Thanks to
@Gold Member for the suggestion on booking and cancelling hotels.
+1 has 2,475 LifeMiles expiring on Dec 31. Not enough to book a hotel outright in Aus (or at least I haven't found one as yet).
She doesn't want to just let them expire even though they are not worth much. So to buy 1,000 LifeMiles costs USD33 (AUD49.31 at today's exchange rate). That works out to 4.9 aussi cents each. Of course, if you buy with the 130% bonus currently on offer for small purchases, you get 2,300 LifeMiles for your AUD49.31 or a cost of 2.15 cents each.
OTOH, if you book a fully-refundable hotel on points + pay and then cancel, you get refunded all in points. An example is the Ibis Budget in Dandenong. 10,700 to book outright or 2,100 + AUD76. If you cancel, presumably you would get 10,700 miles refunded. So you get an additional 8,600 LifeMiles for AUD76 or a cost of 0.88 cents each. Seems like a much better deal (assuming my maths is correct).
Of course, she could just book the RedDoorz @ Paus Raya in Palangkaraya for 1,900 LifeMiles full price, fully-refundable.