Lori_Q

Here's my conundrum: Mr. Q and I are planning a weekend in Boston in mid-October. I have a choice of Starwoods, and thanks to an earlier thread, I have the lowdown on the amenities of each. The Sheraton Boston has Points-and-Cash availability for our target weekend for $180 + 12,000 points for three nights. My corporate rate is $189 per night, or a total of $567. The cash difference, ignoring taxes and such, is $378.

It takes a long time to accumulate these points, so I'm reluctant to spend them on anything less than special vacations. Does it seem reasonable to spend 12,000 points in order to save $378?

dodo_2k

IMHO, Go for it

notsosmart

I think at that valuation, you could go either way. I would spend the points, but I earn them fairly fast. If it's going to take you a while to re-earn the 12K, then perhaps you should just use your corp rate.

Another thing to consider is stay credit. I don't believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that you get credit for nights or stay if you use cash + points. If you're close to an elite level, that might be a consideration.

KathyWdrf

Have you checked to see if you can get the hotel for LESS than $189 per night?

There are multi-night promo rates that can significantly cut the price. They aren't always available when you need them, but see if the 3 nights for the price of 2 is available for your weekend, and check other rates besides your corporate rate.

http://www.starwood.com/promotions/p...ory=PRGENNORES

However, if you can't significantly beat the $189 price by checking promo rates, AAA rates, etc., then I would consider the Cash and Points deal. You're getting more than 3 cents/point of value from your points, which is a very good redemption value. Often, you will find you get only about 2 cents/point when redeeming.

And it is true that you get NO stay or nights credit on Cash and Points stays. You should get points for spending on incidentals, though.

jmorgans

I would spend the points- you're getting 3.1 cents a point, more when you figure the taxes. While no one can say exactly what a Starpoint is worth, if you accumulated those 12000 points by spending $12000 on the SPG Amex, you're effectively getting back 3% on your purchases- not bad!

KathyWdrf

My point was, if you can get a significantly cheaper rate at the hotel (via a 3 nights for price of 2 deal or some other promo), then you WON'T be getting 3 cents per point of redemption value any more, but something less than that, like 2+ cents per point. Then the balance might tilt towards just paying for the nights, especially if you need the stay/nights credit towards status, or if you want to redeem the points some other way.

estnet

Sigh....

It depends on your situation. If you were, for example, to use points by transferring 80k points to UA you'd get 100k miles - enough for a business class ticket (and almost enough for 1st class) on Singapore - from Sfo this is worth 6-8k, from the east coast probably more.

Status, your own needs, alternatives (eg airline miles - I once used a 25K domestic award for a ticket that would otherwise have cost me $1500), your tax status (what an after tax value this is for you). There are just so many factors.........

notsosmart

Sigh indeed.

So many factors, that you could just skip the weekend in Boston, and stay home to try and figure out whether to burn points or spend cash, thus saving yourself both.

rives21

but, i thought that UA for some reason only gives 1 mile for every 2 starpoints. is that correct? does that mean that 80000 starpoints would only yield 40000 United Airlines points, or perhaps 50000 because of the bonus?

stevens397

People can argue over and over about the value of points and, usually, they're all right! As other posters said, using them or not depends on a host of issues - certainly including how many you have and if you want to burn them.

Just booked vacation next summer in Hawaii, so here goes:

5 nights Princeville, Kauai, 48,000 points, value $2,500 = 5.2 cents/point

5 nights Ritz Maui - 150,000 points (Marriott), value $2,500 = 1.6 cents/point

RT air on American Airlines, paid coach ($850), upgraded to First (value
of ave FC ticket = $2,450) or a savings of $1,600 per person, $3,200
per couple, for 60,000 points = 5.3 cents per mile

Marriott was a bad deal, but I had over 600,000 points and know I'll be happy. So even tho the "value" wasn't there, I still wanted to do it.

As for me, I rarely use points for a night or two, preferring to save them to make great vacations.

pinniped

I like Stevens' valuations.


Since I derive 100% of my Starpoints from Amex, I have thought about this quite a bit. My objectives for the points are (1) trips to Kauai, (2) a steady supply of Cat-2 weekend stays when we visit family in two specific cities with horrible Priceline offerings, and (3) occasional top-offs of FF accounts.

So I value them as follows:

- 5 nights in Priceville is worth about $1250 to me. I would never pay much over $200 cash-out-of-pocket for a hotel room in Kauai, but with the taxes I'd otherwise pay and any nice perk they might give me for Gold status, I figure $250 a night is reasonable. So there's 2.6 cents per point.

- A cheap weekend night at a Cat 2 is worth roughly $100 (again, I'm using a higher valuation here because Priceline is not an option). So these points are 3.3 cents to me.

- Finally, my FF conversions so far have been very valuable: using a few points from a large pile of SPG to turn an otherwise-useless little pile of FF miles into a free ticket. Hard to put a value on these points because of the way the put other orphaned miles to work - but 3 cents seems reasonable.

Over the course of years, I would probably spend about half of my points on the big vacation and half on the cheap weekends, with a small FF redemption here and there. Therefore, I consider Starpoints to be worth 3 cents each.

Of course, it varies widely person to person based on how you ordinarily purchase hotel rooms with cash, your actual planned use of the points, and how you earn and burn your supply of Starpoints and other hotel points.

Lori_Q

Excellent responses, everyone. Thanks.

Unfortunately, it's not an easy decision. I don't want to spend the extra $378+ out of my own pocket. Now that I'm traveling every week, I'm accumulating a lot of Starwood points & status.

But: I'm trying to save 50,000 points for a stay at the W Sydney next winter. Also, if I do my 50 nights at Starwood and then switch to Marriott for the rest of the year, I may be able to get the 50 nights I need to keep my Marriott Gold status. So three nights of credit at a Starwood hotel in Boston could make the differernce.

Essentially, it's a question of competing greed: Keep my cash or maximize my status & points? Tough choice. I may use the points on this trip, but descend into the lunacy of Mattress Runs late in the year if I can't convince Marriott to comp me the gold status based on the travel I expect to do next year.

stevens397, are you aware Marriott offers vacation packages that include hotel nights plus airline points? Last year I exchanged 250,000 Marriott points for a week at the Marriott Kensington (London), which is usually 130,000 points, and 120,000 UA Mileage Plus miles, which covered 75% of two DEN-LHR Business Class award tickets. With each dollar spent at a full-service Marriott yielding 10 Marriott points, it seemed like a good way to burn off the points.

mntblue

Using points should save you more as the tax and fees are about 18-20% in Boston.

$189 is a very good rate for Sheraton BOS.

You will not earn points/bonus if you use cash/points combo.

I would use the points+cash.

SteveinA2

Actually you lose 10,000 points (2500 points * 3 per $ plus 1 per $ on Amex)
by not paying. If you paid your balance would be 58,000 points more = 4.3 cents a point.

That being said 4.3 is a great redemption rate

stevens397

Steve-

Like I said, you can figure this in so many ways, that my favorite response is the one who said - stay home- there's too much to think of. The fact is, I did save money over what it is worth, but probably would not have spent it to purchase it if there were no points. Case in point, I would not be spending $4,900 in cash to fly to Hawaii.

But I agree with your math and, as you said, 4.3 cents ain't bad. If you look at the AMEX gift certificates you can get with points, the value is basically a penny a point.