Everything you read and learn about points and miles tells you that it is not usually a great value to buy airline or hotel points. But sometimes you just need a few points to top up your account in order to have enough for a redemption you want.
This month I have been making all the arrangements for the Girls Getaway trip my daughter and I take each year. When we plan these trips, I try to save as much as I can (without sacrificing any creature comforts) for our airfare, car rentals and hotels. To begin with, I cut our airfare costs significantly, but I still needed a hotel for one night.
We will be hiking in Sedona, Arizona. During my research, I found the Hyatt Residence Club Sedona, Pignon Point, which is a really nice hotel with amazing views. Last year, I discovered how nice Hyatt hotels are, so I decided that this was the place for us. The rate for the night we would be staying was either $279 or 15,000 World of Hyatt points. The problem was that I only had 7800 points in my account and I didn’t want to spend $279 on our hotel. Sigh.
I looked at all the transfer options available to me, and there wasn’t really anything that made good sense. Loyalty programs frequently run promotions that allow you to buy points at a discounted price, and Hyatt was advertising a 25% off sale on points purchases through 2/29. This meant that I could buy the additional 8,000 points that I would need for a redemption at $144 instead of the usual $192. Since that was half the cost of booking the hotel at the cash rate, I decided to go ahead and buy the points.
I am sure people who are really amazing at booking travel with points and miles will think that it was silly to purchase these points. But I am happy because we get to stay in an awesome hotel for half the cost of the regular rate. It’s all about perspective I guess.
The World According to Dev 