My Thoughts On Spending Actual Money For Travel

On the road back from Pittsburgh over Memorial Day weekend, my wife and I decided to begin the drive Monday night, stay at a hotel, and continue back to New York first thing in the morning. We passed on the opportunity to drop 40K Hilton HHonors (HH) points for a Hampton Inn and decided to spend 20K InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) points on a Holiday Inn (and boy was it exhilarating booking a hotel as you're on the way driving to it!). Miles professionals will tell you that was a bad redemption because the hotel's cash rate that night was about $120, and 20K IHG is worth double that. So, why'd I do it?

I know that among the professionals in the blogs and forums I'm in the minority with my opinion here, but I thought I'd share my mindset with you. I warn you now, though, you are not about to be met with logical, rational thinking. Just emotions.

I don't like spending actual cash on travel.

(Image from Google Images, empoweredstudies.com)

Wait a second. Don't most people feel that way? Of course they do, but I'm not talking about holding back from spending $15K flying first class from New York to Frankfurt. I'm talking about flying first class from New York to Frankfurt and using 60,000 miles and paying $300 in fuel surcharges and taxes. I don't mind dropping $5.60 for fees on a domestic flight in the US, but those "large" taxes and fees make me think twice about the flight, despite the fact that the miles + cash might be an incredible steal. What makes something a "large" fee versus a "small" fee? That's exactly my point. It's subjective, and whether I'm willing to spend $100 in taxes, but not $400, is completely up to me.

Where does this stem from?

It's clear to me that it goes back to my childhood. My family was never from the fancy vacationers. We took awesome road trips all around the East Coast and only two or three times got on a plane and flew to Disney. Flying/traveling was something I always viewed as a luxury. If, one day, I made it to a financially comfortable place where I wouldn't notice dropping $2000/person for a cruise to the Carribean versus using that money to pay for my kid's tuition, then great, I'd go traveling. Otherwise, I would be completely fine with taking a short weekend road trip once or twice a year. With this mindset, I never expected to visit exotic islands or see the grand history of Europe. I hoped I'd be able to go on a honeymoon and that would be enough.

Enter DansDeals. When I learned that responsibly opening up credit cards and learning how to hit the spending bonuses to rack up miles can allow you to travel around the world for pennies on the dollar, my desire to travel was born. At the same time, I've stuck to my mindset of points/miles = free travel, and cash = paid travel. And, believe me, I've gotten my fair share of flak for it. Most pros in the game do not consider miles to be free, despite the fact that they often don't pay cash to earn those miles. And they're right. I'm just crazy. :-) Miles absolutely have a value. There are brokers that will pay you top dollar for your miles and there are airlines that will give you luxurious flights for your miles. They definitely have a value.

We're not going to get into the math of using your miles for a good redemption (such as a first class ticket to Hong Kong) versus a bad redemption (such as a cheap hotel night at a Hampton Inn that somehow costs 40K HH points). I try to use my miles for their "good uses," but I definitely am guilty of using points that were worth more than the cost of my hotel/flight. And I'm just fine with that. If we had to pay $120 cash for the ability to begin our drive at night and crash at a hotel, we would have just stayed at our hosts and left the next morning. The benefit to us was not worth $120. But it was worth free. And, despite the time and labor I put into earning my miles, in my mind, they mean "free" travel. It's just the way I view it. If miles are free, you may ask, then why didn't I just book the Hampton Inn for 40K HH and why don't I redeem my miles for double-the-price Standard Awards when Saver Awards are not available? I don't know. That's just too much. How do I decide what's too much? Well, that's up to me. :-)