# Value of Marriott Reward Points



## nbafan23 (Oct 20, 2011)

Does anyone have a dollar value on Marriott Reward Points??  I am consistently debating on the best value of using the MR points vs. using cash to pay for a Marriott night.

Also, how do we dollar value our legacy points??


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## SuperBeav39 (Oct 20, 2011)

*MRP*

If you mean the normal rewards points for renting hotel rooms, the very simple answer is $0.01 per point.

The actual value tends to be somewhat less if you can use MOD discounts or hit the right promotion, then it goes down to around $0.009 or so.  Not a huge difference.

I think there used to be package deals that included airfare that made the points potentially more valuable, but to my knowledge those are no longer available.


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## SueDonJ (Oct 20, 2011)

SuperBeav39 said:


> If you mean the normal rewards points for renting hotel rooms, the very simple answer is $0.01 per point.
> 
> The actual value tends to be somewhat less if you can use MOD discounts or hit the right promotion, then it goes down to around $0.009 or so.  Not a huge difference.
> 
> I think there used to be package deals that included airfare that made the points potentially more valuable, but to my knowledge those are no longer available.



I have no idea what the value of MRP is to dollars or DC Points, but there are still Travel Packages for 7-night stays and air miles.  Check out this link from marriott.com.  There are also 5-night Travel Packages for Vacation Club owners - sign in to your my-vacationclub account and click on "Program Enhancements" under "Marriott Rewards" in the column on the right.


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## jimf41 (Oct 20, 2011)

There have been a lot of posts on this. Marriott sells them for $.0125 per point. If you were to book a CAT 8 hotel for one night it would cost 40,000 or $500 if you bought the points from Marriott. You don't pay room taxes when you use points. To get the true cost of what a point is worth divide the total room cost incl taxes by the number of points it takes to reserve that room.

If you can reserve a CAT 8 room for $300 a night and you use points then your points are worth $.0075. If that room costs $800 a night and you use points then your points are worth $.02 per point.

It depends on how you use them. In my use I'll go with SuperBeav39. I try never to use them unless I'm getting at least $.01 per point. The best I've done was at the Grand Flora in Rome. I think it came out to about $.032 per point.


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## cbdmvci (Oct 20, 2011)

*Multiples of 5 nights*

No matter how you figure it, it almost never makes sense to use MRPs if you are not taking advantage of the 5th-night-free benefit.


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## kjd (Oct 20, 2011)

I have to disagree about not using MRP's for less than five nights.  The last figure I saw on MRP value by the way was .015.  My use of MRP's is for locations and  places where there are no Marriott timeshares, when on the road overnight, weekend getaways, gifts to relatives, etc.  They can also be used for merchandise and airline tickets.     

The name of the game in timesharing is flexibility and having options.  That's why MRP's fill a big need.  I'm really not interested in what they are worth to someone else.  I'm more interested in what they are worth to me.


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## chunkygal (Oct 20, 2011)

Here's how they are "worth" more to me. We have done this on 2 cruises, 1 to the Baltic, one to THe mediterranean. We booked a 1 week stay in Rome before a cruise one time and one time airfare and 4 nights in London. Well, I was already shelling out close to $10K for a 10 day cruise for 4 in a balcony, so this enabled me to prolong and enrich my vacation without any further outlay when I was outlaying plenty. Both time stayed at great hotels close to the action. One time we used them for a week in Paris, where they do not have hotel rooms for 4 in a great section of town, which meant we could stay in France longer and stretch the money we had to spend where this wasn't available. 

My memories with my kids and hubby....."priceless"


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## Former Cruiser (Oct 23, 2011)

99.9% of our points are made through my husband's stays for his job.  So using them for us is also priceless.  

We went to Hawaii a day before our timeshare stay there.  We're going to Aruba a day before our timeshare stay.  We bought Delta miles to add to our Delta miles to go to Hawaii on FF.  We've used them as we wish, and still have over 700,000.  

