I got a Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card a couple months ago because you can transfer those points to any airline program and get a 25% bonus.

At dinner last Sunday, Roy's dad mentioned that you can book hotel rooms using a combination of SPG points and cash that make it much cheaper than paying full price. Since I'm going to Baltimore this weekend for the Virgin Festival, I went to the SPG website to check this out.

Hotel in downtown Baltimore for Saturday night: $250
or
2800 points and $45

2800 points have a cash value of around $28 (1% cash back on a typical credit card). So by using points and cash, the hotel ends up costing $73 instead of $250!

So now I'm going to hold on to those SPG points for this exact purpose. Thanks, Mr. Simkhay!