Thread by @ReignOfApril

As we slowly emerge from the Panini fog & begin to travel again, let me tell you how the Black Women of @thepointsguy, @AvQueenBenet and @vikkie, saved me nearly $4700 on a hotel stay. Gather round, chil'ren. Auntie has a story to tell. #Thread

Planning a trip several months away during PEAK peak season. The hotels jack up the rates so bad it's mind-boggling. For a five night stay, it was going to cost $5665. WAY out of my price range. I'm a faithful reader of @thepointsguy, so I start to finesse & finagle.

I would need 280,000 points to book the same room. But that's 200K more than I have. 😫 Then I get the email: Marriott (my hotel chain of choice) is having a 30% off points sale. Now, I know from @thepointsguy that buying points is usually a losing proposition. However.

30% off is a decent deal. I can buy 100K points for $875. But I'm still 100K points short. Then another email: Get 100K points after spending $3K in 3 months with a Marriott branded credit card. Now, I don't like messing with my credit at all. But @thepointsguy explained it.

I get the credit card & use it for *purchases I was going to make anyway*: groceries, utilities bill, eating out, whatever. That $3K was easy. 🥴

So I got the 100K points for getting the credit card & I bought the other 100K. Applied it to my hotel stay & reservation confirmed.

To bring it home, I spent $875 to purchase the points and $95 for the annual credit card membership fee. Total cost for the hotel room for five days: $970!!

$5665 - 970 = $4695 saved thanks to @thepointsguy. Exact same beautiful hotel room at a fraction of the cost. YMMV