The beauty of having points and miles is the ability to take trips last minute, even on holidays – and get a room for a decent rate. Four days before Memorial Day weekend, Jess and I decided to take Baby M up to Portland, Maine for the weekend. I found award space at the Hyatt Place Old Port in downtown Portland. Rooms were going for $280/night, but it only cost us (and our friends who joined us a day later) 8000 points/night. I just transferred 16,000 points from Ultimate Rewards for the two nights and got a value of ~3 cents/point. Not a bad deal.