Is using points to fund hotel stays a savvy use of points?

Hotels & Accommodation
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Hi,

I am going to travel for an extended period of time and would like to use points to redeem free stays, as accommodation will be the biggest expense. Is it worth doing this? Or should points mainly be used for redeeming flights?

Thanks

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It’s usually better to use points for flights and book hotels with money… There are plenty of opportunities to earn lots of points from hotel bookings which you miss out on if you use your points for the booking. And points usually go further with flights, particularly if you fly business or first class

However, if the alternative to using points is putting hotel boojings on a credit card at a high interest rate, things will work out differently.

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Hi annafjordan,

It depends (The most annoying answer but it’s true).

In general, using points on premium airlines seats give you the best bang for buck because of the high RRP of premium seats. e.g. a SYD-LHR business class ticket costs $4000 (assuming you were willing to pay $4000 for the ticket), it costs 128000 Qantas points for this flight. Ignoring taxes for simplicity, the value of the points use is 3.1 cents per point.

Compared to a hotel stay that costs $1000 but costs 200000 Qantas points (for example), the value of the points use for the hotel stay is 2 cents per point.

Higher cents per point (for redemption) is better.

In this case, it is more worthwhile to spend your points on the flight. However, if the price of the hotel stay is high (peak period or luxury property), it sometimes yield a high CPP when redeeming for hotel stays (think Maldives).

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If you valued your points at 1cent ( I do because thats easy maths) ,  then its likely that any hotel you can redeem your FF points for can be booked directly for much less paying cash.

an example I often see is a hotel that goes for 8000 points ($80) a night through Velocity, can be booked with Agoda et al for $50.   Thats fairly typical comparison from other comparisons I have made AND,  most of the time there is no refunds for cancellations.

Its only a good deal to book your hotels with the points if you are broke.  The bottom line is,  only you can know if its a good deal or not.  Do your own comparisons, how many points,  versus best deal you can find for paying direct.  Your mileage may differ.

(and most hotels have cheaper deals for booking direct than the likes of Agoda etc)

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanks guys, I’ll save my points for flights then!

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