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advice for best usage of bonus points

blueskys

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Happy New Year everyone,

I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for the best way to use up over 100,000 bonus points that are good until mid-July 2013. We are a family of four, so vacations are limited to school breaks. I'm thinking the best way to use up so many points would be to plan a very exotic holiday that we wouldn't necessarily go on without so many points, like a cruise, as cruises can be expensive for a family of four, or a guided tour in Africa or somewhere like that...something different. I'm just not sure we could use up so many points in that amount of time just staying at HGVC or RCI resorts. And I'm thinking that using them is still better value than converting them to HHonours points. Correct?

There are so many people on this forum that really know the best way to use points, I'm hoping someone will steer us in the right direction.

thanks so much,
 

Talent312

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Of all the options, cruising or an African safari would use up the most points. It is an inefficient way to use points, but some here enjoy cruising and other partner perks to keep their points from expiring. Club and RCI reservations, and paying MF's, can use some, but not nearly enuff.

Its almost a given that you're gonn'a have a bunch leftover. At that point, you're last and best option is to convert the balance to H-Honors points which never expire (as long as there's activity in your HH-account every 12 months).
 

blueskys

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Thanks talent 312, I wasn't sure if there was one dream destination/vacation timeshare owners would love to do if they had enough points. I'll just keep searching the HGVC website to see what I can find.

Wouldn't it still be a better use of points to go on a cruise than transfer the points to H-Honour points? It seems that H-Honour points aren't useful to families for accommodation as we can only get a standard sized room... no upgrades to suites using points.

Not sure if I can use points for car rentals, or if that's unwise.

Thanks for all your comments, they're very helpful.

Happy travels to you,
 
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itradehilton

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100,000 bonus points are a lot of points, how did you get so many HGVC bonus points?

If it was me I would find cruise and Hilton Resort with a suite and stay in my dream country, say Italy, Greece, or Spain and spend a few weeks.
 

Talent312

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Wouldn't it still be a better use of points to go on a cruise than transfer the points to H-Honour points?

Indeed. Even staying in a HGVC studio is a better use of points.

What I meant to say is that it should be your last option, only when is clear that you would lose them otherwise. But as its been said, there comes a time when the days dwindle down to a precious few, and one hasn't got time for the waiting game (parphrasing "The September Song").
 
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sml2181

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Well, I am actually one of the very few here who thinks HH points ARE a great deal. Sometimes at certain hotels.

I have been in your situation a few years ago and I converted to HH points. I start considering using points when rates are over $500 or so, but I have mainly used them for rooms that were over $1000 best available rate I could find - not rack rates. We are a family of 6 so we always have 2 or 3 rooms.

If I were you, I would take that cruise (although that wouldn't be a good value in my book at all, but that may not matter because of the huge amount of points you have), take any other vacation using club points, and convert what's left to HH points.

There may be a time when you want to take your family to let's say London, Paris, or the Rome Cavalieri (and you would need 2 rooms at most European hotels), the Maldives, Seychelles, or to the Waldorf Astoria Park City during the Holidays.... The HH points won't expire and I find it very convenient to have them.

But, I have to add that we do not have the HH credit card here, and the best I can do is my Amex which gives 1 HH point for each Euro spent - or 2 points for charges in foreign countries. If our credit cards would be like the cards in the US, I may never have bought so many timeshares in the first place. I don't know how things are in Canada though.
 

blueskys

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Well, I am actually one of the very few here who thinks HH points ARE a great deal. Sometimes at certain hotels.

I have been in your situation a few years ago and I converted to HH points. I start considering using points when rates are over $500 or so, but I have mainly used them for rooms that were over $1000 best available rate I could find - not rack rates. We are a family of 6 so we always have 2 or 3 rooms.

If I were you, I would take that cruise (although that wouldn't be a good value in my book at all, but that may not matter because of the huge amount of points you have), take any other vacation using club points, and convert what's left to HH points.

There may be a time when you want to take your family to let's say London, Paris, or the Rome Cavalieri (and you would need 2 rooms at most European hotels), the Maldives, Seychelles, or to the Waldorf Astoria Park City during the Holidays.... The HH points won't expire and I find it very convenient to have them.

But, I have to add that we do not have the HH credit card here, and the best I can do is my Amex which gives 1 HH point for each Euro spent - or 2 points for charges in foreign countries. If our credit cards would be like the cards in the US, I may never have bought so many timeshares in the first place. I don't know how things are in Canada though.
thanks sml2181; I'll have to think about that some more. I'm really just starting to figure out how this all works. Sounds like you have some kind of system in place to make points work best for you.

Thanks, I'm always looking for more tips to make this work for us
 

blueskys

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do you use your HH points a lot for travel in Europe? Because those destinations do appeal to us, and there seems to be limited club point usage in Europe. I also like the idea that HH points don't expire, so we wouldn't have to rush to make travel decisions. So, thanks for your opinion about HH points, it's very helpful.
 
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