Introduction
Credit Card Points
Airline Miles
Hotel Points

With the introduction out of the way, here are my valuations of Membership Rewards, Ultimate Rewards, and Starwood Preferred Guest points. Yes, I realize SPG points aren’t technically “credit card points,” though I still consider them to be one of the “big three” credit card points currencies due to how easily they can be transferred.

American Express Membership Rewards – 1.6 cents/point

Going back a year I would have said American Express Membership Rewards points were worth at least two cents each, though a lot has happened since then to change that:

• Continental was removed as a transfer partner on September 30, 2011
• British Airways hugely devalued their award chart for those in North America as of November 15, 2011
• Aeroplan gutted their award chart and added huge fuel surcharges to award redemptions on most non-US carriers
• There hasn’t been a single transfer bonus to Delta SkyMiles all year, while last year we frequently saw 30-50% transfer bonuses

So the four things that made Membership Rewards points so valuable either aren’t possible or being offered anymore.

Still, there are some positives:

• American Express is offering a 50% bonus on transfers to British Airways through the end of the month. This seems to be a fairly regular occurrence, though let’s see if it still happens in the future given that British Airways’ co-branded credit card is with Chase. While Avios points aren’t especially valuable, I think it’s tough to value them at under a cent each, regardless of how critical you are of the program.
• It has become possible to redeem Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles for saver first class on Singapore Airlines. As I discussed in great detail in this post, it’s now finally possible to redeem for Singapore Airlines’ new first class at the saver level, which wasn’t previously possible. This remains the only reliable way to redeem miles for Singapore Airlines first class.
• Through Aeroplan business class to Europe roundtrip costs only 90,000 miles with two stopovers (in addition to the destination). So if you don’t mind flying a US carrier for the transatlantic flight, you can’t beat visiting three places in Europe for just 90,000 miles in business class. There are still bargains to be had with Aeroplan, they just take more effort to find than before.

Anyway, the program isn’t nearly what it used to be, but it’s still not worthless. I sure hope they’re talking to either Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan or US Airways Dividend Miles for a potential partnership, as either would greatly improve the value proposition of the program.

Best credit card(s) for earning Membership Rewards points: American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card, which offers 3x points on airfare, 2x points on gas and groceries, and 15,000 bonus points for any year in which you spend $30,000 on the card

Transfer Membership Rewards points to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer

Chase Ultimate Rewards – 1.9 cents/point

As the “new kid on the block,” Chase has quickly made Ultimate Rewards points one of the most valuable points currencies out there, especially since it’s possible to earn more than one Ultimate Rewards point per dollar spent with several of their cards.

Ultimate Rewards points can be transferred to British Airways, Korean Air, United, Hyatt, Marriott, Priority Club, and more. So they have lots of transfer partners, though the only “mainstream” partners where a 1:1 transfer is a great deal would be to United and Hyatt, in my opinion.

So while I value Hyatt points at slightly less than 1.9 cents per point and United miles at around 1.9 cents per mile, there’s a key aspect to Ultimate Rewards points that makes them more valuable than the individual points currencies they can be transferred to.

Specifically, the miles can be transferred to an account in anyone’s name in either program. This is significant for a couple of reasons. First, it allows you to “top off” an account to have enough points for an award. For example, say you’re trying to book two business class awards from the US to Asia and you and your spouse each have 110,000 United miles. The ability to transfer those 20,000 Ultimate Rewards points to two different accounts gives them some premium over just having 130,000 miles in one account and 110,000 miles in another account, for example.

Furthermore, the ability to transfer to anyone’s account means you can transfer to an elite member’s mileage account (if you have a friend that’s an elite member with United, for example), which gets you ticketing fee waivers, free changes, etc. These are all things that add up and have to be considered, in my opinion.

