Best Use of VISA points...opinions?

[Northerncheapo]

Hello All...

 

I'm looking for opinions regarding the best use of Visa Points for those who use them.

 

As some of you know, we have reserved a cabin on The Spirit for Oct 15 voyage which was heavily reduced. 7 day east med for around $2300 each is a pretty good deal! (or we can spend an extrea 4grand and stay in a silver suite...jury is still out...but regardless)... The point being, that this cruise is very affordable.

 

DH travels ALOT for work (not uncommon to be on 2-3 flight per DAY) and accumulates points with flight (presently has a gazillion), Marriott (has enough points to stay in a cat.8 for 27 days) and Visa, which he used to pay for all these flights and hotels.

 

I knew we had some accumulated and I suggested that he call the point people and ask what his Visa points were 'worth' towards a cruise. We thought maybe we could use some towards this voyage in October. Turns out, the dollar value of his points was just shy of $4000.00 ($3987). Thought that this was pretty cool!

 

In March of this year, DH's card was 'compromised' and he was issued another one. This card still shows up on our list of credit cards with our on line banking. I never paid much attention to it since I knew the card didn't work (being replaced due to compromise), but I didn't really give it much thought as to why it was still there. I took a closer look at it yesterday and this card also had some points on it.

 

DH called VISA point person again to verify and sure enough, there was a dollar value of $3500 on THIS card! So, it total, we have $7500 which can be used towards the cruise or travel anywhere or hotels or whatever we want pretty much. I am thrilled!

 

We could literally go on this October cruise for 'free'...so my question...

 

The cruise is already affordable and I think the VIsa points should be put towards a more expensive voyage that would perhaps be less within our reach like the Antarctica. DH thinks it would be cool to go for 'free' on this October cruise.

 

What are your opinions...would you use all your points to go on a voyage that is 'affordable' anyway or would you put those points toward something more expensive. For me, $7500 is nothing to sneeze at.

 

Thoughts?

[MillieMeter]

No choice for me. I would use them for a more expensive cruise that , if I really thought about it, would probably not book because it "would be out of my normal price range" . But if I had that much credit to apply I would not hesitate.

 

Besides, you were planning to pay for this trip without points, anyway. The way I look at it , this was a "done deal" without any extra incentive. Use the points for an extra special kind of trip.

JMO

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[dougburns]

Believe you may have a bit of a problem. With our VISA rewards points we have to do the booking thru the VISA folks. That may not get you the SS prices and bennies. We normally use our points for a club level stay at the Ritz Carlton when we accumulate enough points. Never for cruises or airfare.

[duct tape]

Agree with Millimeter. There is no sense in using points for a bargain when they would be more valuable for another choice. We take that into consideration all the time when considering using AE points for airlines, hotels, etc.

[Northerncheapo]

Yes, I agree...using them on a more expensive cruise would probably be a better idea. DH just laughs at the thought of going on a cruise with nothing out of pocket.

 

Dougburns, I wondered about that too. When speaking with the travel person at the visa point center, she explained how it works. Since Silversea isn't one of their lines that they can apply points directly to, what they do is credit your card for that dollar amount (of points) once you book with Silversea. I still have to speak with my TA about this tomorrow, but I'm thinking that I wont loose any perks? Not sure. I'll let you know tomorrow.

[Stumblefoot]

In the grand scheme of points redemption, this is a really bad spend. If you look at what your DH spent to get that $7,500 value, I bet it's in the neighborhood of $750,000 USD.

 

I've found treating those points as currency usually only represents one penny per point. Therefore, you would be much better off to use those points with the variety of partners VISA has, rather than converting them to cash and using them with Silversea. This would also apply to a future Antarctic cruise.

 

Now, on to more important topics... when you going on this Antarctic cruise? :D I'm already dreaming myself.

[WesW]

At the link below is one of the best point 101 discussions (Hotel, Airline, Credit Card points) written by a travel blog writer I read daily--and who I book complex (unique overseas award travel) premium award travel with (i.e.he finds the award seats using our ff miles). Following the tips by reading Ben's "One Mile at a time" blog daily is a key reason we have over 2.5 million miles/points from a start point less than three years ago. What does mean for us when we book our Silversea cruises--for the last three years we get the air credit on every cruise, then using our award miles we fly to our embarkation port and then fly home on an award ticket from our disembarkation port.

 

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/onemileatatime/2012/06/11/my-updated-analysis-on-what-a-milepoint-is-worth-hotel-points/

 

Northerncheapo, u have rcvd some good advice above, also recommend you send this blog writer your question on best use of Visa points.

