Hello from Spain!
Thanks to points/miles I was able to schedule a last minute trip (as in arranged Sunday, flew out Weds) from my hometown to Madrid on Delta (thank God for MRs!!!), spent the night at the MAD Hilton Airport on Hilton points, flew from MAD to Seville with BA points, and am now at the Querencia de Seville, an Autograph Collection hotel by Marriott (this is on cash). My DD was in Luxembourg and lost her wallet in Brussels and her father and I weren't sure she would be able to retrieve her wallet so j
ust in case I flew to Seville where she was heading on a grant after Luxembourg. (AMS is a train wreck right now and Luxembourg is a small airport with not a lot of flights so meeting her in Seville just made more sense, in case y'all were wondering.)
Fortunately her high school/college French allowed her to communicate with the Belgium authorities and retrieve her wallet but I didn't know that when I was making plans.
That said, just felt it was a good reminder that a stash of points/miles is always a good idea (I had an "emergency stash" of about 350K MRs, as well as Marriott and Hilton). I transferred (eek!) 325K skymiles to DD's account of 50K and used 375K for a J flight from my hometown to MAD ( you can use other people's skymiles for tickets-just have to check "I'm not traveling" and then put the information of the person who is traveling before checkout), used 60K Hilton points for the airport Hilton, used MRs to transfer to BA and fly from MAD to Seville and her father is splitting the cost of my cash stay at the Marriott. All in all, I definitely paid too much for my Delta flight (lol) but I ensured my platinum sky medallion status for another year and slept a bit in a a nice seat, so not going to complain. United wanted fewer points (between 155k-275K) but with 3 layovers so Delta for the "win."
I also believe being Hilton Diamond was helpful-I was able to check in at 9:45 am to my room and had access to the Executive Lounge, which provided water, coca cola light and a light dinner. Ditto for being Titanium with Bonvoy-checked into my room here in Seville at 10:30 am and am enjoying free breakfast daily as one of my perks (that or 750 bonvoy points? No brainer!). I was also offered $10 credit in the hotel restaurant for lunch or dinner/day or 1000k points-I took the points since the hotel restaurant menu isn't my thing.
TL;DR- I'm in this game for luxury travel as well as emergencies. Flexible currency is helpful, I still think MRs are the best flexible currency for me and loyalty in a company or two can really pay off.
Now for a siesta in 104 degree weather!