Best credit card(s) for earning Ultimate Rewards points: Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, which offers double points on dining and travel and a 7% annual points dividend, and the Chase Ink Bold Business Card, which offers 5x points on office supply stores and 2x points on gas and hotels

Transfer Ultimate Rewards points to United for Lufthansa first class

Starwood Preferred Guest – 2.2 cents/point

While I’ll cover Starwood again later with other hotels, I did feel like including them here since many use Starwood points in the same way they would use Membership Rewards or Ultimate Rewards points, using them for transfers to other mileage programs.

Starwood points can be transferred 1:1 to many airlines, and for every 20,000 points you transfer you earn a 5,000 point bonus, meaning you’re essentially earning 1.25 miles per dollar spent.

Unbundling that, my valuation makes each transferred mile worth 1.76 cent, factoring in the 25% bonus, which I think is pretty fair given that points can be transferred to American, US Airways, etc.

But the further added value is that sometimes SPG offers an even further transfer bonus. Earlier in the year US Airways offered a 50% bonus for transfers from SPG, meaning that 20,000 SPG points would net you 37,500 US Airways miles. Using the 2.2 cent per point valuation, that lowers the cost per US Airways mile to just 1.17 cents each, which is a pretty spectacular value. While a transfer bonus like that isn’t guaranteed, we seem to see at least one great transfer bonus each year.

Best credit card(s) for earning SPG points: Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Personal Card and Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Business Card, which offer one SPG point per dollar spent on all purchases, and two SPG points per dollar spent at SPG properties

Redeem SPG points for Westin Siray Bay Phuket

Next up will be my valuation of airline miles…

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Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by American Express. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of American Express, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by American Express. This site may be compensated through American Express Affiliate Program.

A few days ago I wrote about American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts and Virtuoso, which are two methods of making reservations that can get you additional benefits on stays at hundreds of high end hotels.

Some of you brought up Visa Signature’s Luxury Hotel Collection, so I figured I’d make a follow up post about it. This is a bit smaller scale of a program that’s available to anyone with a US-issued Signature Visa credit card, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred, British Airways Visa, Hyatt Visa, United Explorer Visa, etc. To take advantage of this benefit you have to reserve and pay for hotel stays with a qualifying credit card.

The benefits for booking through the Visa Signature Luxury Hotel Collection are as follows:

• Best available rate guarantee
• Automatic room upgrade upon arrival, when available
• Free in-room Internet or Valet parking
• Complimentary continental breakfast
• 3PM check-out, when available
• VIP Guest status
• $25 food or beverage voucher

To break that down a bit further, it seems like the best rate guarantee applies exclusively to the prevailing or best flexible rate. In other words, when booking through this program you can’t use an advance purchase/AAA/senior/government/corporate rate, so in many cases the savings that can be had there might more than compensate for the extra benefits.

I think most of the other benefits are pretty self explanatory, though the one I find especially intriguing is “free in-room internet or valet parking.” If the hotel offers both you can choose, and if you choose valet parking it can be a value of up to $50 per day. The Andaz West Hollywood is part of this hotel collection, so between the free valet parking (if you rent a car) and food and beverage credit, booking through here would likely be consistently cheaper than booking an otherwise discounted rate.

Anyway, the program itself consists of over 800 hotels, and while they have a lot of luxury hotels, they also seem to include a few more mid-range properties than Virtuoso, which is probably useful for many of us. For example, all the US Andaz hotels are included in the collection. The website lets you search hotels either by their brand, name, or location, which is pretty useful, and the website is as easy to use as just about any booking site.

The results page will list all hotels in the area (I searched Los Angeles) along with their corresponding prices.

If you click on “See Rooms & Rates” you’ll see all the room options along with the corresponding benefits.

The cool thing is that at no point in the booking process do you have to log in (though you can choose to have a username and password so your info will be saved). On the next page you simply have to complete the purchase with a Signature Visa credit card, and your reservation will be confirmed.

I actually hadn’t known about this program until a few weeks ago, and it really pained to me to think for how long I’ve been missing out on these benefits for the Andaz hotels I’ve been staying at.

