Quick write up of the thing I wanted to post:
I’m working on a couple of Deluxe It Up resort bookings this Summer - still have no idea when I can get all 4 of us together for a trip AND in between our massive front yard restoration, which we are still waiting for a start date on.
So, I’ve booked a 4-night splurge with free night certificates at the reportedly bodacious Conrad Orlando, as well as a 5-night stay at the Swan on some dates where the per night cost is at or under 50K points.
I have about 300K Marriott points out there right now waiting to be burned - not because I earned a ton of new Marriott points using my puny, puny, Boundless card or another bonus since my original free night certificates back in 2023 -
Last year Chase had a supreme 70% points transfer bonus to Marriott. (Discussed back in thread, I think around August?) Normally, it is not a great idea to speculatively send transferable points like Chase UR and Amex MR to a hotel or airline program, you want to have a plan to use it soon.
Also, usually the sooner the better since programs can devalue points at any given time.
But: SEVENTY PERCENT.
I had a good cache of points, so decided to bulk up my Marriott balance and hope we can sneak in another Crescent Lake Swolphin stay.
While booking my placeholder Swan stay for 197,000 points, it occurred to me my 70% transfer bet paid off:
You can see above, I only had to send over 116K Chase points to have enough to book that 5-night Swan stay.
Crunching the numbers: a $1901 out of pocket cost over 116K Chase points returned a 1.64 cents per point value.
While not the highest overall Chase value I’ve been able to book (Hellooo Hyatt!), considering that the typical estimate that Chase UR should be worth a reasonable 1.5 cpp, I’m happy with my bet.
By the way: While Marriott still charges you resort fees on points booking (a travesty), they do NOT appear to charge you for extra adults in the room on points. They added $350 to the gross cash price because my kids are both over 18. That’s a pretty painful add-on charge.