As the others said, you have to decide what they're worth to you.  I don't think you can really put a dollar value on them.


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## EKniager (Oct 24, 2011)

What has never made sense to use is cashing in your timeshare week for points.  It's a a financial loser for our Platinum Aruba Surf Club.  That's why we chuckle at Marriott for using the inability-to-trade-for-points as the big reason to not buy on the secondary market.


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## pacheco18 (Oct 24, 2011)

I do not understand those calculations at all.  I love Rewards Points.  I am not paying for them.  I just get them with a hotel stay or a purchase on my charge (and occasionally if I trade one of the timeshares)

Next August, I am spending 5 nights Marriott Prague, 7 nights Marriott Champs Elysee, 6 nights JW Grovesnor House London -- all on points -- I bought a 7 night and a 5 night package which gave me 240k miles.  I got 2 free business class tickets.

Just calculate the value of that trip.
12-14000 for the airline tickets
7500+ for the hotel stays (and because I am Platinum I will get upgrade and access to the executive lounges -- free breakfast, drinks, snacks) - making the hotel stays worth even more.

Priceless. That's a trip that costs more than $21000 for which I am paying nothing.


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## winger (Oct 24, 2011)

EKniager said:


> What has never made sense to use is cashing in your timeshare week for points.  It's a a financial loser for our Platinum Aruba Surf Club.  That's why we chuckle at Marriott for using the inability-to-trade-for-points as the big reason to not buy on the secondary market.


In life, there is a cost to flexibility.  In this case, 'cashing in' a timeshare week for MRP's gives yet *one additional option* from other options (IF you are not using the TS week) such as renting your TS week, exchanging for DC points, or exchanging throught interval.  MRP's alsgo gives you access to realtively easy access to hotels in locations sometimes not available with via timeshares.  This one additional 'option' cannot be under estimated, and could in some instances one cannot really place a 'financial' value to the use of these MRPs.


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## winger (Oct 24, 2011)

pacheco18 said:


> I do not understand those calculations at all.  I love Rewards Points.  I am not paying for them.  I just get them with a hotel stay or a purchase on my charge (and occasionally if I trade one of the timeshares)


In some way, especially if exchanging a TS week, you are paying for the points : )   



pacheco18 said:


> Next August, I am spending 5 nights Marriott Prague, 7 nights Marriott Champs Elysee, 6 nights JW Grovesnor House London -- all on points -- I bought a 7 night and a 5 night package which gave me 240k miles.  I got 2 free business class tickets.
> 
> Just calculate the value of that trip.
> 12-14000 for the airline tickets
> ...


Absolutely one WONDERFUL illustration on value of MRP's - and take into account the current lopsided Euro-US exchange rate, look how much you saved!  A couple of years ago, we also stayed at the CE (8 nights) - we got upgraded to a large suite which at the time given the published rate on Marriott.com + the approx 1.49'ish Euro-to-$US rate (we 'timed the trip perfectly' ) priced out at approx $US900/night !


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## jimf41 (Oct 24, 2011)

When you start to include the value of travel packages in figuring MRPs it gets very complicated. Like pacheco18 we recently completed a trip to Europe visiting Italy and Spain and flew R/T business class. Of the 15 days we were traveling 13 of them were point stays. One of them, the AC Santo Mauro in Madrid, would have cost $651.78 per night. It's hands down the fanciest hotel I've ever been in and if I didn't get it on points I wouldn't have stayed there. Total value of this trip would be in the $15,000 to $25,000 range. I probably could have done it for about $10,000 to $12,000 but we would have flown coach and I would have stayed in much less luxurious accommodations. More accurately I probably wouldn't have done the trip at all.

