Its been the way to go (at least for me) for a couple years now

Yes, but only after they abandoned registration bonuses.

You're thinking of the two firesales they had in May and June last year, just before PC's relationship with MCR ended through the end of 2011. That was when they dropped the "one per lifetime" restriction, reduced the redemption costs by a huge amount, and everyone here cleaned out their accounts. (Kind of "All inventory must go, no reasonable offer refused!") The good old days....

WRONG.

That was not an occasional deal, that was a one time only clearance of P/C points which then went on hiatus for the rest of the year .. until now, and no one had any idea whether or not they would be back.

As for the gift cards, that may be good for some who had amassed a large number of points in one account, but that meant nothing for those who did not have such rich accounts.

This is a good deal for point hounds, inasmuch as accumulation of P/C points not only helps in earning an all points reward or even better, a cash and money award, but also, it helps in attaining elite status levels in the P/C program, unlike most other hotel points programs.

I only remember one such fire sale, when I was on vacation at did not get wind of the sale until after it was dead and buried. I don't recall one in June and in any event, In would not bank on such returning until a long time has passed.

Wasn' P/C a member for more than just one year when they did such a fire-sale?

NJ

Ouch.

If one wants the almost instant gratification of making redemptions every week or two at a rate of 1.9 cents per MCR point that's their choice.

For those that view MCR as a marathon - not a sprint - the rewards can be much higher if you show patience and wait for the occasional good deals to be offered. Our household has made approaching 20K in lifetime MCR redemptions and we've never made a redemption for under 5 cents per point. The only regularly available MCR item that we ever redeem for are Live Nation concert cash codes (worth 10 cents per point if you know what you are doing), other than that we only made a handful of redemptions in 2011 - they were all limited-time offers and they were all quite generous, among them were:

* NBA 2K11 PlayStation® 3 Games @ 500 MCR/ea, we sold to Amazon for $25 ea (we thought we'd get more but I guess this was viewed as a rather mediocre game)
* Tickets to the Nascar Sprint Cup Series race on July 17, 2011 @ 975 MCR/pair, received $95/pair after fees
* One Day Adult Tickets to Six Flags® in Jackson, NJ @ 250 MCR ea, received $21 ea after fees
* Free 12-Pack sparkling coupons @ 30 MCR ea
* Free (up to $4.38) Minute Maid® Juice Boxes, 10-pk. any variety Coupon @ 40 MCR ea

We're all entitled to our own opinions, I stick by my original assertation that one is better off banking their MCR and waiting for the occasional good deal to pop up.

Your assertation assumes that people have the patience to hang on to the MCR points, along with the patience and time to deal with selling the tickets and such. IIRC, the NASCAR tickets were limited to those within a certain range of the track, so not everyone would qualify there.

For your family, it sounds like it works well. For others though, they're not looking to make a profit from things, but rather, redeem for items they can use. To them, the PC points are often the best and easiest redemption.

I stayed 4 nights in London at IC on Park Lane for points. 40K per night less 10% for Visa. It would have cost me over $400 a night if I paid. So yes, I'll take PCR points anytime. And I'm not in a rush, I can wait for another sale.

I'm like you, I just build up MCR points in various accounts waiting for the right travel offer to come through

Currently (and the past year or two) its only been PC which is fine with me; however remember the Hh price at the start of the program, it was amazingly cheap for 500 point certs and the DL miles

I just keep building then cleaning out when I get a travel award I want

I'd also say more than 80% of my points input are freebies so the cost to me is 20% of what I input. So any redemption is starting at roughly 80% pure profit for me

I hope they'd bring DL or AA miles for redemption. I'd evaluate my points input at roughly 90%-95% free, so the profit for me is significant.

Of course, the above assumes that what you consider "a good deal" constitutes the same for everyone else.

So, lets say that your assertation is dependent on what constitutes a "good deal" to the person seeking the redemption. Of those that you have listed above, the only one that I would have ever considered redeeming, was for the Coke 12 packs, as the others are useless to me, or worse, regardless of your 5 cents net.

I would rather get my paltry P/C redemption than ever set foot in a Six Flags, so your calculations are way, way off ... as are your assertations that this and the rest -- other than the Coke redemptions -- represent "good value."

'Nuff said.

I think you are missing the point. For example, he wasn't GOING to Six Flags, he was SELLING those tickets and netting the value.

I've never set foot in a Six Flags either. Or been to a NASCAR race. Or played video games. I just put the cash in my pocket.

'Nuff said.

Yes, but you still had to take the time to list the items on eBay, or sell them to Amazon, or list them on StubHub or wherever. Not everyone wants to take the time to do that.

The first firesale was May 25, 2011 for reduced-price 500 point PC codes. The second and final blowout was July 20, 2011 (not June as I originally recalled), offering 2,000 point PC codes for 250 MCR points, no limit on number of redemptions.