Questions and Answers

Admittedly, I’ve not paid much attention to using points for hotel redemptions as we’ve always collected points for air travel and stay at small family run hotels when we travel (1-2x per year), so not much use of transferring points to hotel programs. Anyways, we are in Seattle 2x this summer and hotel prices are their usual crazy summer prices, so not having any luck booking direct or via Priceline.

Thought about using some of our UR points to book a hotel in downtown Seattle but since I haven’t really followed hotel redemptions much, don’t know if what I’m looking at is a good option or not? We do have over 500k of UR points and over 1M points total, so am okay with using some points for hotel redemptions.

Right now I can book the Grand Hyatt Seattle for $304/night or the Olive 8 for $399/nt. If I transfer UR points to Hyatt I can book the Grand Hyatt for 15k points or 7.5k pts. and $100. Olive 8 is 15k points for that rate. So, between both it’s around 2.7 cents per point, which doesn’t seem too horrible, but not great, but I don’t really feel like paying $300+ a night for a hotel.

So, any general thoughts on the process and what I’m not taking into account or what else I should look at? Didn’t look at booking direct through the UR portal? Is that something I should look at? I usually have luck with Priceline, and probably could get something the week of, or day of, but don’t want to mess with waiting until then.

Almost forgot, Marriott was 35k per night, IHG didn’t have any rates available, and no Ritz Carlton in Seattle. Thanks for all your thoughts and suggestions!

If you’ve got that many URs I’d just transfer them to Hyatt and not worry about it. Don’t overthink it! 😉

If you book directly through Ultimate Rewards, you’ll get no greater than 1.5¢ per point (depending on the card you have). Transferring the points is generally the better value.

And using points for hotels in Seattle is smart in summer — the paid rates are outrageous!

Thanks MidSouth Skier and Tiffany! Think I’ll pull the trigger instead of keep trying to book a “deal” through Priceline.