# DRI Travel



## RuralEngineer (Mar 4, 2016)

called travel services.  they would match a hotwire price but required a min point redemption of 2,500 pts @ $0.09.  I thought there was some real value from being gold to use travel services.  it looks like i still would be better off just going with hotwire.  any other thoughts?

stephen


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Mar 5, 2016)

RuralEngineer said:


> called travel services.  they would match a hotwire price but required a min point redemption of 2,500 pts @ $0.09.  I thought there was some real value from being gold to use travel services.  it looks like i still would be better off just going with hotwire.  any other thoughts?
> 
> stephen



Using points for anything other than reservations is almost never a good deal, even at the highest status levels where the redemption values are greatest. 

In the end, DRI has to cover the cost of the services by renting inventory associated with the points.  Even if they rented  the inventory at a rate that was on par with the service provided, they would still incur their added costs to run the service and complete the rental.  Those costs need to get added to the transaction. Thus using DRI points for non room reservation options will almost always be a money-losing deal for the member.  There might be occasional deals where it works out, but overall it isn't going to work. 

The same thing is also true for the room inventory they get that isn't part of the DRI system.  One time I compared the cost of booking a room at Great Wolf lodge using DRI points (assigning to the points my maintenance fee values) versus the rates offered using Kayak.com.  The room cost using points was about twice what the general room rate was.


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## winger (Mar 5, 2016)

The way I look at it, I would use pts/hotel only if I need or want to blow some points or want to visit a place where there is no DRI timeshare or affiliate


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## clifffaith (Mar 6, 2016)

We've found trying to book hotel rooms with DRI to be an exercise in patience that involves multiple phone calls.  You call and say I want to stay at the Marriott Residence Inn Times Square, and they basically say "I have a nice room at ABC Hotel".  Um, no, we want to stay at the Residence Inn.  Finally figured out that they aren't a "real" travel agency -- it must be like using Expedia, etc. (which we've never used) and only inventory that has been "released" is available.  It took us hours and hours on the phone to get a reservation at that Residence Inn, with them fighting us every step of the way -- including the irritation that one day we could actually see RI inventory on the Diamond website, yet the folks in the travel office could not see it or access it.

It was such a bad experience that we waited a month before attempting to get a room in Boston for the rest of our trip -- we weren't so particular there, but it was still an ordeal over several days.  Then we realized the money end of the transaction was wrong several months later (and it took me hours to figure out that something was wrong)-- luckily they could quickly see that they had made an error once it was pointed out and made the adjustment.  

Faith


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Mar 6, 2016)

winger said:


> The way I look at it, I would use pts/hotel only if I need or want to blow some points or want to visit a place where there is no DRI timeshare or affiliate



Agreed - except that, if memory serves, if you want to use points for anything other than accommodations you have to declare that a year in advance.  So, for example, if you have points expiring in 2016 that you can't use and want to monetize, you need to prior to Jan 1 2016.  

Of course, that eliminates the possibility to monetize points as a last resort.  Once you start a year with expiring points, your options are to use the points to make a reservation with check-in during that year, or use them to make a reservation in II.


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