Originally Posted by
FABismonte
Sometimes paying in cash makes sense if the alternative is using total rewards for free play at a better rate.
Last month I went to New Orleans on a Seven Stars Retreat with the wife. We had 50,000 total rewards credits posted to our account when we checked in. We wanted to eat at Drago's at the nearby Hilton for its outstanding char-grilled oysters but I saw that in order to dine there comped, I needed to first get a voucher slip which required 2-1 ratio of total rewards. So if I wanted $100 of food at Drago's I needed to trade in 20,000 in total rewards points. This made no sense given that as Seven Stars I could trade 12,500 total reward points for $100 free play. So I paid in cash at Drago's. and later cashed in my points for free play.