[WesW]

Northerncheapo, sent your Visa point ? to Ben of One Mile at a time, he replied:

 

If I'm understanding the post correctly, it seems that IF they were going to redeem the points for a cruise, they should do it for this one. They're getting the same amount of a discount on the cruise whether they apply it to this one or a more expensive one, and based on the time value of money there's more to gain by having an extra $7,500 in the bank now (and earning interest on it for a cruise later) vs. later. Of course I can see the psychology behind wanting to apply it to a more expensive cruise, but I do think it makes more sense to apply it to this one.

 

That being said, the poster doesn't specify what type of Visa points they have, and it sounds to me like they might be Chase Ultimate Rewards points. If that's the case they can be transferred to programs like United and Hyatt, where they can get a LOT more value out of the points than they're getting with the cash discount. The cash discount is at most 1.25 cents per point, while I think both Hyatt and United points are worth well over 1.5 cents per point.

 

Hope that helps them!

 

Best,

Ben

[Northerncheapo]

Wow...you guys are the BEST!

 

I was reading the blog, but could not finish it as we ran out for a Father's Day lunch with intention of completing the blog upon my return. Imagine my surprise to see that Col. Wes did this for me...thank you so much!!

 

DH agrees with Ben saying 'what difference does it make...we either save the $7500 now then pay it out later'. We hadn't considered the interest earning of that money, good point.

 

Although I am sure that converting the points to Hyatt or United is a good 'deal', we really do not need airfare or hotel since he has an embarrassing amount of miles with Air Canada and lots with Marriott (which we're good with) :)

 

The Visa is a Royal Bank Visa, Avignon which offers 1 cent a point.

 

I simply cannot believe how helpful everyone has been and I thank you all very very much for everything...Col. Wes, you rock! You really can get anything answered here, can't you?

 

THANKS!!!!:D

[Stumblefoot]

Following the tips by reading Ben's "One Mile at a time" blog daily is a key reason we have over 2.5 million miles/points from a start point less than three years ago.

Good blog. You might also enjoy this one too;http://thepointsguy.com/beginners-guide/ NorthernCheapo.

[Northerncheapo]

Thanks, Stumblefoot, that is a neat site too! I've learned so much today!

[Herman The Cat]

Northerncheapo, sent your Visa point ? to Ben of One Mile at a time, he replied:

 

If I'm understanding the post correctly, it seems that IF they were going to redeem the points for a cruise, they should do it for this one. They're getting the same amount of a discount on the cruise whether they apply it to this one or a more expensive one, and based on the time value of money there's more to gain by having an extra $7,500 in the bank now (and earning interest on it for a cruise later) vs. later. Of course I can see the psychology behind wanting to apply it to a more expensive cruise, but I do think it makes more sense to apply it to this one.

 

That being said, the poster doesn't specify what type of Visa points they have, and it sounds to me like they might be Chase Ultimate Rewards points. If that's the case they can be transferred to programs like United and Hyatt, where they can get a LOT more value out of the points than they're getting with the cash discount. The cash discount is at most 1.25 cents per point, while I think both Hyatt and United points are worth well over 1.5 cents per point.

 

Hope that helps them!

 

Best,

Ben

 

For those reading this, excellent point (no pun intended) on transferring points to airline or hotel programs. Oftentimes, the credit card companies even have promotions where you get double the points transferred in air miles (I've seen this a lot with British Airways and Diners Club). And often the best value is a cheap coach/economy ticket that you can upgrade to a higher value business class or first class ticket, or simply a business class ticket. For example, I had a $150 economy ticket on United from Boston to SFO (business travel of course--you can never get those prices on vacation travel!) and upgraded with 20,000 miles to first class (at the airport). We also transferred 100,000 miles two years ago for one business class ticket to Europe that was worth $3500. Though I must say a lot of the time we don't necessarily use miles and stockpile them instead.

American Express and Capital One also have a "pay with points" program where you can pay any charge with points--you just call and transfer the points to a given charge.

Anyway, the time value of money is a good point, even if interest rates are low! And the other thing I tell people is it is important to "monetize" the value of their points/miles, because these programs won't get better or improve...they'll only get worse and less lucrative for the traveler over time.

[jpalbny]

 

Anyway, the time value of money is a good point, even if interest rates are low! And the other thing I tell people is it is important to "monetize" the value of their points/miles, because these programs won't get better or improve...they'll only get worse and less lucrative for the traveler over time.

