500 points & free breakfast

This morning I went to the front desk to get my bill and depart. The guy asked if everything went OK, and I mentioned that my wake-up call never arrived this morning.

He credited 500 points to my Starwood account and comped my breakfast (~$25).

This was a decent response, until you really start to think about. Let’s value what he gave me.

I can trade 14,000 Starwood points for $150 at Amazon, which is as good as cash.  500 Starwood points is worth $5.36.

But he actually stole money from me when he comped my breakfast.   I don’t care how much breakfast costs (as long as it’s reasonable, and more importantly, that it arrives on time and enables me to be a productive worker bee for the maximum amount of time).  The problem is that he’s actually stealing points from me when he reduces my bill.   For every dollar I spend at a Starwood hotel, I get 3.5 points.  (1 for the stay, 1 for my SPG Amex card, 1 for spending money at a Starwood hotel, and .5 for the Gold preferred guest bump)  So comping me a $25 breakfast actually costs me 87.5 points or $0.94.

$5.36 - $0.94 = $4.42

Doesn’t seem so valuable anymore, does it?

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