I am looking at a 4 night stay in Barcelona in May. I can book the room for 153 Euro per night (total 693 Euro = $786 USD) or 160k points.

Simple question, which would you do? I am strongly leaning towards paying the $786 as that is a great deal for Barcelona.

Thoughts? Thanks!

A four night stay on points? Really? For that reason alone I'd recommend paying. It pains me to see you giving up your free night!

There are so many considerations you did not share with us that it's impossible to give you meaningful conclusions.

At what rate do you earn points and how often do you vacation using them? There is no reason to hold onto points just for the sake of holding onto points. Marriott can devalue the points tomorrow and you missed your opportunity to maximize their use. Of course, it could happen in the other direction, but an Italian speaking giraffe could knock at your door this evening trying to sell you magazine subscriptions. Anything is possible. Not everything is likely.

Also, the pile of cash would be nothing for Oprah Winfrey or Bill Gates, but would be more significant to a single dad working as a bus driver raising eight kids. While I assume you are neither, we don't know where you are in between.

Assuming you would do another five night vacation in the near future using the points and the money is not an issue, I'd pay $$ for the room. If the points are going to languish in your account doing nothing for you, I'd go ahead and use them. Personally, it would take me four months to earn those points. Last year I used ~400k points on awards travel, but I don't have any big vacations left this year for which points have not already been deducted. Based on that, I'd probably use the points and pocket the money (closer to bus driver than Winfrey/Gates here), but I'd also figure out a way to stay one more night. The next big trip I need points for isn't until June 2016, and I'll have the points needed by then.

Bottom Line: Don't agonize after making your choice. Neither is "right" and neither is "wrong." Both are good for different reasons. You cannot do both.

At 0.49�/pt I would personally would not use points. My personal threshold is 1.5�/pt.

However as CJ implies, it depends on your personal situation.

If you travel for business as many here do, then you may have a plethora of points, even to the point where you consistently earn more points per year than you use for all your annual personal stays. Lucky you, if that's the case.

If on the other hand, most/all of your travel is personal then you need to weigh using points vs. paying much more diligently as using it for a low rate of return stay now, means you may end up spending more money in the log run. This is my case, hence my threshold of 1.5�/pt. FWIW, my threshold for using a 7-night TP cert is bit more liberal at 1�/pt. For example my 7-night TP stay at SPR in London this summer started out at a redemption rate of 1.38�/pt when I made the reservation at the lowest rate available (in past 8 months), and due to FX changes the redemption rate is now valued at 1.05�/pt. No I won't be changing this reservation, as the rates are much higher now than they were when I made the reservation.

Great responses both! Restores my faith in FT after hanging out in the Delta section too long!

Good reminder on the 5th night "free" with points. Unfortunately I can't make it work.

Thanks for the input and help! I need to think about this some more, just lucky I am int he position to not worry either way.

You probably already know this, but I cannot help myself...

Remember, you can hold both the points and cash reservations until you decide. Make the reservations by phone and ask that the points not be deducted for now. That gives you more flexibility if you want/need to use the points quickly in the meantime.

And good rates sometimes turn into even better rates, so keep an eye on the Barcelona property. If rates go up, ask the experts on this board about helping you get an LNF rate. Or even ask when the rates are low. There are people on this board who are masters at the LNF.

Good Luck.

There's definitely no right answer here, although like AAupgrade I reckon half a US Cent per point is pretty poor value.

I tend to redeem at between 1 UScent to 1 UKpenny, with a general rule that I'll not redeem below 1 UScent in most cases, and always redeem at 1UKpenny. Between the 2 lies the question of earn rates, origin of points, number sat in my account and opportunities to redeem in the future.

For instance as a UK resident I'm planning a big Canada/USA Roadtrip with the teens this summer, spending 27 nights there (some with relatives) and booking a total of 52 hotel room nights, using a mixture of 300k IHG points and 600k Marriott. It'll clean me out on both schemes.

I value IHG at lower than Marriott and some nights I'm redeeming at only 0.5UScent per IHG point, other nights are closer to 1.5UScents per IHG point. I take the view these points were really free of charge, all were obtained whilst staying for work, so for my work stays at IHG I'm getting $2,500 of free nights for 300,000 completely free IHG points.

My position with Marriott is different, some points arise from work stays, others from leisure, and others still from Credit card and megabonus. Since when considering my leisure spend I do take into account the points as a 20% rebate comparing Marriott to other possibilities, I need to ensure I get that back from that tranche of points. As I actually receive 25 points/� (after taking into account tax, credit card, arrival bonus and Plat bonus) I need to redeem at least some of this at 1UScent per point. During this Roadtrip I am redeeming Marriott points at between 0.8UScent per point (a rate I have never before entertained) and 1.8UScents per point, spending 600,000 points exactly redeeming $9,000 of room nights.

To make this decision I have taken into account the entire redemption value, the fact that many of the points were genuinely free from work stays, megabonuses, and Credit Card spend. And the fact that if I don't redeem this stack now, all it will do is sit in my account busily depreciating since I have no other family trip planned this year, or early next.

Your Barcelona redemption is half a cent per point and there has to be better value out there, though as CJKatl has pointed out, it depends on your circumstances, if all your points are from work stays and you have a huge pile, I'd redeem and save the cash. If this is the only vacation you're likely to take for a couple of years or so I'd again redeem, nobody really knows how many Muckle $$$ a pile of Marriott Mickle points is going to be worth in mid 2017!

I find it so hard to use Marriott points for my personal travel needs (booking within 3 weeks and possibly in peak season) that I use points whenever i can.

I use points whenever I can as well in retirement. But I wouldn't use the points for European hotels at the OP's price point for the Barcelona hotel. When we were in Paris and Barcelona last year, I used a 5 night certificate at the Ren Vendome, where the nightly rate was around 450 EU (where the exchange rate was $1.33 to 1 EU), and I paid for stays at the Ren Barcelona Fira at 112 EU. Now, I'm rethinking whether I should use points for an upcoming stay in Flagstaff AZ, but it makes a big difference if you can use the points with a travel package, so though I might get .88 cent per point on my stay there, I'm also getting 1:1 points for miles, too.

Oh, by the way, when I've used points recently, it seems that I wasn't charged room taxes and occupancy fees in Paris. Isn't this normally the rule?

For 160,000 points I got 5 nights in the JW Hong Kong, which costs about $430 US/night (and even this isn't the best CPM you could get). I'd save the points for a better value redemption.

That works for you, but if the OP isn't going to Hong Kong, Paris or NYC in the next year and is earning a half million points a year from work travel, it would be silly to hold onto the points.

A half million points a year isn't unrealistic for someone staying 100+ nights at an average of $175/night when you consider MegaBonus, the Chase card, welcome gifts and other miscellaneous earnings. For those of us staying and earning at that pace, we don't have the time for as many leisure stays and the points aren't really worth as much as those who earn less and/or vacation more. While I get that some people want to maximize the dollar value of the points, for many of us, that's not the only consideration, and shouldn't be the sole criteria in determining whether to use points or cash.