pitflyer

Which is a better deal?

25 Hilton HHonors points/$ per stay?

or

7 Starwood points/$ per stay?

I have this decision in front of me and am not sure which is quite better. A couple of points:

1) I have already qualified for both Hilton Diamond and Starwood Platinum (and above includes their top tier bonuses) so I have no particular goal in either program.

2) I usually save my HHonors points for ALON or other package awards. I usually redeem my Starpoints for American miles.

3) I have no preference between the hotels.

4) I actually also receive about 1000 extra miles per stay on both programs, so I didn't mention it above since it's a wash.

I'm thinking my best bet is to switch back and forth, every night, to get the extra miles per stay and use the perks of both program. The hotels are within a mile of
each other and I don't mind switching. But any other feedback would be welcome.

Thanks

Marathon Man

IMHO,

I like Starwood better but careful:

Anyone NOT reading this one all the way thru may see that you are talking about just 7 points and you will get 'ell for it for sure.

Of course, this one is totally different.

Brendan

Say you spend US$4000:
= 100K HHonors = ALON/GLON 6 nights.
= 28K Starwood = 5 nights Cat. 3 or 7.5 nights Cat. 2. I think you're better off with 66K Qantas than the 33K AAdvantage.
I call it a wash because for my uses
1 Starwood = 3.5 to 4 HHonors.

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Play the travel game 3 vacations into the future!

TOOLMAN

hey Pitflyer,

Seems to be pretty much even based on valuing them at 4:1, as I do for most of the program awards. The ALON award would drive me that way since it is such a great comparative value.

VolleyballFerd

If you really want to know the best deal - it would have to be switching back and forth and getting the extra amenity and on-line booking bonuses. I probably wouldn't do that - but you said you are willing to. Since the points are probably relatively equal, there would be no great benefit in sticking with one.

pitflyer

That's what I figured, thanks for the feedback folks. I've already got quite a reputation at the office for 'playing the hotels' and switching back and forth for the next couple of months (how long the deals are good for) will just elevate me to legend status

The reason I choose AA points is to get their lifetime status -- I've only flown AA about half a dozen times and already have 700k lifetime miles with them through other means, including SPG.

I use both my Hilton and Marriott points for hotel stays (still have balances of about 200k with each). For some reason I've never quite found a Starwood hotel that I think is a good value or that I want to stay at with SPG points. Odd, but that's how it works for me.

PG

How do you get 25 Hilton points / $ plus 1000 airline miles per stay?

And how do you get 7 Starwood points per dollar plus 1000 miles per stay?

Eugene

I guess it's using Hilton Amex double promo (thus 10 HH base points per $, plus 5 as a Diamond bonus, plus 10 more for paying with AmEx), and SPG Triple point promo (including Platinum bonus).

On the 1,000 miles per stay at HH -- that's what one gets when choosing Virgin for the double dipping.

PG

Are these promotions targeted? They are not mentioned on the home page of these programs.

Eugene

Yes. Here are some relevant FT threads:

Hilton Amex: Spend $600 11/28-12/31 and get double HHonors pts on purchases in Jan 03

New Triple Points Promo

Triple Play Promotion & Platinum Status

ExpoTrac

Well, since you don't use the Starwood points for hotel stays, then the HHonors points are probably a better value.
I personally think Starwood points have more value, as you can use them without restrictions like the HHonors points...if you are using for hotel stays.

PG

Thanks. The targeted Starwood promo explains the 7 points per $. But what about the 1000 airline miles?

And if you are including the credit card points in the total, shouldn't Starwood be 8 points per dollar?

[This message has been edited by PG (edited 11-27-2002).]

pitflyer

I'm not telling! I'm not telling! Ok, you talked me into it.

For Hilton, I received a promotion offering double points and double miles at select hotels. It's only in the area I travel and I haven't heard it mentioned on the board, but it should be publicly available; these hotels list a 'Double Points/Double Miles' rate if they have it available when you make a reservation online.

With double points, I would get 20 points per dollar, plus the Diamond Bonus for 25 points per dollar total. For double miles it goes up to 1000 miles on AA, which is where I double dip. I also get 500 points online booking bonus, plus I should be getting a Golf bag from their 3-stay golf giveaway promotion.

At Starwood I received the Triple Play promotion, which gives me 6 points per dollar, plus the Platinum Bonus for 7 points per dollar. I also receive the Platinum Amenity and Online Booking Bonus (250+500) which when converted in at least 20k increments gives me around 1000 miles on AA.

BSL

Here is my 2c.

I'd take the *wood. I like the range of hotels that *wood lets me use. It looks like you are not worried about HH stauts so it comes down to miles. I find that if I am lacking in HH points I xfer enough from a CO/DL/LP account to make it worthwhile, no such luck with the *wood.

The option to transfer into HH at a reasonable rate is very appealing to me, while *wood's lack thereof makes the points more difficult to accumulate.

BSL

PG

pitflyer - I am sure you are savvy enough to decide what works better for you and which is a better value for you. The Qantas transfer mentioned above may be a reasonable alternative to the AA transfer, considering that you need to transfer 65K Starwood points to Qantas for a business class ticket between US east coast and India, whereas if you used AA miles you would need 150K AA miles for the same ticket (or a 120K Starwood points transfer). But the Qantas transfer ratio is good only for this year.