As always you should look at all the options before making a booking, including advance purchase rates, AAA rates, etc. But in many cases the additional benefits with this program may total $100 per night. I think the biggest potential benefit here is free valet parking for up to a $50 per day value, which both American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts and Virtuoso don’t offer as a benefit. So while I still generally prefer the offerings of those two programs, I can see many circumstances under which I’d use the Signature Visa program instead.

Happy booking!

I’ve been giving hotels a lot of thought lately, and now that I’ve just about requalified for both Hyatt Diamond and Starwood Platinum for the year (in both cases on stays instead of nights), I figured I’d provide my general thoughts about both programs, as well as InterContinental. It’s also worth noting that I’ve now been a Starwood Platinum for a bit over year since status matching last April, so I now have more of a basis on which to judge Starwood. With that in mind, here are my general thoughts about both programs:

Hyatt

I love Park Hyatt properties. I mean, I really, really love Park Hyatt properties. The more I think about it, the more I realize that Park Hyatts are really what keeps me loyal to Hyatt. The ability to redeem no more than 22,000 Gold Passport points per night (or no more than 33,000 points per night for a suite) at a Park Hyatt hotel is really what drives my loyalty to the chain.

Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi

Don’t get me wrong, Hyatt gets tons of points from me for their consistency. There’s not a more consistent hotel chain, a chain that under promises and over delivers as consistently. But the more Hyatt hotels I stay at, the more I realize that aside from Park Hyatt and Andaz properties, most of their hotels are pretty boring.

Andaz Shanghai

But now that Starwood really stepped up the game, especially in terms of incremental benefits over initial qualification, I think it’s time for Hyatt to step up their’s. I actually don’t necessarily think they should start counting award nights towards elite qualification like Starwood does. I mean, I have no problem if they do, but I think what they really need are marginal benefits above the first 25 stays or 50 nights.

In the past Hyatt’s amazing promotions were reason enough to stay at their hotels since you could earn a free night at a Park Hyatt after every few nights. Obviously that’s not sustainable, so it doesn’t have to be that drastic. But I think where Hyatt is missing the boat is that marginal benefits actually decrease after the first 25 stays and 50 nights. You get four confirmed Diamond suite upgrades after qualifying, but then get nothing extra if you stay double or triple as many nights/stays. So they’re not giving any sort of an incentive to stay with them. It’s still a really solid program, though without the promotions and with Starwood recently stepping up their game, I don’t think it’s the clear winner anymore.

Starwood

I’ve always referred to Starwood as the chain that over promises and under delivers. This is because as a chain they offer “unlimited space available suite upgrades” to Platinum members, but in practice a lot of the franchised hotels don’t seem to be aboard and will do just about anything to avoid giving an upgrade. My frustration with Starwood was that as a Platinum member you could have a stay where you literally get no benefits except free internet, since breakfast wasn’t guaranteed either.

Fortunately back in March they revamped their program to add breakfast as a Platinum amenity option, and also to add incremental benefits for those that more than qualify for Platinum status. As usual with Starwood it sounded great on paper, though I was curious about the implementation. Surprisingly enough I have to say that in my experience so far the implementation has been excellent. While the breakfast amenity does have to be chosen in place of the 500 SPG point Platinum welcome amenity, for my stays thus far the hotels have gone beyond the minimum required. At Le Meridien Munich, for example, I even got access to the full buffet.

Le Meridien Munich breakfast

But what’s really tempting me about Starwood is the marginal benefits beyond the initial 25 stays and 50 nights, which really force me to stay at their hotels instead of at Hyatt properties. The most tempting of those benefits are the 10 confirmed suite night awards after 50 nights, which I’m aiming for this year. This allows you to confirm 10 nights in a suite five days before arrival, which is hugely useful in basically “jumping” the Platinum upgrade queue. With Starwood I seem to always get suite upgrades for my one-night airport hotel stays, but not for the “vacation” stays that really count. So being able to confirm those would be hugely valuable.

