Will have 150K points - What is best conversion??
 

Hello!!!

Will have 150K+ points next month from these 3 promotions. I'm NOT familar with this program. So, what is the best valuation of these points?? Convert to Delta miles?? Redeem for high category stay? Paypal?? Gift cards??

Your thoughts are important!!

Thanks, for your time!!!

You can load up your Avios miles. CC points can transfer with a 25% bonus until June 20th. 150,000 points would be 26,000 avios plus add 25% that would give you an additional 6,500 miles for a total of 32,500 miles. I have a feeling that the quality of hotels the Radisson has in Europe in general are much better than the states. I will transfer some to BA and use the rest in Europe. Considering the hotels go for $250 and up for 50k and I already have enough BA miles for the moment.

In most cases, there will be more value in using points for hotels than transferring to miles, assuming you have an opportunity to use them in Europe or some other high-price location. 150k points can buy 3 nights in London during the Olympics "worth" $1k per night. Or $500 per night in Paris. Much better value than 26k miles.

If you don't need hotel points I would suggest transferring to whatever airline provides you with the best bang for the buck; Avios may not be a great choice depending on your flight patterns and location (and the 25% bonus referenced above may make you worse off than just transferring the points to AA without bonus).

Either use the 150,000 points to stay 3 nights at one of their most expensive places in the world, or use it for a lot of nights at places that cost 9-15,000 points, particularly if you book early around peak attraction dates. The average places that cost around 28,000 points a night are usually the least attractive deals. I find using Club Carlson points for their hotels very easy and readily available when I want to use them, and for me a better use than the airline mile conversion.

Like the others said before, the best use is for hotels that cost 9000 points or high-end properties that cost 50000 points. You can also do the math for C+P and see if you get better value that way.

I don't have any plans to go to Europe in the near future (where the best radisson's are) and I don't consider any of their US properties aspirational. I will be converting 200k points to 36k US Air miles. I'll make the conversion during the Grand Slam later this year so I get a hit out of it as well.

Do have to agree that you probably will get the "most" value out of C&P for frequent stays.. or at high-end properties like in London/Paris.

But the worst value ever (at least at the moment) must be US miles with the ongoing promo.. you could get the 36k for $600..

THANKS
 

Thank you so much for the info - APPRECIATE THE FEEDBACK -will use the points for stays in Europe this summer.

I got 200k points during this current promo for $225 in spending (using BRG's and 10% cashback from TopCashback.com). Also, like I said before, I don't forsee any stays in high-end Radisson's in the near future.

Do you still think that 36k US Air miles are poor value for $225?

You aren't getting 36k US for $225. You're getting 36k US for 200k Club Carlson. You already converted your cash to Club Carlson. That transaction is done.

I see this all too often -- people continuing to value frequent flyer currency based on what it cost to acquire. That's just not the issue. Once you have the currency, the question is what the best use of it is, no matter how acquired. If you value 36k US miles more than anything else you could get for 200k Radisson, fine. That's a completely different issue.

Suppose you were able to buy 100k AA miles for $1. Someone comes along and offers you $100 for your 100k AA miles. Is this a good deal? Sure seems like it. You are getting $100 for $1 -- 100 times your money! But, of course, this is a terrible deal.

The place this is most difficult is where you acquire a frequent flier currency specifically for a particular use. For example, one could buy choice points during the daily getaways promo for about .3 cents. Suppose you realize that this allows you to convert your choice points to Southwest points for about 1.3 cents per point and to use them for 1.66 cents per point. You would not buy Choice points as part of the promo except specifically to transfer them to WN. So, you buy 100,000 and convert them to 30k WN rapid rewards points. Was this a good value, since you got 1.66 cents of value for 1.3 cents? Sure. But even in this example where you specifically do the deal for WN points, I would again argue you're asking the wrong question. Once the money is spent, it's gone. What you have, at that point, is 100,000 Choice. And now you're back to the start -- what can you get for them?

One can buy US miles right now for about 1.8 cents. That makes the value of 36k points very easy to figure out -- $650. Whatever you paid for 200k Radisson, the question is whether using them for $650 in miles is a good idea. To me, it's very poor because hotels in Europe are something I need. It really doesn't matter whether I spent $1 for my 200k Radisson or $1 million. The anser to that question is the same, and it's a different question.