In January 2012 we're going into NYC for a weekend. The lowest priced Marriott in NYC that I've found is the CY on the upper east side. It's on 92nd street, about 50 blocks from the theater district. It's a CAT 6 so it's 30,000 MRPs per night. The senior rate is $150.81 per night incl tax. The value of a MRP at this hotel is $.005. We decided to stay at the Algonquin on 44th street. It's in the theater district and two blocks from Times Square. It's a CAT 8 so it's 40,000 MRPs per night. No senior rate available so it's $679.38 per night incl tax.The value of an MRP at this hotel is $.016 or about three times that of the CY.

It's true that MRPs are accumulated for free with the exception of trading your week for them. Spending them is a whole different ball game. Once you have them you have to use them in a way that gives you the most bang for the buck. In the above example in NYC if we decided to stay at the CY I would pay cash for the room and pick up an extra elite night towards my Plat status. There is no way I can justify spending $679.38 for a room for one night so we're using points at the Algonquin. We'll give up the night towards elite status.


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## janej (Oct 24, 2011)

*How is the availability using points?*

I saved over 200k points so far thinking we can use them for a trip to Europe.  However, I checked and found almost nothing available for summer 2012.  Is it too late to book using MRP or MRP is only good for off season?    I don't have reservation for any part of the trip, so I am just checking for feasibility.


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## EKniager (Oct 24, 2011)

winger said:


> In life, there is a cost to flexibility.  In this case, 'cashing in' a timeshare week for MRP's gives yet *one additional option* from other options (IF you are not using the TS week) such as renting your TS week, exchanging for DC points, or exchanging throught interval.  MRP's alsgo gives you access to realtively easy access to hotels in locations sometimes not available with via timeshares.  This one additional 'option' cannot be under estimated, and could in some instances one cannot really place a 'financial' value to the use of these MRPs.



Cash has flexibility too!!    My point is that my 2-bedroom Platinum week at the Surf Club has a known rental value (Redweek, eBay).  We can conservatively rent it split up or combined for at least $2,500.  Trading it for 90,000 points or even a lessor timeshare is accepting a financial loss.    Why trade it thru II for a location I can pick-up for $1,500/week, or worse, an expensive $0.028/pt???


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## pwrshift (Oct 24, 2011)

You can buy up to 50,000 points a year from Marriott for $0.0125 per point..or 100,000 for spouses...do it in Dec and Jan and you've got a nice top up of 200,000 points for a trip package.

By far, the best deal is a 7 night package, followed closely by the 5 night pkgs.  What you really want is the 120,000 frequent flier miles...and to save enough to get you business class flights for long distances on a special occasion.  The savings over using cash is incredible.  

Next best use of points is for a 5 night stay, pay points for 4.  I make almost no use of points for a one night stay...but did recently get a night at one for 20,000 points when the cash rate was $699 plus taxes for the night I needed.  The value of the points was only $250.

All points have a cost...and a value.  Sometimes they feel like their free, especially when you check out.  How you spend them is paramount.  Never use points when cash is cheaper.


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## pwrshift (Oct 24, 2011)

janej said:


> I saved over 200k points so far thinking we can use them for a trip to Europe.  However, I checked and found almost nothing available for summer 2012.  Is it too late to book using MRP or MRP is only good for off season?    I don't have reservation for any part of the trip, so I am just checking for feasibility.



Just like booking your prime time TS reservation you have to think/plan ahead for FF flights and hotel reservations...330 days ahead and you'll probably get whatever dates you want or at least close to them.  It takes work but has great rewards if you're a little flexible.  200k is pretty minimal for a Europe trip...I suggest you consider buying another 200k points (100k in Dec and 100k in Jan) For $2500 and collect them till you have enough for two weeks of hotel holidays and biz class flights for a 2nd honeymoon or the like.


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## pipet (Oct 26, 2011)

janej said:


> I saved over 200k points so far thinking we can use them for a trip to Europe.  However, I checked and found almost nothing available for summer 2012.  Is it too late to book using MRP or MRP is only good for off season?    I don't have reservation for any part of the trip, so I am just checking for feasibility.



