Use airline miles, hotel points, CC rewards

[LivingAlmostLarge]

How do you guys use airlines miles, hotel points, CC rewards? How do you value them? Do you use them immediately? If it's cash do you immediately cash it out? Trade it for gift cards? Save it? I find that I look at my rewards and try to maximize them. For instance I trade in my cash at discover for gift cards that are 10% more to eat at restaurants we like (perennial winner is panera, just got another one). Costco cash back (we earned about $800 this past year) to pay for membership $120 and buying paper towels and non perishables (making my list as we speak). Chase sapphire I trade for hotels. I find myself at the spend down phase now and use for travel on their website since it uses 1.25 points instead of 1 point earned. But airline miles? I find these the hardest to use. Why? Because I know from years of traveling and from blogs now and friends who are mileage runners, 2 cents a mile is the going rate for miles if not better. So unless i can do that I tend to not use it.

Hence we have a ton of miles (500k miles) built up and my mom has a million miles built up (literally a million) because she has had status for years from visiting me and the kids (on hawaiian) and always pays for tickets to get more status. So she has accrued about a million miles. She earns at 2x rate and gets her free luggage and upgrades and so if she used miles she would not be able to earn as much. So now I'm sitting here thinking how do we use the miles?

I dropped the marriott bonvoy card because we struggled to use the free nights last year. Maybe in 2-3 years when we travel again I'll get it, but DH doesn't even travel anymore for work

How do you guys use and value your miles, points, rewards?

[disneysteve]

I'm somewhat similar to you. I try to maximize their value. I don't worry about the cash back - I just take that as a statement credit (Discover, Chase Freedom). The gift card deals are good but I don't want to be bothered.

Our big one is Marriott, though. We currently have about 566,000 points. Obviously we used none the past year. Oh wait, that's a lie. I used points to spend the night at the airport Marriott last month before I flew to Florida. But generally speaking, I'll weigh the cash price against the points needed and decide which is the better deal. Frequently, there will be a great rate available but the points needed are fixed so I'll usually save those for when there isn't a special rate offer.

I'll also try to take advantage of specials like bonus points with your 2nd paid stay during a certain time period. So rather than using points, I'll pay out of pocket to get the extra points. One time we even went to a local hotel for a night for the sole purpose of maximizing the reward points on another upcoming stay. I found the cheapest room I could get but that resulted in a ton of bonus points for the next stay.

It's all a game. I know it. They know it. Some people just play the game better than others.

[cypher1]

I normally just bank the Chase travel points for primarily flights (International or a more expensive flight) or car rental. Lately with flights being so cheap (domestic) I've been using points on car rentals only, plus it's 1.5x value within their reward site. I don't pay attention to cash back points/rewards, since priority of CC is to benefit from traveling.

[Like2Plan]

We are saving our Marriott points for a special trip (I would love to use them in Hawaii ). We have certificates for 3 nights at a Marriott and 4 nights at IHG. The major problem I have been finding with using the certificates lately is I will find the cash rate to be very low- like $60 or $93. I hate to waste a certificate on such a low rate. On the other hand, sometimes I find a higher rate where a certificate would be worthwhile, and the certificate booking is available, but not our preferred bed configuration (even though they are available if you pay cash).

We had a bunch of points on one of our travel cards--they were letting folks use them for groceries--so, after I used all the points for groceries I then cancelled the card.

We have a bunch of points on our favorite airline, but the points don't expire. My only fear is the points get devalued if we don't use them pretty quickly.

[kork13]

For credit cards, I mostly try to just get it back as cash rewards, that I'll cash in once or twice a year. But when I can optimize it a bit, I will... For example, I used my Discover rewards to get a 20% off gift card for a restaurant we use every few weeks.

Airline miles & hotel points.... I don't really use them much. I collect them over time, but I'll generally only use them if the ticket/room cost is otherwise unreasonably high. Most often, when they're used, I use those points for sudden unplanned travel when I don't want to pay the premium for a last-minute booking. International flights are also a common target for using points.

That said, as DS said, I will sometimes extend my stay at a hotel, or do a no-reason "staycation" to take advantage of some of their bonus points deals. I haven't done that lately, with all the COVID restrictions, but I do watch them & take advantage when it makes sense.

[QuarterMillionMan]

No airline miles credit cards for me, it is too hard for me to use the rewards especially now with COVID. As for hotels, no credit cards either but Hotels dot com gives 1 free night for every 10 stays. I have 2 free nights in my account. The 1 free night amounts to the average of the 10 stays. However, I found with Booking dot com the prices is about $5 cheaper than Hotels dot com so I've been using Booking instead. For example a $50 room night on Hotels is $45 on Booking, so after 10 stays the rewards are exactly the same. But Booking is actually better than Hotels where the savings is realized sooner not having to wait for 10 stays to get 1 stay free. BTW, $45 a night is in Tijuana where rooms go as low as $23 a night or $150 for a high end hotel.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I'm somewhat similar to you. I try to maximize their value. I don't worry about the cash back - I just take that as a statement credit (Discover, Chase Freedom). The gift card deals are good but I don't want to be bothered.

Our big one is Marriott, though. We currently have about 566,000 points. Obviously we used none the past year. Oh wait, that's a lie. I used points to spend the night at the airport Marriott last month before I flew to Florida. But generally speaking, I'll weigh the cash price against the points needed and decide which is the better deal. Frequently, there will be a great rate available but the points needed are fixed so I'll usually save those for when there isn't a special rate offer.

