trekwars2000

So I'd like to start this thread and share mine. We have a 4 night award stay booked at the Downtown OKC Courtyard for the 1st and 2nd rounds of the NCAA tourney. It is a Cat 3 hotel. 4 nights (minus 1 free night cert) are a total of 45K points. The hotel would cost almost $1150 for the 4 nights due to the special event.

CarolDisney1

For me it's been the weeks I have spent in Europe! With the weakness of the $ over the past few years even "budget" hotels are pricey. I have spent about three weeks in Paris and one in London with no hotel costs. That makes the splurges on other things on the vacation easier on the bottom line!

judolphin

Yip, Europe for me too.

Unfortunately this post will not do anyone any good since the misers at MI took this away And looking back, I think I'm the sole reason Marriott got rid of this certificate. I'm only posting this to reminisce on good times... that was an amazing, amazing deal and helped make our honeymoon even more unforgettable.

Last year I used 300,000 points on two European samplers. I was so giddy about staying at these ridonkulousy expensive hotels last year that I actually wrote down the rack rates for what I was given:

• 2 nights confirmed in "Larger Guest Room" (not a courtesy FD upgrade) at Rome Grand Flora (EU436/night)
• 1 night upgraded by GM to "Presidential Suite" at Grand Flora after politely complaining. The complaint? They knew it was our honeymoon, yet gave us a "king" room with two twin beds pushed together. Again, FOR MY HONEYMOON! That's seriously what they did! But then they gave us this upgrade and all was forgiven. (EU1606/night)
• 4 nights London CH during the New England/Tampa Bay NFL game last year (399 pounds/night for special event at the time)
• 4 nights Champs Elysees (EU599/night)
• 3 nights Tiberio Palace in Capri -- BTW the nicest room I've ever stayed in -- stunning room, stunning view (EU549/night)

$1.60/EU (and roughly the same per pound for sake of calculation) at the time...

Doing the math... a shade under $13,000 worth of hotel for 300,000 points.

$0.04/point... a shade over if you think I should have counted the value of the Prez Suite at the Flora, a shade under $0.04 if you don't.

joshua362

IMO, this is the best victory because I assume you have a dog in the fight or care about college BB so much that its a stay you care about PERSONALLY and EMOTIONALLY and the CY hasn't found a way to weasel out of their MR obligations for this event.

I tried to stay at the Orlando World Center on points in mid April and the huge entire place won't allow point stays largely because the Florida kids are off from school that week, so I am told!

hjboudre

My wife and I spent 19 nights in Europe, using two 7 night samplers and a few extra on the front end. It was by far the best value we've ever gotten for our points and I'm quite sad that the samplers don't exist anymore.

playbbg

70k points for 5 day all-inclusive at the CasaMagna PV. all meals at all restaurants and all drinks were included. it came out to something like $2500-3000 we spent over those five days all together, so somewhere around $.04 a point... and the food was wonderful, the service was wonderful and the location was wonderful!!!

...oh yeah, and i got engaged

Allitali

We use them to stay at one of the properties for college football game weekends....they jack up the rate to nearly $300 a night with a two night minimum, but have been able to secure weekends for 30K pts. Both hotels we use are relatively new, suites, and have free breakfast, so its perfect for our family. Usually one of them is always available, provided I book 8-9 months out.

Using points for special events weekends is the way to go!