I found hotel availability pretty great for MRP purposes for summer 2012 in Europe (as long as you don't need an upgraded room, which required $ on top of pts and reduced value IMO of pts), but that may have changed by now.  Try looking for the rooms w/o points and see what comes up.  Maybe you are looking for a room type that is not available w/ pts (i.e. are you traveling with kids, etc??? A lot of rooms don't accommodate more than 2 people, incl kids).

I agree with pwrshift: save more MRPs for 2013, get a travel package, and try to get enough air miles to go business class over.  You can't beat that for point value redemption (especially if you plan early and are able to get a lower mile redeption ticket).


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## MALC9990 (Oct 26, 2011)

pipet said:


> I found hotel availability pretty great for MRP purposes for summer 2012 in Europe (as long as you don't need an upgraded room, which required $ on top of pts and reduced value IMO of pts), but that may have changed by now.  Try looking for the rooms w/o points and see what comes up.  Maybe you are looking for a room type that is not available w/ pts (i.e. are you traveling with kids, etc??? A lot of rooms don't accommodate more than 2 people, incl kids).
> 
> I agree with pwrshift: save more MRPs for 2013, get a travel package, and try to get enough air miles to go business class over.  You can't beat that for point value redemption (especially if you plan early and are able to get a lower mile redeption ticket).



My approach is also to go for the travel packages. I recently used 250,000 MR points for a 5 night package. I got 5 nights at the Marriott Son Antem Golf Resort & Spa in Majorca - my Marriott Reward Plat Elite status secured a room upgrade and free wifi. Since there is no exec lounge at this resort - there was no free breakfast. The big benefit however is that the 120,000 FF miles added to my BAEC account go into my BAEC Household account which accumulates all the miles from all the household members (just me and wife). Since it is not worth using BAEC FF miles for anything other than premium cabin on a long haul route we used easyjet to get top Majorca from London. These 120K miles plus those in the account are then to be used together with the BAEC Amex card's annual 2-4-1 voucher which will then get me 2 first tickets on any available BA long haul route. This means that the 120K miles received for the 5 day package are effectively doubled by using the 2-4-1 voucher.

Additionally last year (2010) BAEC offered a 25% extra miles when converting MR points into BAEC miles. So 125,000 MR points could be converted into 62,500 BAEC FF miles which with a 2-4-1 voucher is equivalent to 125,000 BAEC FF miles, a 1 for 1 rate of exchange. I exchanged 625,000 MR points for 312,500 BAEC FF miles. I already used some with the 2-4-1 voucher from 2010's BA Amex spend for 2 First Class returns from London to Singapore for early 2012 and have enough points and the 2011 2-4-1 voucher to go anywhere in 2012/2013 in First class for 2  again.

So the value of MR points is really dependent on how you use them and get the best value for them. For me as an MVCI TS owner the 5 night travel package represents the best value I can find since I can double the value of the BAEC miles I get from the travel package to use to get First Class long haul tickets to any BA destination. The two First Class Return Tix to Singapore today would cost just less than $25,000 US.

It cost me 400,000 MR points to get those 2 First Class return tickets from London to Singapore - so the actual value to me of the MR points was 6.25 cents per point.


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## m61376 (Oct 26, 2011)

MALC9990- I am a bit confused reading your post- are you saying you can use an Amex 2 for 1 voucher with miles? Is that just for a specific card, or does it work with any Plat. Amex card, which has the 2 for 1 offer for Business class tickets? I always thought the ticket had to be paid for full fare, and not "purchased" with miles.


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## MALC9990 (Oct 27, 2011)

m61376 said:


> MALC9990- I am a bit confused reading your post- are you saying you can use an Amex 2 for 1 voucher with miles? Is that just for a specific card, or does it work with any Plat. Amex card, which has the 2 for 1 offer for Business class tickets? I always thought the ticket had to be paid for full fare, and not "purchased" with miles.



