travelenthusiast

I will be going to NYC with my mother this fall for a mother-daughter trip to attend a soap opera fan club gathering. We've been long time viewers of the show. We gone several times before and have always have a great time. In the past I had booked on Priceline for hotel tickets. My husband suggested that I look into using one of our hotel point cards this time. We were actually able to get a "free" room at a major hotel in Times Square for 2 nights using points. This is the first time that one of those point systems actually paid off for us. I thought it would be more complicated to use. I'm so excited! Have other people been able to redeem their points too?

dmlove

Sure - I've used Marriott points for stays at various NYC hotels, and in Amsterdam, Prague and Berlin, London, and other places. Have a great trip - which soap opera is it?

escargot

I redeem hotel points all the time, or more often, flip American Express points into any of the partner hotels and airlines they have on their list - we've also redeemed points for hotel rooms in Europe, US, the islands, as well as for first class airfare to many destinations -

my motto is I clear my points every year , I'm always otherwise afraid they might change the rules on me !!

BudgetQueen

I use my free points every year for New Year's Eve. A great "return" for a $500/night cost otherwise.

travelenthusiast

dmlove - It is the Guiding Light Fan Club Gathering. To answer you're next question - Yes I am a geek! Seriously, it is a shared interest that my Mom and I have. I started watching it back in 1979 with her in the summer and I've been hooked ever since. I tape it now but back then I only was able to watch the last 20 minutes when I got home from school.

I'm still amazed that our stay is going to be "free". We have had to pay hundreds of dollars in the past even when we did Priceline.

We also tried to redeem frequent flier miles on US Air for an upgrade for our Caribbean trip next month, but they said that first class wasn't available. Oh well, maybe next time.

dmlove

travel, hotel points are MUCH easier to use than frequent flier miles. Also, regarding being a geek, my daughter (almost 21) is a HUGE Passions fan, and for her birthday, asked us to pay for her to go on a 4-day Mexico Passions-theme cruise (you know, with some stars of the show, daily events, etc.). So I make no judgments (by the way, when I was in college, all the girls in my dorm raced back to the dorm daily to watch "One Life to Live", "General Hospital" and "All My Children").

travelenthusiast

dmlove - I'm not a cruise person but if Guiding Light did that I might have to reconsider - LOL!