Furthermore, the fact that award nights now count towards elite qualification with Starwood make this even more of a no brainer, since I can redeem points for stays at mid-range hotels and have those work towards the additional benefits.

But that still doesn’t solve my major frustration with Starwood, which is the number of points required for their high end hotels. I value SPG points at over two cents each, so at 30,000+ points per night for a category seven hotel, there are almost no circumstances under which a points redemption is a good value. Worst of all is that all villa hotels like the W Retreat Koh Samui charge double of the normal points required given that they don’t have any “standard” rooms. I’ll never understand that, since the redemption category a hotel belongs to is already based on the cost of rooms, so you’re basically being penalized twice.

InterContinental

I also have Royal Ambassador status with InterContinental, though for me this is the program which is becoming less and less valuable by the day. InterContinental Royal Ambassador used to be the best top tier status by far, in my opinion, though over the past couple of years has decreased in value to me, partly because the competition has caught up and partly because InterContinental has done everything they can to “standardize” benefits, which is rarely a good thing.

Nowadays I’m not really loyal to the chain, but rather mainly to a few of their individual hotels, which make me want to keep Royal Ambassador status. For example, the InterContinental San Francisco and InterContinental Berchtesgaden are among my favorite hotels, and I’d hate to give up Royal Ambassador because of how much I love these hotels.

InterContinental Berchtesgaden — my favorite place on earth

At the same time, the status really isn’t sustainable. While they’ve continued to quietly reduce benefits they’ve also increased qualification requirements. While the requirements are unpublished, anecdotal evidence suggests it takes at least 60 nights per year to be invited to Royal Ambassador. If Priority Club had more “middle ground” between InterContinental and their other brands that might not be so bad, but as things stand now, I can’t see myself staying 60 nights per year with them. The most frustrating part of the program is the lack of elite benefits on award stays, which is the biggest slap in the face of all.

Finding value in short stays outside the main chains

Here’s the last challenge I’m having. I’m increasingly finding a lot of value in one to two night stays at Virtuoso and American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts properties that don’t belong to Hyatt, Starwood, or Priority Club. For example, if I see a Ritz Carlton available for $250 per night and it comes with a room upgrade, $100 food and beverage credit, and daily breakfast for two, I’d be hard pressed to book a Westin for $200. And while that’s not always the case, it certainly makes me a bit less “focused,” which is never a good thing when trying to requalify for status.

Ritz Carlton San Juan

The bottom line

There is no perfect hotel chain. I love Hyatt for the ability to stay at mid-range hotels and redeem for high-end hotels. I just wish their mid-range hotels were more interesting. I love Starwood for the benefits I receive when staying at mid-range hotels and the reasonable award redemption costs for mid-range hotels. I just wish their high-end hotels would be priced more reasonably for award redemptions.

My hotel decisions for the rest of the year will be dictated first and foremost by which chain gives me the best value on the promotion front. Unfortunately both Hyatt and Starwood‘s second quarter promotions are pretty lackluster. Barring decent promotions, my decisions will be driven by incremental benefits, which is where Starwood wins for now.

Who is everyone else favoring this year?

While I think most consumers prefer cash back credit cards over points earning credit cards (at least in theory), I’ve always preferred the latter. Most consumers aren’t able to extract the maximum value out of points given how complicated the systems can be, while those of us that know how they work can get some spectacular value for our points.

I value most of the better mileage/points currencies at 1.5-2.0 cents per point, while I’ve found most consumers value points closer to a cent each, since they consider redeeming points for gift cards to be about the best value out there.

That being said, there are some cash back credit cards that are tempting even for someone like me, which I’ve added to the “Best Credit Card Offers” page of the blog. They’re as follows:

American Express Blue Cash Preferred Card Application

This is probably the most tempting card of all if it matches your spend patterns. The card offers 6% cash back at supermarkets, 3% cash back at gas stations and department stores, and 1% cash back on everything else. The card offers $150 cash back after spending $1,000 within three months, and comes with a $75 annual fee.