 

 

Agree wholeheartedly - use the points where they get you the best monetary value; if the value of two different options is similar, use the points now while you can, before the program changes. Sitting on points will usually make them less valuable over time; who knows, the airline, etc may go bankrupt...

 

Consumers are sitting on an enormous pile of unused FF points, and when they start redeeming them in earnest, there will be no choice but for the airlines, etc to reduce the monetary value of points for future rewards. There is no way that they'll get more valuable over time - just consider how hard it is to find a 25K miles domestic rewards ticket these days!

 

Case in point: when we saw RT biz tix to Europe for 100K miles, with a sticker price of $5K for the same itinerary, we jumped on them. At $0.05 per mile, that was a no-brainer! Usually, it's hard to get more than $0.01 of value per mile...

[CanadianKate]

I'd also use the points now and put the $$$ into a savings account. The money will grow (slowly but it will grow) while you wait to find the perfect cruise to splurge on.

 

If you hold onto the points and pay cash now, the points will likely be worth less when your perfect cruise does come along.

 

My points devaluation story:

 

We had over one million frequent flyer miles saved so we could fly for free all through our retirement. Then our plan brought in a 7 year expiration rule so we had until the end of 2013 to use them up. Except at the beginning of those 7 years we were away on business for up to 6 months of each year so had no desire to travel more. Our 'retirement fund' was literally robbed by the change in rules - we weren't old enough to retire so had no choice but to say goodbye to that lovely nest egg.

 

I ended up burning through all our miles in 18 months and went from earning status and flying over 38,000 status miles in 2010 to flying 0 status miles in 2011 (because all my flights were reward flights.)

 

We gave away 3 trips each to our kids, used some of the points to get us to Hong Kong for a cruise and then used up the rest on first class flights to Europe, an experience we'd never buy for ourselves. I think it worked out to 9 cents per mile 'value' although in actual fact, we would never have spent $30K on flights to Europe, and would have 'settled' for biz class if we were using $$$.

 

From the time the expiry date came in until the time we emptied our accounts, the plan devalued our miles repeatedly. Now you can't even get 1 cent per mile value with gift certificates (at the beginning you could get 1.5 cents per mile value) and quite often the 'processing fees' on a 'free' ticket are more than buying the ticket with cash.

 

So now, we don't hold onto points at all. If we earn them, great, but we have a cash back credit card and no longer structure our travel in order to gain points.

[Stumblefoot]

Case in point: when we saw RT biz tix to Europe for 100K miles, with a sticker price of $5K for the same itinerary, we jumped on them. At $0.05 per mile, that was a no-brainer!

If you ever see that kind of deal again, I hope you'll let all of your CC friends know JP so that we can all jump on-board too! ;)

 

We were able to use miles this past spring break and the redemption was at the rate of 3.4 cents and I thought that was incredible. You've now defined a whole new level of incredible!

[WesW]

Most of us who avidly collect miles and points use a award tracker like awardwallet or USA Today's miletracker. We have almost three dozen miles/points programs to manage. Therefore award tracker websites, for us, are invaluable. They track when miles or points expire (most have FF mile programs and hotel points programs do expire, notable exceptions are Delta miles do not expire, and Priority (Intercontinental, Holiday Inn) points do not expire. Plus the site we use, awardwallet, tracks all our air/hotel bookings (travel plans) and gives us a weekly status report--really a keeper. Using an award tracker site will also let u know if you need to have activity (use a co branded credit card spend, buy miles, transfer miles, use the airline shopping mall) so you can continue to extend the expiration date of your miles. We will not lose a mile or a point out of the 2.5+million we have by using award wallet. http://www.awardwallet.com

[drron29]

Well i am definitely a points junkie but being retired have enough time to work out the best deal for us.Basically we have 4 major loyalty programs so easy to track.Yes we belong to several others but they are used for defined purposes so i know when to use them.

We are both members of Hilton Hhonors and use those for hotel redemptions.I am a member of Starwood's program but find it better to transfer those to airline miles.Why?because Starwood gives you a 25% bonus if you transfer in lots of 20000.So They go to AA.

As to AA mile value that is easy.We only use them for premium cabin awards.We always fly business class if flight over 4 hours so we would be paying if not using points.

So for our next trip Ann is paying for her fare whilst mine is an AA award.So it was easy to work out.The value of an AA mile was $A0.08 so my SPG points transferred were worth $A0.10.Far more than most people get for them.

So the message is we are all different but it is best to sit down and work out what you want to do and then work out the best value.