Miles and points aren't all about traveling in first class for pennies, although that's the most aspirational aspect of the game, and the most fun to write about. In the last few weeks, I've used hotel points for massive savings on adequate rooms in convenient locations in expensive cities.

Through just a little bit of planning, I've spent about $255 total for my last six nights of hotels or $42 per night.

Yes, this is a repost of Friday, since the Daily Getaways deal today is the same. I bought 50,000 points on Friday, but the packages sold slowly.

Today is the first day of the fourth week of five weeks of discounted travel packages sponsored by the US Travel Association and American Express called Daily Getaways.

Every weekday at 1 PM ET, a discounted travel package or packages will go on sale and will usually sell out in a few minutes. Some of the offers will be awesome; some will be duds.

If you buy IHG Rewards points for 0.57 cents each today (6/28/13) only instead of the 0.7 cent method in this post, PointBreaks hotels cost only $29! For more info, see IHG Club Points on Sale Today Only for 0.57 Cents.

There are several posts on today’s new PointBreaks list. Even if you’ve read those, read this. I’ve honed my strategy for getting $35 per night rooms quite a bit, and I want to share it, so everyone can have access to the best practices.