When do you pull the trigger on your free night certs?
 

Curious as to how others decide when to use 35k/50k/85k free night certs vs. points vs. cash.

Personally I am happy if I can use a 35k cert for a room that costs $200/nt and an 85k cert on a $500/nt room (actual savings is higher when you factor taxes). Of course the flip side is that the free nights all have a short fuse <12 months so you can't save them forever (like stock options that become worthless). I just had one expire which I was saving for a high value room - ack.

When do you use your free nights?

I would be happy to use my 35k certs for $200 rooms, but I find it harder and harder to actually find such rooms.

For example, I was looking at Vancouver BC - most Marriott’s hotels are $220-$250 in cash, but points rates are 44-48k. It’s a pretty expensive top-up for a 35k cert, and complete waste of a 50k cert.

Yes, I know, all depends on your travel patterns. A year ago I had to burn a cert at what would otherwise be a $100 stay in Flagstaff, and it was so terrible, a week later I just let my other cert expire and stayed at Hyatt Place instead. I envy people who have no problems finding uses for these certs.

It’s getting harder to get exceptional value out of them these days. A few years back you had 3 or 4 Hawaiian options with a 35k cert. Now even SPK in Waikiki is hard to find dates that don’t require a top off. Still, I try to get $200+ value out of them and I still can in Europe and South America.

Getting a $200 room for a 35k cert is a win in my book. So far I have been successful, but it keeps getting harder. Even when I hit that, I am usually paying more than I need to given the other options. But its worth it as usually there is also a quality step up
For example given how I value the points, I can stay in a very nice Luxury Collection property for a bit more than I would have paid at a generic Crowne Plaza

MNL Marriott - cash rate was around $300
Sheraton in Hawaii (35k + 5k) cash rate was like $950
Domes in Corfu Greece (35k +5k) cash rate was around $450

I switched to the bonvoy brilliant card in part because I get two 85k FNA’s given I can put $60k on the card annually. The 35k FNA had become more difficult to use. I look at the 85k cert as being 85k points and am fine if I have to add points - I then do the math and if I get at least 0.75 cents per point that is acceptable, if 1 cent or more that is good.

An example to the above - I booked two nights at RC Grand Cayman. It was 92k and 94k for the nights, so I used two 85k certs plus the 16k points. The cost per night would have been $1065.40, and with points I still pay $98 resort fee.

So the math is $2130.80 minus $196, then divide by the 186k points and you get 1.04 cents per point which is a good value redemption.

If rates are < $100, I pay cash. If I have to stay few days only, certs. For longer stays, points

I tend to plan a lot of travel well in advance so have the benefit of picking my spots. I typically treat a certificate as a discount, i.e. to reduce the cost of a high-dollar or high-points stay that I’m making anyway. European markets often fit that description (using one in Reykjavik this summer) as do high-priced US markets (I’ve redeemed at the SpringHill Suites in Jackson Hole) or those with a special event driving rates higher.

I have used 4 of the 85,000 point certificates, and for 3 of them have booked rooms worth over $600 per night. I used one certificate for a $400+ room, when my travel plans for the rest of the year didn’t include better options. I typically pair them with another night or two on points.

The inability to use FNCs to book higher room categories limits their usefulness a bit - you generally have to be willing to take one of the cheapest rooms - but as a Titanium I have been lucky to be upgraded on all 3 of my past FNC stays. For my upcoming 4th FNC stay, the hotel offers 3 different categories of rooms for the same number of points, even though at paid rates the rooms vary in cost by up to roughly $150, so I was able to pick one with the view I wanted. I wish more hotels did that.

Like the prior poster, I’ve used them as part of a longer trip I’m planning to take anyway, and have gotten the most value out of using them in Europe, rather than the U.S.

Booked a $270/night room at Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit (Bangkok) yesterday using a 35K cert (and a second night for 34,000 points).

I still have the old Marriott card that gives you a 25K certificate. I feel like I’m in a staring contest with Marriott over whether I can justify keeping this card every year. (for the record, already used it for 2025, had to top it off with 15k points, but got $547/night room, so I won big this year)