MyPoints best value?
 

After reading the thread discussing MyPoints connection to United, I'm thinking it's best to stop accumulating and start redeeming.

What have you found to be the best $ value ? Most store gift certs seem to be 1400 or 1500 for $10. Is the Hilton Honors a better value??

Yes..I think HH is the best place to redeem your Mypoints..

I agree!

but why do you think it is the best value?

If you buy HH points they are .0125 each. I value them at .01 when doing comparisons with airmiles and things like that. You can redeem as little as 1,000 MyPoints for 1,000 HH which is $10.00 by my valuation. Despite all the complaining about the coming changes with HH there are still lots of great awards that are not being changed and easy methods for earning points.

As nice as HHonors points are, I think the Macy's gift certificates are a really good deal (the best gift certificate deal, I believe, on the site):

2,750 points = $25
5,250 points = $50

I agree with shapscpa. I was also thinking of getting the UA $50(3,750 points) or $75 (5,750 points) discount. I'm not sure if the prices will be the best since you have to call UA reservations to redeem the discount.

Barnes and Noble gift cards are also a good deal. 2750= $25. I just wish they had a $50 card!

I always go for the gift certificates from web certificates.com. That way I can double dip! I shop through any shopping portal and use the money I "earned" through my points. Since it is an online master card, you can use it anywhere. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

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nw elite wannabe, HHonors Gold

DO any of these merchants give you money back when you don't spend up to the GC amount?

You can get a $10 gift certificate from Red Lobster/Oliver Garden for only 1250 points. Most of the other $10 certs cost at least 1400 points. The only downside is that you actually have to eat at one of those two restaurants.

With the webcertificate you use it like a master card. You are only charged what you spend and the rest is still available balance. For instance: I recieved a $10 webcertificate from My points, I go back to My Points and shop at Tupperware (earn 800 points) spend $4.32 use my MC (webcertificate) have $ left for next months's shopping at Tupperware. The nice thing about the webcert's through webcertificate.com is they have like a 2 year expiration date adn when you qualify for another it just gets added to your old card. You can choose a real (plastic) card or a web card.
Hope this helps!

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nw elite wannabe, HHonors Gold

I believe you can also use them at Smokey Bones and Bahama Breeze -- as these two restaurants are also owned by Darden -- the same company that owns Red Lobster and Olive Garden.


[This message has been edited by Alysia (edited 12-23-2002).]

Personally I prefer the Marriott Rewards points to HHonors points ... if I need HHonors points I can get them from a number of other places anyway.

I was looking into to this earlier, and the best redemption values seem to be for Macy's, Barnes & Noble, and B Dalton, which all give over 0.9 cents per point (See $50 and $25 redemptions below). The range goes down to about .63 cents per point for some of the others. This list (sorted by $ value, then cents/pt) is not everything, but shows most of the retailers with fixed $ value redemptions.

If I transfer into Hilton, is it possible to transfer to someone else's account?

TheWaitress, you da bomb. Now that's what I call adding value to the discussion.

Would it be possible to post a list sorted by cents/pt?

I agree there are strictly better values than HHonors, but there are few redemption options reported to work so quickly. People have posted recently waiting months for gift certificates.

The reason I transferred to HHonors is because I know they will post on Thursday night and because I know the HHonors program intimately, so I am confident I can maximize the value per point.

I had been hoping to redeem a UA certificate, perhaps in conjunction with a UA HHonors companion certificate, but I'm not betting on UA at the moment.

[This message has been edited by Rut Dog (edited 03-27-2003).]

Self-help answer below.

I'd like to hear people's redemption experience with the high value awards, specifically how long does it take for them to arrive?

Also, isn't it odd that the higher net value UA awards have a lower per point value?TheWaitress, could you please send me an e-mail (from the link in my post header)? Thanks.

[This message has been edited by Rut Dog (edited 03-27-2003).]