The part that I’m personally interested in is the 6% cash back at supermarkets, the 3% cash back at department stores, and possibly the 3% cash back at gas stations. The 6% at supermarkets is a no brainer, as is the 3% at department stores, as I don’t have a card that would otherwise accrue bonus points for department store spend. For gas I’d otherwise use my American Express Premier Rewards Gold card, which offers two Membership Rewards points per dollar spent on gas. Ultimately I value Membership Rewards points at slightly above 1.5 cents each so I’d probably still use the Premier Rewards Gold card, but others might value them differently.

With 6% cash back you have to spend $1,250 per year at supermarkets to break even (not factoring in the $150 sign-up bonus, which essentially pays your annual fee for the first two years). Of course I’m trying to think creatively in regards to purchasing gift cards at supermarkets to accrue the 6% cash back, though the T&Cs read (in part) as follows:

Each eligible purchase shall qualify for a reward of 6, 3, or 1% of the purchase amount as follows: 6% for eligible purchases at supermarkets (excluding superstores and warehouse clubs), 3% for eligible purchases at department stores and for automobile gasoline purchased at stand-alone gas stations, and 1% for all other eligible purchases posted to your account. Eligible Purchases means purchases for goods and services minus returns and other credits. Eligible purchases do NOT include fees or interest charges, balance transfers, cash advances, purchases of American Express Travelers Cheques, purchases or reloading of American Express prepaid cards or purchases of other cash equivalents. Additional terms and conditions apply.

I don’t really have much experience with gift cards, though does anyone know if the above is standard AmEx language, or whether in practice you could actually earn cash back on gift card purchases (restaurant, gas, etc.)? It’s not something I’ve ever done, though I’d think that if you buy a gift card along with groceries they wouldn’t really have a way of breaking up the bill, right? It would certainly be tough to beat 6% cash back on gift cards for places you’d otherwise spend money at anyway.

Anyway, if you’re going for a cash back card, this one is pretty compelling in the above categories.

American Express Blue Cash Everyday Card Application

This is the most basic version of the above card, given that it has no annual fee. The card offers a sign-up bonus of $100 cash back after spending $1,000 within three months, and offers 3% cash back at supermarkets, 2% cash back at gas stations and department stores, and 1% cash back on everything else.

None of those bonuses are tempting enough to make me stop using a mileage earning credit card, though for those of you that want a cash back card, that’s a pretty compelling offering with no annual fee, in my opinion.

American Express Costco Card Application

For those of you that have a Costco membership and value cash back, the Costco American Express is great as well, as it has no annual fee and offers 3% cash back on gas (on up to $3,000 spend), 2% cash back on dining and travel, and 1% cash back on everything else. Again, none of those amounts are enough to get me to switch spend to the card, though it’s another really solid cash back card for those of you in that camp.

(Tip of the hat to Frugal Travel Guy)

Full disclosure: I earn a referral bonus for anyone that signs up through the above links. It’s the best available offer, and of course I’m very appreciate of your support, regardless of whether or not you use my links

Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by American Express. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of American Express, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by American Express. This site may be compensated through American Express Affiliate Program.

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the Cheesecake Factory. Their food is good, but the menu is too damn big. When I go to a restaurant and am hungry I don’t want to read a 46-page novel before deciding what to eat. I want enough choices so there’s “something for everybody,” but not so many choices that I have to set up a Venn diagram to make a decision on what I’ll have.

That’s also kind of how I feel about Starwood’s “Nice Choice” promotion, which I wrote about a few weeks ago. I love the fact that there are options to choose from (after all, Starwood has become all about customization, so kudos to them for sticking true to that), but there are just too many if you ask me. Maybe I’m jetlagged, maybe I’m just plane dumb (don’t forget to tip me on the way out), or maybe this is confusing, but I’m having a hard time going through this.