Even 200k worth of redemptions at a below average property in Ohio are more valuable than the US Air miles...unless you're flying Europe-asia in C

maybe its just me but I dont get the OP or Campath

why go out spend your $$$ and once you get the pts then 1st ask what are they good for

If I had no idea what I would do with my pts I wouldnt have gotten them

Spending in Campaths case $225 for 36k in USAir miles unless they were short that many to get an Intl Biz tkt , they would have done much better in most cases simply using the $225 towards a tkt for when they wanted to fly to where they wanted to.instead of cashing in miles for a flight maybe with bad connections and long layovers and could be to an airport they prefer not to fly into, but at last thats all that was available for saver award tkts

the supermarket has as a sale today on eggs 10 cents a dz if I dont eat eggs theres no sense in my buying any, nor any sense in buying 12 dz unless I will use them before they spoil

this reminds of this person I know who applys for ANY and ALL free mag subscriptions simply since they are free, and then tosses the ones they have no interest in straight into the garbage

Good points, craz. To me, the question is what's the price. I will buy points on spec if cheap enough through promos or otherwise even if I don't have an intended use. Radisson, in particular, if you can get them for .15 cpp is a good deal, because there are not restrictions on transfer and they are versitile to transfer to lots of different mileage programs if you want to use them that way.

So, I would have no problem buying Radisson on spec at $225 for 200k. But, once acquired, I don't think I would convert them to US right away. No reason to unless you are 36k short of an award. Maybe next year you'll need a top off to another program. Or maybe US will come back with a fall promo that gives a bonus to US miles. Or maybe suddenly, I'll need 5 nights in a 9k property. The beauty of Radisson is that they are flexible and even in a worse case scenario can be traded for miles. Once they are transfered, of course, they lose that flexibility.

Although I understand conversions, I've found the general rule to be that the best value for points/miles earned is in the program you earned (or bought) them through. I even believe that about Wyndham and Sheraton, the two darlings for conversion from hotel points to miles.

I assume a lot of folks don't get the viewpoint that after the flyin', there's gonna be some stayin'. Of course, if you're young, miles/points are few, and at your destination you can stay in a hostel/with friends, then hotel points are of little benefit. But, once you've got a significant other/family/little maturity, you're generally going to be staying in places you must pay for, and many times, the cost once you're on the ground vastly exceeds any flight cost you might have.

For instance, even with high airfares this summer, I could get to northern California for $500 or less, but if I'm staying a week in a relatively cheap, safe, clean place that's not in San Francisco (EconoLodge, not a Park Hyatt), I'll match that $500. Raise the standard of the lodging at all, and I'll get to $1000 very quickly. Make the destination San Francisco itself, and I'd be hard pressed to keep the hotel cost under $1400 (don't be fooled by cheap weekend $99 rooms, you'll pay $250 or more for a lot of places during the week). New York, Chicago, Miami, LA, Paris, London, Rome--all places where you can exceed those numbers.

I'm sure I miss some sterling conversion opportunities, but I've found it a fairly safe general rule that the best use of almost any earned/bought mile/point is in the original program. There are not many 9000 point properties in the Radisson portfolio, but I know of one on International Drive in Orlando where 63K points would get you a room for a week that would cost you at least $720 otherwise.

You know what 36K US miles gets me if I want to go from ORF to MCO for certain dates in August? The need to buy 1.5K more miles. And that's only because I get a 5K discount as a Barclay's US Mastercard holder. I can buy the flight for $292 outright.

Sure, that's kind of a tricked up example, but it illustrates the need to consider what you could use hotel points for rather than just blindly asking about conversion rates. 150K Radisson points can definitely get you three nights in an expensive overseas property, returning a much higher value than 36K US miles.

Absolutely agree. The only times I do hotel points -> airline miles conversion is when I have some orphan points laying in some program and if at the same time there is some meaningful conversion campaign - as I did with my orphan Hyatt points to BA Avios with the 25% bonus.

Yes, definitely ! The Points do not expire and you could get a far better value out of them. So unless you do not need the US miles and have an exceprional good use with them.. just wait and maybe convert a part for a Grand Slam hit because that is a good use..