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Whenever we travel I look to use points to reduce the amount we have to pay in cash. As I've got a lot of points (2024 EOY inventory) I'm always looking for opportunities to use them. But I'm looking for opportunities to get worthy value for them. Alas that's why I have so many points sitting in my accounts.... Opportunities to redeem them for shitty value abound; opportunities to redeem them for decent value, let alone great value, are fewer and farther between. Thus on our trip to Georgia last week, like most, we chose to pay for some things with points and others with cash.
The only other part of this trip that was a hard cost, as in money out of pocket this month, was the rental car. And there I'm glad I got pissed at Avis's clusterfuckery and canceled my first car reservation because it turned out we totally didn't need a rental car in Savannah. As we chose a hotel so close to where my sister and her family live, they were okay with driving us around. When we did rent a car for the cross-state drive up to the mountains, it cost just $190 vs. the $575 it would've cost to have a car for the whole week. The difference, almost $400, is what we would've paid just for the 5 day local part of our trip. That's so not worth it I'm surprised I even signed up for it in the first place!
- Our five nights at a hotel in Savannah I got on points. The key factor tipping that in favor of points was Marriott's standard bonus of redeeming a 5 night award for the price of 4 nights. If I'd had to pay points equal to 5x the single night rate it would've been a tie for value between that and cash. Getting 20% off the points price made points the winner.
- For our two nights in Dawsonville we used points for the Holiday Inn Express. IHG, their parent company, has moved to a mostly rate-based system for awards, so screaming deals on points are very rare to find anymore. This was at least a fair deal on what we consider the points worth. As I've noted before, you've got to know what points are worth to make good decisions about when to use— or not use— them.
- Oh, and Hawk used her points for those two nights in Dawsonville. Yes, she has points, too! For IHG, both of us get most of our points from lucrative credit card sign-up bonuses.
- For our 1 night at ATL airport— the one we got that suite upgrade on— we paid cash. The hotel's cash rates where low enough that the points rate wasn't worth it. And it was also Hawk's elite status, again from a credit card, that got us that upgrade.
- For the flights on Southwest I paid cash. Southwest's points awards follow a formula relative to the cash price so there really aren't deals to be found there. It comes down to a question of "Do I want to earn points and thus get nearer to earning/renewing elite status right now, or redeem points and gain nothing toward elite status?" I'm in status-chasing mode with Southwest right now, so I bought the tickets with cash. Though it wasn't cash, per se, but travel credit. Meaning, there was no hit to my budget this month because it's money I spent months ago on tickets I had to cancel.
The only other part of this trip that was a hard cost, as in money out of pocket this month, was the rental car. And there I'm glad I got pissed at Avis's clusterfuckery and canceled my first car reservation because it turned out we totally didn't need a rental car in Savannah. As we chose a hotel so close to where my sister and her family live, they were okay with driving us around. When we did rent a car for the cross-state drive up to the mountains, it cost just $190 vs. the $575 it would've cost to have a car for the whole week. The difference, almost $400, is what we would've paid just for the 5 day local part of our trip. That's so not worth it I'm surprised I even signed up for it in the first place!