On the plus side, Starwood deserves credit for including all of their hotels in the promotion. For most of their past promotions there was a huge list of excluded hotels, which really sucks as a customer. To us a Starwood hotel is a Starwood hotel and we expect consistent benefits, regardless of where in the world we are. So it’s nice to see them running a promotion without any excluded hotels.

So let’s start with the basics (which might just be all I can handle). Registration is required for the promotion by June 30. The promotion runs from May 1 through September 30, 2012, though you have to choose a three month period in which you’d like to participate. It’s worth noting that even if you only register on June 30, the choice will apply retroactively through May 1. So given the options, you’re probably best off waiting until June 30 to register in order to decide which promotion works best for you.

Now on to the “choices.” The first decision you have to make is over which time period you’d like the promotion to run, with the following options:

Sticking to the Cheesecake Factory analogy, this would be the “welcome to the Cheesecake Factory, can I get you something to drink?”

The second choice is the general category of the rewards you want to earn:

In the Cheesecake Factory analogy, this would be the “can I get you started with an appetizer today?” (of course not, because your main courses are big enough to feed a villa of sumo wrestlers).

Aaaaaand this is where it starts to get complicated.  This is the point at which the Cheesecake Factory waiter comes over and says “have you had a chance to look at the menu yet?” Have I had a chance to look at the menu? Yes. Have I had a chance to read even 5% of the contents? No. Please come back in five hours.

Not only do you have multiple categories to choose from, but within each category you have far too many options for your own good, so let’s go through them one by one.

If you select the “Starpoints” category you have the following options:

I like a fun promotion with some options, but you need some serious number crunching and math skills in order to make an informed decision here.

If you plan on staying at least 15 nights, the triple Starpoints is probably your best bet. If you’re planning on staying fewer than 15 nights, I think the 3,000 bonus points for every six stays is more tempting than the double SPG points starting with your second stay. For double SPG points to make sense you’d have to be spending over $500 per night in order for that to be a better option than 3,000 bonus points for every six nights, given that you’re essentially earning 500 bonus points per night through it. Of course that assumes you can stage your stays in increments of six. And if you stay mostly at Sheratons, chances are the 500 bonus points there makes sense. If the alternative is double points you’d have to spend an average of more than $500 per night for that to be a better option, or if the alternative is triple points you’d have to spend an average of more than $250 per night for that to be a better option.

The next category is free nights, with the following options:

Neither of these options is especially appealing to me. Last year during the same period Starwood ran a promotion whereby you could earn one free night at a resort for every three stays, while this year they’re requiring 10 nights for a free weekend night, but capping it at category five hotels (compared to category six last time). Still, at the end of the day a category five hotel would cost 12,000 points per night, so I suppose that’s the equivalent of 1,200 bonus points per night. Of course this assumes you want to redeem your free nights over a weekend, and also that you don’t have substantially more than 20 nights, since you don’t earn anything beyond that.

The next option is a merchandise discount:

Next…

Then the last option is elite night credits:

If you absolutely need them and can’t make any additional stays then I guess go for it, though at the end of the day elite night credits aren’t really “tangible” rewards that can be redeemed for anything.

Interestingly the promotion page has a list of the most popular choices by members thus far, and as of now it stands as follows:

So not surprisingly the double and triple points offers are getting picked most often, probably because they’re the simplest. I still think the 3,000 bonus points for every six nights is more tempting than the double points assuming you can get stays in the right increments, though I seem to be in the minority there.

Ultimate this isn’t a promotion that will drive any incremental business to Starwood for me, but then again, I haven’t seen any enticing promotions from other programs. Hyatt has an offer for 5x airline miles, though it’s not entirely clear whether that’s their summer promotion or just a smaller promotion they’ll run alongside another one (I sure hope it’s the latter).

