Traveling on Points and Cash: PNW Edition

[canyonwalker]

Pacific Northwest August Travelog #6
Retrospective

When we travel "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" we usually pay for some of the trip with points and some with cash. The three-day trip we took to Washington last week was a bit different from most in that we paid for most of it with points. The flights were all on points, the 3 hotel nights were all on points (and a free-night certificate). The only cash cost was the rental car. Here are Five Things about paying for the trip:

1. Hotels were expensive. Even with staying in small towns and far flung suburbs we were facing prices of $250-300/night. Blame inflation, blame Covid revenge travel (which is part of what's driving inflation), blame having to make last minute plans. It's hard to swallow these prices as I know that 5 years ago I'd have looked to pay half as much.


2. Points are not free. It's a mistake many travelers new to rewards programs make to think that using points = "Free Trip!" Points have value. At a minimum it costs something to earn them. When I write about earning points with credit cards I always note the opportunity cost of using that card. See, for example, my analysis of the Hilton Aspire American Express two months ago.


3. It's helpful instead of thinking about points as freebies to think about them as an alternate currency. I could pay for a hotel room with $270 in cash or with, say, 30,000 points. Using points doesn't mean I get $270 for free; it means I made some of my points worth 0.9 cents each. Is $0.009 a good exchange rate? For Marriott points, sure. That's why I used them. Ditto the free night cert I used at a Holiday Inn Express. I look to make those certs worth $150. Using a cert for a room night that otherwise would cost $300 is a great redemption value.


4. The rental car was expensive, too. That's no surprise as rental prices have been crazy for at least a year now. It's a combination of travel bouncing back (not just "revenge" travel) after car rental agencies had gutted their fleets during Covid. We paid $400 for 3 days. And even that was with a corporate discount rate.


5. Years ago I stopped pursuing rewards with rental car agencies. I felt it took too long to earn a free day and was too hard to redeem relative to the value. Instead I let them credit me several hundred frequent flyer miles in my choice of airline program each time I rent. Now that cars are way more expensive to rent than several years ago I will reevaluate whether it makes sense to accumulate rental points.