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Today’s article on the Bonvoy points sale bonus made me raise my eyebrows with its mention of a Bonvoy point being valued at 0.5p
What are recent experiences of redemptions since dynamic pricing came in? I’m going to go back through mine (taken plus cancelled trips) to see what I was getting but quite sure it was significantly higher than 0.5
I’m happy with my use of points for a reservation at Sheraton FUE in December.
5 nights for 84,000 points. The room type we’re booked into is selling today for £1080 for the same 5 nights. Points value is 1.29ppp.
Admittedly, the value is inflated by two factors. Firstly, I booked a few weeks ago when cash rates were a bit lower (I don’t recall the exact rate at the time I booked, but it was still very much net positive to spend points). Secondly, I booked 5 nights to avail of the 20% reduction in points cost.
As an aside, we’re staying 7 nights in total. Final 2 nights are booked on a cash rate which will trigger my ‘spend £300 get £100 back’ offer on the Bonvoy Marriott.
We’ve been draining our Bonvoy stashes for the last 12 months as we get better value with Hilton & IHG. I’ve booked a Club room at the RC DOH for 5 nights next month for 222k points which works out at 0.7p pp. This sounds a bit low, however the lounge there is supposed to be more like an AI package than the typical lounge offering so I guess the value will be boosted by how much use we make of it!
On my recent couple of redemptions I’ve done a bit better though I’d say that the Marriott cash prices are higher than I would have to pay elsewhere. Rome in Feb is a good example – the point redemption isn’t too bad against cash but there are much better value hotels elsewhere which then makes it a poor value redemption.
Got a couple of nights in Singapore next year that look good vs other options even on that basis but will keep an eye on rates nearer the time.
I should have mentioned, I have a mental block about using Marriott points outside the 5-for-4 offer. Same with Hilton really.
I’ve checked my records and I had Marriott Tang Plaza Singapore booked 25-30 Dec for 156,000 points. I thought that was good value for a flexi booking on Christmas week.
I’m the same – it feels like being robbed to book fewer than 5 nights (or a multiple thereof) on a redemption!
We got a decent redemption last December, 360k points for 5 nights in a 1 bedroom suite/apartment with full kitchen at the Key West Marriott. Even with the “resort” and parking fees it was a great deal over the cash price which was several hundred $ per night.
If you go back to my valuation article, the point is this:
*you used to average 0.5p but the range was VERY wide and 1.5p was not difficult (and neither was 0.2p!)
*with dynamic pricing, the average remains about 0.5p but the range is narrower, so 0.7p is probably nearer a ‘better’ deal these days
We don’t factor in 544 because in reality only a small % of redemptions are five nights. We did do five nights in Venice this year but that may be the first one ever, and to be honest we only did 5 nights because it was silly doing our preferred four nights when points became the obvious booking route.
I recently booked the Dominican in Bruxelles for next Feb at 28 000 points. Priced at €232 a night, which works out at €0.008285 per point, or about 0.00733p per point, which in turn comes in pretty close to 1 Amex point per night. I am quite happy with that.
OK, not as good as Feb 22 when I got over 1p per point at The Langley – but they did put the price up from 50 000 per night to 60 000 shortly afterwards.
🙂We don’t factor in 544 because in reality only a small % of redemptions are five nights. We did do five nights in Venice this year but that may be the first one ever, and to be honest we only did 5 nights because it was silly doing our preferred four nights when points became the obvious booking route.
Quite.
The five-for-four sounds good, but I cannot remember when we last spent five nights in one establishment (or even if we ever have§). Three nights in one place is just about as much as we ever do.
Plus, if you want to spend five nights in one place, it is likely to be somewhere quite “upscale”, which means having a large stash of points in one scheme, rather than earning and burning.
§ – Yes, we probably did spend 5 nights in one place on our Caribbean stays around 20 years ago, but that was then. We do not expect to be going back.
Outsized value is still possible. I booked the Courtyard St Denis in late July for a Rugby World Cup game in early October. 22,500 points when cash prices were £955 (4.24p per point I think?). Not a great hotel, and not a good location for the stadium by the way – would not recommend. I also found myself in Istanbul for one night in June during the Champions League final weekend and got a room for 16,000 that was selling for over £500
I’ll “sell” for anything over 0.5p, but checking my recent and upcoming redemptions I’ve got:
>1p each in Cambridge (twice)
>1p each in Costa Rica (5 day stay)
=1p each in Edinburgh
>1p each in Istanbul (5 day stay)Mostly points acquired from staying with Marriott, or transfers from Amex.
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