I'll also try to take advantage of specials like bonus points with your 2nd paid stay during a certain time period. So rather than using points, I'll pay out of pocket to get the extra points. One time we even went to a local hotel for a night for the sole purpose of maximizing the reward points on another upcoming stay. I found the cheapest room I could get but that resulted in a ton of bonus points for the next stay.

It's all a game. I know it. They know it. Some people just play the game better than others.

Okay I've never heard of this hotel game. Usually I just book wherever we want to stay based on location and price. And also traveling with friends who are way to picky and I may not be traveling with them soon enough. Much to high class for me. But how do you find the bonus points with second stay within a certain time period?

[LivingAlmostLarge]

We are saving our Marriott points for a special trip (I would love to use them in Hawaii ). We have certificates for 3 nights at a Marriott and 4 nights at IHG. The major problem I have been finding with using the certificates lately is I will find the cash rate to be very low- like $60 or $93. I hate to waste a certificate on such a low rate. On the other hand, sometimes I find a higher rate where a certificate would be worthwhile, and the certificate booking is available, but not our preferred bed configuration (even though they are available if you pay cash).

We had a bunch of points on one of our travel cards--they were letting folks use them for groceries--so, after I used all the points for groceries I then cancelled the card.

We have a bunch of points on our favorite airline, but the points don't expire. My only fear is the points get devalued if we don't use them pretty quickly.

How did you get all your reward certificates? I also hate wasting the certificates on low rates. I only did it this year because I was cancelling the bonvoy card and didn't want to work on keeping them and using them.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I normally just bank the Chase travel points for primarily flights (International or a more expensive flight) or car rental. Lately with flights being so cheap (domestic) I've been using points on car rentals only, plus it's 1.5x value within their reward site. I don't pay attention to cash back points/rewards, since priority of CC is to benefit from traveling.

How do you find you use the sapphire reserve? I downgraded to the preferred 1.25x because we aren't spending as much

[LivingAlmostLarge]

No airline miles credit cards for me, it is too hard for me to use the rewards especially now with COVID. As for hotels, no credit cards either but Hotels dot com gives 1 free night for every 10 stays. I have 2 free nights in my account. The 1 free night amounts to the average of the 10 stays. However, I found with Booking dot com the prices is about $5 cheaper than Hotels dot com so I've been using Booking instead. For example a $50 room night on Hotels is $45 on Booking, so after 10 stays the rewards are exactly the same. But Booking is actually better than Hotels where the savings is realized sooner not having to wait for 10 stays to get 1 stay free. BTW, $45 a night is in Tijuana where rooms go as low as $23 a night or $150 for a high end hotel.

What do you do with airlines if not the rewards?

[kork13]

Okay I've never heard of this hotel game. Usually I just book wherever we want to stay based on location and price. And also traveling with friends who are way to picky and I may not be traveling with them soon enough. Much to high class for me. But how do you find the bonus points with second stay within a certain time period?

I'm a gold member with Hilton & Marriott -- they both occasionally send email promotions for some pretty generous bonuses. There are other offers available on their site, almost always. They tend to be pretty restrictive (specific dates, or specific locations, of otherwise). But I'll occasionally check it out & take advantage.

[QuarterMillionMan]

LAL, no airlines mileage credit cards for me.

[MonkeyMama]

We just do cash. Immediately cash out and invest the dollars, roughly $100 per month we invest in the stock market.

[Like2Plan]

How did you get all your reward certificates? I also hate wasting the certificates on low rates. I only did it this year because I was cancelling the bonvoy card and didn't want to work on keeping them and using them.

Marriott--2 of the certificates were from Bonvoy cards (one for me, one for DH). Another was a reward after staying 75 nights (in one year). All the IHG certificates were from the IHG credit cards. We each get a certificate each year- 2 IHG certificates got extended due to the Pandemic. I have been thinking about cancelling the 2 IHG credit cards after we use the certificates. The cards cost $49.00 per year. The certificates used to be good at any IHG property. We've stayed at Times Square, Miami Beach and the Willard Hotel in DC using certificates, but a couple of years ago they changed the program and made them more restrictive and I have had trouble using them at even less exclusive properties.

[disneysteve]

Okay I've never heard of this hotel game. Usually I just book wherever we want to stay based on location and price. And also traveling with friends who are way to picky and I may not be traveling with them soon enough. Much to high class for me. But how do you find the bonus points with second stay within a certain time period?

As kork said, I get emails regularly with the latest promotion. It may be bonus points on every stay. It might be double points starting with your 2nd stay. Something like that. I always register for every promotion even if we have no travel planned because sometimes we end up doing something last minute.

We are not 100% loyal to Marriott but I always check them first when planning a trip to see if they have a property that meets our needs and budget for wherever we're going. If they don't, I'll pick something else. If they do but it's a bit more expensive than the competition, I'll factor in the value of the reward points I'll earn and they usually come out even or ahead.

We are Lifetime Gold with Marriott. We earn 12.5 points per dollar spent. We get 250 or 500 bonus points at check in. We get another 6 points per dollar paying with our Marriott Boundless Visa. Nights stayed go toward our reward level. We're close to moving up to Lifetime Platinum. At that point, we'll get 15 points per dollar for our stays. We also get free upgrades and other perks now and Platinum will get us free lounge access which means free food and drinks. That helps buffer the cost also. If we have breakfast and later on grab a can of soda and a snack every day instead of having to feed a vending machine, it adds up.