My British Airway Amex Card (available in the UK  only to UK based BAEC members) gives me a 2-4-1 voucher each year after spending £10,000 through the account. I use this for all CC spending until the £10,000 spend is reached. I then get a voucher which gives me 1 additional ticket when I redeem BA FF miles for a ticket. Thus a pair of tickets that might cost 400,000 miles actually only cost 200,000 miles.

The best way to use BA FF miles is for long haul premium seats in First or Biz class since there are still taxes and fuel surcharges to be paid and so Coach seats are a waste of the miles and the voucher.

So converting Marriott Reward points into BA FF miles by using the 5 day travel package and also directly into BA FF miles when BA makes an offer like to 25% extra miles offer makes sense since the 2-4-1 voucher doubles the value of the MR points.

BA also offers a 2-4-1 voucher in the USA for members who take out a Chase card which earns BA miles on spend however the required spend is I believe $30,000 in a year. It also has a big sign up bonus in miles.

So by leveraging the two loyalty programmes I am able to boost the value of the MR points significantly.

Things I NEVER DO with MR points.

1. Never use for nights stay unless a significant value is on offer. e.g. I have booked New Year's Eve at the Marriott County Hall in London. Cost for room in cash was over $1000 for one night so it was a reasonable 2.5 cents per point. Not as good as using the travel package but I only wanted the one night and it is a special night out in London for New Year celebrations.

2. Never Use for other purchases - a big waste of points.

3. Never use for cruises - again a major waste of points on something you can get quite easily for cash with price reductions.


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## m61376 (Oct 27, 2011)

Thanks for the above info.!! Too bad that it seems those 2 for1 vouchers are not good on any AA alliance or other partner flights. Am I correct?

Any other cc offer 2 for 1 vouchers for use with miles? As far as I know, the Plat. Amex is good for a free companion business class ticket with the full fare purchase of another ticket.

Thanks for the info. Very interesting....


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## MALC9990 (Oct 27, 2011)

m61376 said:


> Thanks for the above info.!! Too bad that it seems those 2 for1 vouchers are not good on any AA alliance or other partner flights. Am I correct?
> 
> Any other cc offer 2 for 1 vouchers for use with miles? As far as I know, the Plat. Amex is good for a free companion business class ticket with the full fare purchase of another ticket.
> 
> Thanks for the info. Very interesting....



The 2-4-1 vouchers are indeed only available for use on a BA flight - no code share or partner airlines - so not valid for AA or any other Oneworld alliance member.

Still very good value - my first took my wife and I from London to Sydney First Class. Two 5 night travel packages were used at the Sydney Harbour Marriott - on arrival and before we returned and in between we use Interval International exchanges for 2 weeks in Queensland.

However it is almost a full time job planning the travel and ensuring we get the value from the packages and the FF miles.


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## Carlsbadguy (Oct 28, 2011)

2 years ago I cashed in for a 7 night travel package and 5 nights hotel package. Spent 7 nights in London, 5 nights in Paris, and 2  Business Class tickets.

For Jan 2011- I used a 5 night travel.  Have 5 nights booked during the Sundance Film Festival at the Park City Marriott. Nightly rate is almost $600 a night.
So my value can be a lot higher than others.


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## pwrshift (Oct 28, 2011)

MALC9990 said:


> Still very good value - my first took my wife and I from London to Sydney First Class. Two 5 night travel packages were used at the Sydney Harbour Marriott - on arrival and before we returned and in between we use Interval International exchanges for 2 weeks in Queensland.
> 
> However it is almost a full time job planning the travel and ensuring we get the value from the packages and the FF miles.



It does take time to prepare, but the rewards can be incredible.  Any idea what that trip would have cost on a cash basis?

Brian


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## MALC9990 (Oct 29, 2011)

pwrshift said:


> It does take time to prepare, but the rewards can be incredible.  Any idea what that trip would have cost on a cash basis?
> 
> Brian



Booking today for fully Flexible First Return London to Sydney with BA via Singapore for departure in Jan and return in Feb would cost just shy of $29,000 for 2 Pax.