Hilton isn't retail but if you like HHonors points, they come out pretty well using this formula (at least, if you would otherwise be buying points). Using their $12.50/1000 purchase points offer, it works out to 1.25 cents/point.

I agree with ABQJon. I did an evaluation long ago as to the best location to apply MyPoints points. Since I value my HHonors points at a minimum 1 cent/pt, the only awards that fall above this line is Omaha Steaks and United. However, for United, you can only apply one certificate per ticket and it doesn't make much of a dent in the price. For Omaha Steaks, the voucher is not good on sales items. Since non-sale items are grossly overpriced, I don't feel this isn't a good use.

Since I frequently acquire HHonors points from other sources and redeem frequently (usually at least 2 weeks of vacations per year), I get value from them. For those who don't accumulate HHonors points quickly, I would suggest staying with Macy's/B-Dalton or one of the restaurant redemptions

Rut Dog -

Your chart is very interesting. It might be interesting to add some of the VacationMiles awards to the mix. They aren't nearly as good as they used to be (several times I cashed in 20k points for ten $50 discounts at Marriott/Hyatt). Also isn't the giftcertifcates.ca award in Canadian dollars?

ABQ Jon -

I used to value Hilton points at .67 per point but that was before this year's devaluation, especially of the elite awards. I think the "use value" of the points (rather than the purchase price) is now between .50 and .60 per point.

Also, I sometimes cash in points for Marriott Rewards points. Even though the trade value is lousy (1750 MyPoints for 1000 Marriott Rewards points), MR points are generally hard to get and the upper-level rewards are pretty good.

What Hilton awards do you redeem for that would give you a value of 1c/point? I have redeemend 85k points for an AA domestic ticket and 20k points for a room that would cost $100, but neither of these comes close to 1c/point.

The reason I personally value HH points @ 1c/point is because I value airlines (CO, AA) FF points @ 2c / point, and 1 FF = 2 HH.

If you check biddingfortravel.com, the lowest HWV can be had is around $130 / night. ALON @ 6 nights would equate a value of about $780 (Before taxes and Priceline fees), this would value the 100K HH points it takes to redeem at 0.78c / point.

...But that same ALON can also be used at fancier hotels that charge more. The answer to value is highly dependent on exactly what kind of award you redeem points for and at what hotel. We recently used 21000 points for 4 days at a Scandic hotel. They wanted the US equivalent of about $150 for the room. Perhaps I could have gotten it for less via some kind of deal, but how much less, I don't know. Even at $75/night my value for 21000 points is still 1.42c/point.

On our trip we used 87000 points for 13 room nights (the above rate was so good we took two rooms for four nights!). That's a lot less than our initial thought of 100000 using GLON awards for 6 of the 9 nights plus additional awards for the additional three nights.

Is there any limitation to the Macy's gift certificate, such as having to use it on regularly-price merchandise?

Circuit City did when I used one recently. They also tend to have rebate items. I bought a $19 item with a $15 mail-in rebate and got the $4+ change from my $25 card in cash. Roughly, that's $4 for product, over $1 in tax and almost $20 in cash.

Unfortunately, most of the "high" value items aren't, to me. Yes, I could go for Marriott. ... And use them to pay for, say, a meal that costs $50 but is only worth $30 at an equivalent restaurant. Similar with Macy's, etc, where it's not good value to get a $50 voucher than will only buy $40 worth of merchandise somewhere else.

No limitations. You get a plastic debit card that you use just like cash at the register. I bought some new shoes that just happened to be on sale also with my last one.

The card also says it can be used online at macys.com

[This message has been edited by TheWaitress (edited 03-27-2003).]

Thanks for the replies. I think I'm leaning towards Macy, even though Hilton is a good value. I need some new clothes.

I got my Macy card in less than a week. I called the 800 number and ask about the card's expiration date. It seems to go by states. For my state, there was no expiration.

[deleted because of figuring out my own question]



[This message has been edited by lynowens (edited Dec 04, 2003).]