But before anyone’s too harsh on Starwood, let me give you my outside opinion on their inside thinking. As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, in the past Starwood gave individual hotels the option of opting into a promotion or not. As a result, it would appear as if hotels were footing the bill for promotions, and that’s why we saw such huge lists of excluded hotels. Starwood deserves a LOT of credit for running a global promotion for the first time. It’s a step in the right direction, though I’m not surprised the promo is more lackluster than what we’ve seen in the past, since I would speculate that SPG is footing the bill here, as opposed to the individual (mostly franchised) hotels. Not trying to justify it, but just explaining why I think the promotion isn’t super-rewarding as it was last year.

Over the course of writing this post I’ve built up an appetite. Maybe a visit to the Cheesecake Factory is in order?

Reader Brian asks the following question on the “Ask Lucky” page of the blog:

How do you crunch the numbers to decide when to use Cash & Points versus paying at an SPG property? For example, the W Hong Kong is $330/night, or 8,000 points + $150. Trying to figure out how to make the best choice.

It’s a fantastic question I get asked all the time, though I don’t think I’ve ever thoroughly covered it, so I figured I’d do so now.

For those of you not familiar with Cash & Points, it’s one of the best uses of Starwood points whereby you can pay part cash and part points for a hotel stay. The award chart looks as follows:

By just about anyone’s valuation of Starpoints, Cash & Points is a better value than an outright points redemption. The “catch” is that Cash & Points is capacity controlled, while outright award redemptions aren’t (as long as a standard award is available).

There are three things to consider when redeeming Cash & Points:

• What you value SPG points at
• The value of the points you’re giving up by not booking a revenue stay
• The taxes/service charge at hotel

What you value SPG points at

I value SPG points at 2.5 cents each. Everyone’s valuation will be different, but I’m using that as the basis of my analysis. If you value them more or less, adjust the math accordingly.

The one thing I always note with my valuation is that for me the value of a point is based on what I’d otherwise be willing to spend for the product, and not the cash value. For example, I just redeemed 51,000 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles for Singapore Airlines first class from Singapore to Tokyo Narita, which would have cost $3,500 had I paid cash. While I got a great value for my points, I didn’t think I got seven cents per value out of the ticket, as the math might suggest. So the analysis assumes the alternative would be paying for the hotel, and that it’s something you’d be willing to do.

So doing the math for the W Hong Kong example Brian gave, you can either pay $330 cash, or “pay” $350 by using Cash & Points ($150 cash, and $200 worth of points).

The value of the points you’re giving up by not booking a revenue stay

While award stays also now qualify towards elite qualification, only revenue stays accrue points. As a base SPG member you earn two points per dollar, while as a Gold/Platinum member you earn three points per dollar. So valuing those at 2.5 cents each, you’re looking at a 5% return as a base member or 7.5% return as a Gold/Platinum member for booking a revenue stay (not factoring in any promotions). So adding to the above math, the cost of a revenue stay would be reduced to $313.50 for a base member or $305.25 as an elite member if you’re paying, both of which are better values than the $350 you’d “pay” using Cash & Points.

The taxes/service charge at hotel

This is the one thing a lot of people overlook. Many hotels have taxes and service charges that add up to as much as 20%, and you only pay that on the portion of the room for which you’re paying cash. In the case of the W Hong Kong, there’s a 10% service charge.

That means in the case of a Cash & Points stay you’d pay an additional $15 (10% of $150), while for a revenue stay you’d pay an additional $33 (10% of $330).

Summing up the math

So once we crunch all the numbers, a revenue stay is costing you $338.25 ($305.25 plus $33) as an elite member or $346.50 ($313.50 plus $33) as a non-elite member, while a Cash & Points stay is costing you $365 ($350 plus $15).

The above example isn’t incredibly compelling either way, as there are other minor things to consider, like whether SPG is running a promotion or which of your accounts (bank account or SPG account) is looking bigger at the time you’re redeeming).

Hopefully that helps at least a little bit!