BA reward tickets are fully flexible so a fair comparison would be with a Fully Fexible paid ticket.

I always try to leverage my II exchanges to use when we do one of these trips with MR travel package hotels to fit around the TS weeks.


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## winger (Oct 29, 2011)

MALC9990 said:


> ....
> 
> I always try to leverage my II exchanges to use when we do one of these trips with MR travel package hotels to fit around the TS weeks.



We do what it takes to make a vacation work- including using MRP's, if it makes sense. To us, this is where the combined value of the MRP's and our TS "portfolio" really shines. 

As a good example, two summers ago, the family used secured two very nice TS units (one Marriott, one Diamond) weeks in Williamsburg, 5 nights at a very nicely located Residence Inn in Washington DC, and r/t air for four of us (the last two items courtesy of MRP's).  Although the flights were coach, the voyage was priceless for us.


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## JoeMO (Oct 29, 2011)

*Penny Per Point*

I have always come back to an general value of one penny per point.  I have used points to get a free night and if the room would have cost me around $100, it cost me 10,000 point.  I have always used the rule of thumb of just moving the decimal place two spaces to the right and you convert the points to dollars.  When I check in to a Marriott and they give me 500 points, I look at it as $5.  I f I accept the gift instead, it is something that would cost around $5.  If you check into a Residence Inn, they give you 200 points or something from the market that is around $2.

Granted, you can use your points wisely and get more for you money, like staying four nights and getting the 5th night free.  Then you are getting more than a penny per point.  I have got 5 nights at the Wentworth Inn at about 150,000 points.  The starting rental price is $300 a night, for a total of $1,500.   I usually got upgraded and access to the lounge, so it may have been worth twice that.

But it seems when you average it all out it reverts back to the mean of about a penny a point.  I use this as the standard I evaluate offers.  If they are offering me 10,000 points to take a tour I look at it as them offering me $100.  I looked into using my points for a cruise that would have cost me about $2,000.  It would have cost me 180,000 points

Well that is my two cents on my one cent per point rule.  
Joe


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## pwrshift (Oct 30, 2011)

Joe ... I understand your reasoning for rounding off to make calculations easier, but at 1 cent a point you're shorting yourself IMO.  Using your $300 per night example for a 5 night stay for 150,000 points, my value calculation at the price Marriott evaluates them when buying points at $0.0125 cents per pt, your $300 actually works out to a $375 value...$75 more than your estimate.  So if the hotel would cost $375 a night too you'd be better to pay cash and get credit for 5 stays and earn points.  You might be better to calculate with 2 cents a point.


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## MALC9990 (Nov 2, 2011)

Here's another example of getting great value for MR points. I recently used a 5 day travel package to get 120,000 BA FF miles into my BAEC account this cost me 250,000 MR points. I used the 5 nights at a cat 6 Marriott in Mallorca already. With those FF miles and an addition 30,000 FF miles already in my account and this years BA AMEX 2-4-1 voucher I was able to book 2 first class returns to Miami from London for Oct 2012 costing me 150,000 BA FF miles. When I priced up these two fully flexible first class returns to Miami they came in at £20,220.32.

At today's exchange rate from £ to $ that's about $32,350. Since the exchange rate of MR points to BA FF miles on the package was 2.08 MR points per BA FF mile - I calculate that 150,000 BA FF miles requires 312,500 MR points.

So I assessed my value per MR point for this trip as 10.35 cents per MR point. Since Marriott will sell me MR points at 1.25 cents per point - I continue to see using Travel Packages to convert my MR points to BA FF miles and use together with my annual BA AMEX 2-4-1 voucher to get the maximum value for my MR points.

The 5 night stay at the Marriott in Mallorca would have cost me 120,000 MR points and so I could say that the 5 nights were free or that the points required to get the two First returns was even less - either way this was a fantastic deal and I hope to continue this for 2013 with next year's 2-4-1 voucher.


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