Use Award or Pay?
 

I searched and had no luck finding general comments on the value of a reward stay vs paying. I am looking at $104 AAA weekend rate vs. 10,000 point for a stay....

comments?

Are you an active Marriott Rewards member, willing to hold points for a major award? (That is, will you ever reach 230k-270k points?)

If so, I'd probably hold the points and pay for the stay.

If not, 1.2-ish cents per point (depending on the taxes) is very good on a small redemption, so I'd redeem the award.

It depends on how much money you have versus points and how many points you could earn on paying for the room. Marriott sells points for 1.25 cents to individuals. I tend to value them around 1.5 cents when redeeming, but I factor in the opportunity cost as well.

In your case I would not redeem, but it might be good to redeem if you have a ton of points (greater than one million) and few opportunities to use them, or if you do not have much money. Travel packages tend to be a much better deal if you have enough points for them.

For your rate: Savings equals $104 + tax.
Cost is 10000 points + points not earned on the $104 (1040 at a minimum, multiply by 20-30 % if Marriott elite, add another five points for each dollar of the total room cost (rate + tax) if you have a Marriott Premier card).

Based on this calculation, you will get less than a cent for each point (including ones not potentially earned) unless you have no status, are not using a Marriott charge card, and the room tax is greater than 10 %. Again, if you are tight on cash or overflowing with points, it would be a good idea to get a reward for your stay.

Thanks - this is the advise I was looking for...

Profile: Have just under 70k, not much in the area of earning opportunities coming up, though I do have the signature card (used mostly when SPG Amex is not taken)

I had figured lost opportunity points are about 1800 for a total of 11800 as the real point cost... or just under 1cent a point - a no-brainer with SPG, but was not sure about Marriott...

Was thinking it was a good enough rate to pay, but wanted to ask to see if Marriott experts thought differently....

If someone could help out again...

I was looking around for better deals (AAA, 10% elite discount (MEWR, MEWX)) and found reference to M11 and M12 - they give me a great rate, but want to make sure they are valid...

M11 rates are available to all Marriott Rewards members while M12 rates are available to Marriott elite members (usually silver and higher).

Thanks again - learned something new today, so now I can go home!

The rate dropped to $87 a night with M11... (after it switched to "not available" to "no rooms" to $249... think Marriott.com is a bit sick today...) so it was a no-brainer on the cash vs. reward...

Yeah...at that point, paying makes the most sense, especially since you do have a meaningful balance of Marriott points.

Since you do have that meaningful balance, think about picking up the MR Visa - significantly improved in 2006 from its prior form. The card effectively takes you from earning 10 pts/$ to 17 (as soon as the 15 EQN's post, you are Silver) - and it comes with nice signup bonuses as well.