Use Travel Rewards points to book cruise?

[LynnTTT]

We have a total of 331,000 Reward Points with a very well known hotel chain.

We need to use them within a few months. We can exchange them and use the points for a transatlantic cruise, but right now we can get a pretty good dea paying for a last minute cruise. Maybe we'll get a better deal on using the points for airfare?

I haven't gone thru all the steps I need to take to find out exactly how many points I will need to redeem to get the cruise, but I would like to hear from someone who may have tried this.

Thanks

[nolatravelgirl]

It really depends on the hotel chain. Having 330K in Hilton or Marriott is chump change. Having 330K in SPG points is a virtual treasure trove.

[Keith1010]

I would look at all options and see how best to use the points.

 

Keith

[Clarea]

We have a total of 331,000 Reward Points with a very well known hotel chain.

We need to use them within a few months. We can exchange them and use the points for a transatlantic cruise, but right now we can get a pretty good dea paying for a last minute cruise. Maybe we'll get a better deal on using the points for airfare?

I haven't gone thru all the steps I need to take to find out exactly how many points I will need to redeem to get the cruise, but I would like to hear from someone who may have tried this.

Thanks

I think all you can do is try it the different ways and see which comes out better.

[mdmc]

It really depends on the hotel chain. Having 330K in Hilton or Marriott is chump change. Having 330K in SPG points is a virtual treasure trove.

 

I got the SPG card because a friend recommended it. Can I use it to help pay for a Princess cruise? I am new to the card but have quite a few points on it.

[nolatravelgirl]

I got the SPG card because a friend recommended it. Can I use it to help pay for a Princess cruise? I am new to the card but have quite a few points on it.

SPG points are quite valuable and SPG has some great aspirational properties that you could use for pre or post cruise hotel stays. Points are generally at their most value when used in their native program. Most times when you try to transfer or use across to a partner you lose some value.

[jennmaybe]

We have a total of 331,000 Reward Points with a very well known hotel chain.

We need to use them within a few months. We can exchange them and use the points for a transatlantic cruise, but right now we can get a pretty good dea paying for a last minute cruise. Maybe we'll get a better deal on using the points for airfare?

I haven't gone thru all the steps I need to take to find out exactly how many points I will need to redeem to get the cruise, but I would like to hear from someone who may have tried this.

Thanks

 

It depends on who the points are through. We get points through 2 different rewards systems (one with credit card & one with hotel chain), but they are very different. With our CC points, 100,000 points equals $1000 in travel. Not so much with the hotel points.

 

I would recommend you calling who you have the points with and get all the details from them. :)

[slidergirl]

It really depends on the hotel chain. Having 330K in Hilton or Marriott is chump change. Having 330K in SPG points is a virtual treasure trove.

 

Waiting to see what Marriott is going to do with SPG when the acquisition of *wood closes sometime this year…

 

The 330K SPG is equal to $4400 right now. Instant reward redemption at *wood properties is $US*75=points needed. Some aspirational properties go for about SPG 50,000/night for a room…

 

I burned most of my Hilton points 3 years ago. I'm still deciding if I want to burn my SPG points before Marriott has it's way with them…

[nolatravelgirl]

Waiting to see what Marriott is going to do with SPG when the acquisition of *wood closes sometime this year…

 

The 330K SPG is equal to $4400 right now. Instant reward redemption at *wood properties is $US*75=points needed. Some aspirational properties go for about SPG 50,000/night for a room…

 

I burned most of my Hilton points 3 years ago. I'm still deciding if I want to burn my SPG points before Marriott has it's way with them…

I am so nervous about the SPG/Marriott deal. I worked long and hard to gain my Lifetime Platinum status with SPG and I have a 500K point stash that if they transfer 1 to 1 into Marriott would be a huge blow.

 

When I first started traveling I was completely loyal to Hilton and basically saw the rug pulled out from under me when they practically made all my points worth 1/3 of their original value.

 

Unfortunately for me I travel way too much along with have big credit card spend for work expenses so I earn at a faster rate than I can reasonably burn. (Yes this is a first world problem)

[slidergirl]

I once got to help a guest empty their SPG account. 5 nights on points for 2 rooms, then he paid for all the incidentals on the two folios with his points. He had a couple hundred left after we got done doing the redemptions. He was like "no big thing", and he'd be back in the hundreds of thousands quickly. He wasn't yet a lifetime Plat (not enough Plat years for it), but he was well on his way!

Back when I traveled for a living, I had a nice SPG account - made for nice vacations. Maybe SPG missed the boat (pun intended) with no cruise redemption. If I was desperate, I could always redeem for flights back in the day. I have to do my AMEX reward points towards cruises.

Edited February 18, 2016 by slidergirl

[kimlovesfl]

What is SPG?

[Twickenham]

The 330K SPG is equal to $4400 right now.

 

At minimum - you can get much more than that out of them if you convert to air miles (320K would convert to 400K air miles, which is just about 4 R/T biz tickets to Europe).

 

I am so nervous about the SPG/Marriott deal. I worked long and hard to gain my Lifetime Platinum status with SPG and I have a 500K point stash that if they transfer 1 to 1 into Marriott would be a huge blow.

 

When I first started traveling I was completely loyal to Hilton and basically saw the rug pulled out from under me when they practically made all my points worth 1/3 of their original value.

 

Unfortunately for me I travel way too much along with have big credit card spend for work expenses so I earn at a faster rate than I can reasonably burn. (Yes this is a first world problem)

 

I can't see them getting away with a 1-1 transfer. Heck, even 2-1 would be a slap in the face of SPG loyalists, although that still remains a possibility. To me 3-1 is the lowest they can reasonably go for a conversion and claim any sort of fairness to the SPG folks (and I say this as a Marriott gal).

 

After living thru a couple of point devaluations, I've really learned that earn/burn is the best way to go, especially if you have a bunch of points. I don't generate nearly that number of points, but I've managed to squeeze pretty good value out of them without loosing too much in the inevitable devaluations.

 

What is SPG?

 

Starwood Preferred Guest, the frequent guest program for Sheratons, Westins et al in the Starwood group.