Questions and Answers

Booked a trip to NYC a few months ago for 5 nights in NYC during xmas with 48,000 SPG points. I just booked another trip to Amsterdam (4 nights) and Rome (5 nights) for Apr and I have 30,000 SPG points left. Now that I’m going to 3 destinations, I’m trying to figure out how to best use the points so I can pay the least cash. I’m trying to find hotels in the city centers in the SPG & Marriott chain. I also have around 50,000 amex mr points I can transfer. Is there another hotel chain I can transfer points to so that I can reduce the amount I have to pay? I’ve already signed up for the SPG & Marriott credit cards (Canadian cards) and that’s where I got the points from. If you can please give me some options, I’d really appreciate it! 🙂

hi [USER=2586]@becca.nesbitt[/USER], welcome. You should be able to see the points rates for all the hotel options in those cities at the SPG or Marriott websites.I’d also recommend Hotel Hustle if you want to quickly compare all your options. I’m not sure how NYC does over the holidays but it might be worth it to also monitor the cash prices for the properties you are interested in. When business travel goes down hotels might offer attractive discounted cash rates which would allow you to save your SPG points for better redemptions.

[USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER] thank you so much for the response! I will def. look into that.

Hi [USER=2586]@becca.nesbitt[/USER], and welcome!

If you can, I would try and use points for the Rome stay too, as both Marriott and SPG give the 5th night free on award stays, which will stretch your points a bit. The transfer ratio from Amex is pretty horrible though, so I wouldn’t necessarily look at transferring those points. It probably makes more sense to just buy some additional points, particularly if you were targeted for a bonus.

For Amsterdam, I’d also look at booking through Amex FHR if you have the Platinum card, or maybe through Virtuoso. They sometimes offer 3rd or 4th night free, which might save a bit too, but of course depends on your dates.

[USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] ohhhh, i completely forgot about the amex travels. i’ve got a $200 travel credit for next year too! thank you for the ideas!!