- 70,000 Marriott points which I estimate to be worth about $700, based on the equivalent cash price I'd have paid for the hotel rooms (which I do have plans for)
- $890 in cash bonuses
- 50,000 ThankYou points which are worth $500 cash (the trick is to request mortgage or student loan redemptions, which can be made out to the bank in which you have a checking account, and then just deposit it in your account. The redemption value is higher this way than with the normal cash option.) or more for travel (probably will just take the cash as I have enough airline + hotel points right now).
The tilt towards cash or cash-redeemable bonuses is intentional, as I have enough points of various types to support my travel plans.
One other 'danger' I've seen some fall into is valuing their points based on the cash value of whatever they redeemed them for. For example, it's common to see people redeem airline miles for a ridiculous $10,000 ticket, and then claim they got 10c/mile or whatever based on that price. In my opinion, unless you would have paid $10k cash for that ticket had the points not existed, you haven't gotten 10c/point; you've gotten $(price you would have paid for a ticket) / $(pointsRequired).
I have to spend a little over $10k to get these bonuses, which will be almost entirely in manufactured spend. I'm most certainly not spending a single penny more than I would have spent if credit cards didn't exist at all.
It's also worth adding a few statistics:
- Total credit card debt I've ever held in my life beyond the grace period: $0
- Total interest I've ever paid in my life: $0