Yesterday evening, during our daily after-work-walk where we wind down by talking about our days, everything was picture-perfect until Kevin said something that caught me off guard. He started off by innocently by “hey, Ang, what do you think about Membership Rewards points – are they worth anything?”.
I responded by saying that MR points were not my preferred points-currency of choice (for me it’s SPG points and Chase Ultimate Rewards points), but they were still good to have a nice stash of. He then told me that they made a cool redemption at work earlier during the day. Considering that I knew his company had close to a million points, I was excitedly anticipating him to say something along the lines of, “pack your bags; we’re all going on a lavish vacation!”
He then says, “today at work we cashed out 22,000 MR points for a cool $140 headset”.
Wait… WHAT? I patiently waited for the “just kidding” part… but that never came.
I almost lost my breath.
Like most things in life, the use of miles and points are a case of “to each their own”, but seriously, Kev?!?! We live under the same roof and that’s what you tell me?
I began to tell him that 22,000 MR points is worth WAY more than a measly headset. Just as one example, 22K MR points can be transferred into 22K British Airways Avios and can be redeemed for 2 round trips from NYC to Montreal and still have some to spare.
Life lesson to all readers: cashing out points and miles for merchandise is not a way to maximize the value of your points.
Have you (or has any one in your family) ever made a cringe-worthy redemption that you regretted? Please feel free share your stories.
i used to cash out delta miles for gift cards…….
It’s horrible, and it was before I started getting into Miles, but I used 60k US Air miles for 1 round trip ticket from Philadelphia to West Palm Beach, it still haunts me!
You know this is a pet peeve of mine! http://thedealmommy.com/the-absolute-worst-way-to-use-amex-membership-rewards-points/
I didn’t mention by name in my post, but I have a relative who spent 150,000MR points for a basic Kindle(!). UGH! We have much work to do…
A friend was interested in a good knife set. He sent me an email showing a redemption value of about 40,000 MR points for a $225 set of Henckels.
I told him it was a waste of MR points, he should use the points on air fare and that I would explain it all another time.
Sadly, I know that in the past he used MR points for a new TV.
(All not nearly as ugly as The Deal Mommy’s example.)
I used Southwest miles to get $500 in gift cards with the 50k miles balance. My reason was that I have about 1.3 mil miles in AA, UA and Delta combined. And I wanted to buy some Apple products.
Poor Kevin! I’m sure he’ll never live this one down.
Funny you should ask that question about family members making cringe-worthy redemptions! http://thehustleblog.com/2011/10/24/my-sis-gc-redeemer/
I have a few orphan points with CITI ThankYou points, I can redeem them for Bestbuy giftcards at $100 for 10K (1CPP). What is a better redemption for these points?
Well, I cashed out 3750 MRs once for $75 in Gap gift cards. At the time, PJ was paying 84% for Gap gift cards, so I got 1.68cpp. That’s not bad ain’t it? Just don’t justify to me my poor cpp ratio by comparing against first class flights, since I don’t lots, and I always fly economy :)
If I was Kevin, I would be upset at you for publicly criticizing him on the internet!
Before the aeroplan devaluation, we once used 75k points for a roundtrip YVR-HKG. YIKES!
think how many BA points that would have been with the 50% bonus