not unique to government, but it is common there. For instance, here's an article about NYS legislators sleeping, as you put it, under bridges:

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/27/n...-diem-pay.html