All -

I'm sitting on 500k Marriott Points and they are starting to burn a hole in my proverbial pocket. I travel just about every week so I'll build up the points again...

My fiance and I are backpacking around Central America in November and I'm trying to decide do I use half the points to get a sweet SLR (maybe this one? https://www.skymall.com/mr/detail.htm?pid=203110455) or do I use them on a hotel? Obviously the "value" staying at JW Guanacaste ($200 / night) for our few nights in Costa Rica gives me a bigger "bang for my buck", but we typically stay in lower-end hotels when we're trekking.

Questions for everyone:
1 - What's the best way you've burned through a large sum of miles before? I'm open to suggestions...
2 - Thoughts on buying product through Marriott Rewards vs. Hotel stays
3 - What would you do with the points??

Let's hear your thoughts!

I think the "obvious" answer is to book a great trip with them!

Here are some ideas...

Use 135,000 points to the get the $1000 booklet of 20x$50 coupons. They're as good as cash. Especially useful at places like the St Kitts Marriott, where the rates are often as low as $98/night...

Do you fly a lot? If not, you can use the Marriotts hotel+miles award where you get a week a hotel + a lot of airline miles so you can book your flight out there.

If you're staying at lower end hotels, then I find the $1000 booklet to be a better value than using points - you get elite nights + points on stays that you pay w/ the checks - they're same as cash.

Actually, my #1 recommendation would be to blow a lot of them at a Ritz-Carlton property. Why not head over to Phulay Bay?

Of course you could just burn the points on a DSLR. I tend to think you don't get the best "value" by doing that, but at the same time, if you want a DSLR, it sure is nice to have one show up on your doorstep and have you pay $0 for it... can't beat that.

ENJOY!

As you already have stated, purchasing items through skymall will give you a very poor $/pts ratio. But whether that is beneficial to you or not really depends on you and your situation.

You state that normally you stay at less expensive places when trekking, but could a few days at a higher end resort be memorable? Would you purchase the camera with cash if you don't use points? How does paying cash for the camera affect you financially? With the points you have, you could order almost 2 Travel Package awards that comes with airline miles plus a 7 night hotel award? Those can be a very good use of points if you need and can use the airline miles to fly somewhere you couldn't otherwise, or to fly in a higher class (business/first). But if that is not of interest to you, then it may not be a good use of points. Personally, I've used points recently for PointSaver awards at RCs. I love the pampering and services they provide and with a PointSaver award, an RC doesn't take much more points than any other high end Marriott. ^ But do you or your partner want/like to be pampered at all? Is it worth it to either of you?

Another option that might be of interest could be the 135K point $1k awards. They are basically $1K cash to spend at Marriotts however you like. You could use them to pay for the hotel's nightly rate or you could use them to pay for hotel services like spas. Basically, you can use them to pay for just about anything that can be billed to your room.

Ultimately, the answer depends on you. You will want to maximize fulfilling your desires while minimizing your costs (and that includes all uses of points). What are your desires and what are your costs? Figure those out and then look at the options.

Or buy $1k cruise certificates for 145,000 points each. That would give you $3,000 to use toward a cruise, and you can get some nice itineraries for that.

For me, a cruise is a heck of a lot more fun than staying in more hotels. I stay in too many hotels as it is!

My final suggestion is that you disregard "dollar value per point" and simply go with whatever will give you the most fun for your points. For me, it's a cruise. For someone else, it's a luxury hotel. And for you, it might be a camera.

As a general rule of thumb, I strongly suggest NEVER to use your points for anything other than Marriott system hotel stays--you get a much bigger bang for the buck.

Exception is MR's hotel-air (frequent flyer) travel packages alluded to by hungarianhc above--the value of the point to miles addition is stratospherically good.

NEVER even think about using your points for anything outside the Marriott system (cruises, merchandise etc). Mariott has to pay dollars to the suppliers for those awards, and makes sure you are penalized because of that (meaning poor value for you).

Give 'em to me...sorry I couldn't resist!

Great idea. I never thought of doing that....

This is absolutely amazing. I think we'll head back to S. Thailand next year for our honeymoon and this review actually made me consider not posting up at a cabana on phi phi for 2 weeks. WOW.
[/quote]

I know!!!

This is a fantastic summary - i try to explain this concept to my friends and co-workers, strangers ,etc. I never seem to put it so precisely. I am saving this post in my "favorites" links.

I'm 110% aligned with you!! My die hard MR friend bought a Weber Grill with his points and i was just like "Huh? What? WHy? Huh?" LOL.

But FWIW, my pref when i hit the 500k point bank ... we immediately book a hotel+miles to Maui.

You can get a super nice 8-9 night stay and depending on your miles situation - a good shot at 1st class upgrades on tickets.

There's nothing better than 10 days in Maui on somebody else's dollar.

But the them here ... USE EM! Have a blast. As a fellow road warrior, when i send my wife that email 2x/year that says "honey - i have 500,000 points - book something!" she just blows up.

enjoy it and let marriott take care of you for a week or two for once!

What a good husband!!!

Happy wife = Happy life! We're not all as dumb as we seem!

Gosh, Travelexpert. We're not even allowed to think about it?

Is it not even possible that some people may have viewpoints different than yours? "Bang for the buck" is my priority, too. "Dollar calculation per point used" is not my top priority. In other words, I get the bang from the experience, not the calculation.

So if I strive all year to earn enough points for two $1k cruise certificates and then use them for a 10-day Caribbean cruise at off-season rates (at a port I can drive to, by the way), does that make me an idiot? I guess so, per your rules. But at least I'm a happy idiot!

I know this makes the most sense, but the fact that I could get a DSLR to show up via FedEx without dropping $1k is so tempting. Overall, there's no chance I can do it.

As a guilty party myself who endorsed the concept of 'there isn't any alternative to using points other than marriott properties'.

i hope we all know that was a "thread momentum" response and Original Post. I think we all just meant if you're really trying to maximize your points-per-dollar, that is the best means.

but i love the ideas others post beyond just a marriott stay - in fact this 135K for $1K vouchers is absolutely incredible.

I just confirmed on about 2 minutes ago - so there we have it ... i just broke my own rule!

I just bought that exact camera/2 lens pack for my wife's birthday. It's about $900 shipped. NO WAY would I have dropped 230K points for that--that's almost enough for the travel package I redeemed in July--a week in Paris next June + 120K CO miles for 2 tickets. Far better bang for the buck.