Using points vs. dollars
 

I've searched unsuccessfully to find a range of accepted value for a marriott reward point. I am trying to decide whether to use 150,000 points or about $875-1000 for a three night stay at a tier 2 Ritz. I usually only redeem points for packages that include max airmiles as this seems to be the best value. I don't know if a reward stay for a Marriott Plat. member might get us an upgrade, or if we should go with booking with an Amex. Plat. card (paying $ instead of points) and likely get the upgrade. Either way we don't earn stay nights or Marriott points so that doesn't effect (affect?) the decision.

What do you use as your value per point in making these decisions?

Going out on a limb...
 

There are folk here who have it calculated down to the penny. I'm not that good.

But 150,000 points for a $850-1,000 paid stay - even I know that's nuts. At least I think it is. Let the others chime in (and I could be wrong).

This is just me personally (can't even give you a ratio on points/$$): I always redeem my points at a place that's $300-600/night. If it's less than that & certainly if it's less than full-value Marriott, then I pay for the stay if it's reasonable, & I rack up the points instead.

Now, if I was broke & had a zillion Marriott points & didn't want to spend $$, then who cares - redeem them.

Hope some of this helped. Cheers.

I'm with Sharon. Spend the $$$. I have only redeemed Marriott points once, and it was 50,000 points for 3 nites in SFO that would have been $1000 cash. That was before I appreciated what a good value the travel packages are - in the future that would be my strategy.

150K points would get you a week in a $500+ a night property in London, for example. Not too hard to do the math and agree with the others above.

IMO, I wouldn't even bother with anything other than the travel packages...

Even with those, I'd still buy a coach ticket and upgrade with miles. Travel packages are flexible, since you can use the miles anytime and not necessarily with the hotel cert. The hotel cert can be extended for a year (they normally are good for one year after issuance) at not charge (by latest report).

We get 110K points for our MF's when turning in one of our interval weeks, which can be a good value if it rounds out a travel package, allowing us to stay at a Cat 6 or 7 hotel, say like in Paris or London, where the cash price would be completely unaffordable. There are some locations we can't exchange into and the points system allows the same level of accommodation with more flexibility.

IME, typically, a penny per point is about right, unless one shops around. Travel packages can do .02 to .025 per point, depending on how the miles are ultimately used. I'm sure they're many elite FT'ers who do much better but we're leisure travelers without status.

Good luck!

Pat

What are these travel packages? Where can I find info? I can't find it on Marriott website?
Thanks.

They hide them :)

Look here

Make sure you read the whole page...the ones you're looking for are near the bottom.

Pat

We all have our preferences for how we use the points, so I don't want to say that using them at the Ritz is a bad idea. Because Ritz is a category of hotel that isn't easily Pricelineable, I can understand why you would use points there - even if the raw valuation didn't look so good. If you are long on points, light on cash, and that Ritz offers something truly unique from the other hotels you could consider (like many Ritzes do), then I'd consider the award.

Most of us like to get a little more bang for our points. My favorite big award is the 087 Travel Package. I figure it's worth a little over a penny a point: I value the 120k AA miles at 1.5c each ($1,800) and the 7 nights at a Cat 6 as $1,000. (I used my last one in Kauai.) Some folks might value those 7 nights a bit higher, but don't get carried away: if you are ever in a city where every decent room in every hotel in town is commanding $300/nt and Priceline is unavailable, you will be very lucky to get an award room from Marriott.

On the small-award end, I do a lot of 2-3 night stays in Cat 1 or Cat 2 Towne Place Suites or Residence Inns, hotel categories that are valuable to us and not available from Priceline. I still value these at about a penny a point in most cases...

Thanks for all the input. I also love using the package which is why it's becoming hard to actually call for the 3 night Ritz certificate. I keep putting it off. But, don't you all find it hard to use all those certificates AND stay platinum. We probably don't travel as much as some and have some favorite hotels for family trips that (gasp!) aren't Marriotts. I think we will save the points though since I got such a great rate through Amex.

As a Silver who has earned only 65K + 1 pair of X14s in his/my life, I value MR points at 1 US cent each. I would vote for paying with money for the Ritz. Those who earn points by the 100,000s for the weeklong stays & or stay + miles awards can easily get 2c or more out of a point.

Same question: Spend 7500 points or $106 for one night at a Fairfield.

This works out to about 1.4 cents per point, which seems rather low when compared with other options. Then again, it kills me to pay $100 for a 2* room in the 'burbs. :(

Personally, I believe that 1.4 cents per Marriott point is pretty good value. Keep in mind that you won't get stay credit, however, which could affect your status next year.

Bruce

Dollars for business travel and points for ME travel

I value Marriott points at $.0087 (i.e, .87 of 1 cent). I frequently succeed in getting more value than that for them, but that is the hurdle rate I use in determining whether to use points or pay cash. In the case you cite, I would most certainly use the points. $106 for a Fairfield Inn is ridiculous!

Spend the cash and convert the points into Best Buy gift cards :D