Credit Card Programs - Daily CC for pilot

Hello all,

I am brand new to FT and I've found it fascinating so far. I am a regional airline pilot for a United Express carrier so I have the opportunity to travel standby basis with my wife throughout the UA network (too bad its oversold so often). Already having free flights, I'd like to find the best credit card to help accrue free hotel stays.

My company stays at a wide assortment of hotel chains and certain ones give points to crewmembers while others don't. I am not really loyal to any chain as of right now. I am currently platinum at priority club due to a 2 month hotel stay in training.

We presently both have Chase Freedom cash back cards and put everything on the card and pay it off completely each month. As of right now I'm getting 1% cash on everything and 5% on certain categories so obviously I could use that money towards hotels.

However I was curious if there is a card out there that could give me more bang for my buck on hotel stays. I've researched the HH, SPG, PC, and Marriott cards but want to know what you pros think about the programs and credit card benefits. My wife and I plan on redeeming stays all around the US and occasionally internationally but we aren't too flashy and don't care too much about staying at the top tier places in any program.

Thanks so much!

Sign up for credit cards for all the major hotel chains for the sign up bonuses, maybe not all at once, but over the course of the next 6 months or a year. Take your time deciding which ones you want to keep. If the card has an annual fee and you decide not to keep it, cancel at one year, either before the fee hits or within a month after so they will refund it.

The great thing about the Hilton Amex and Citi Hilton Honors Visa is that there is never an annual fee, so there is no reason not to keep them (and you earn bonus points for signing up for both of them). The Priority Club Visa, Marriott Visa, and Hyatt Visa all offer a free night annually that can more than offset the annual fee as long as you use it. The SPG Amex has no such free night, but SPG points are often considered the most valuable hotel points because you can get a great value redeeming them for cash + points nights.

If you sign up for a Sapphire Preferred or Ink Bold card, you will have the ability to transfer points from your Chase Freedom Card to any Priority Club, Marriott, or Hyatt account.

Also consider signing up your wife for the same hotel credit cards, so you will receive twice as many bonus points. SPG allows people at the same address to combine points by phone anytime. Marriott allows husbands and wives to combine points at the time you make a reservation to redeem them.

Someday you might reconsider the value of frequent flyer miles, as it is much easier to plan a vacation when you have confirmed seats than when you are non-revving. It can be complicated and stressful to buy ID-90s on multiple foreign carriers to have backup plans in case the flight is full, and you have to plan your trip during non-peak travel times or be extremely flexible. But as a former pilot, I would definitely recommend starting with hotel points.

Which hotel points are most valuable to you will depend on where you travel, but there is great value in diversity, and being able to check three hotel chains for availability in a city prior to redeeming. I could not honestly pick any one card to be loyal to indefinitely. But in the beginning I was loyal to the Hilton Amex, and Hilton Visa when Amex was not accepted. If you are willing to pay annual fees, you have lots of options.

I would consider spg amex card. If you use only a few hotel stays per year, you may want to look into booking your hotels via ebates.com with hotels.com. you will get a cash rebate from ebates 3.25 per dollar spend in addition to a one night point from hotels.com. you only need 10 hotel points to get one free (up to the value of the average 9 stays in your account) plus the cash back or miles from your credit card.

Hello all,

I am brand new to FT and I've found it fascinating so far. I am a regional airline pilot for a United Express carrier so I have the opportunity to travel standby basis with my wife throughout the UA network (too bad its oversold so often). Already having free flights, I'd like to find the best credit card to help accrue free hotel stays.

My company stays at a wide assortment of hotel chains and certain ones give points to crewmembers while others don't. I am not really loyal to any chain as of right now. I am currently platinum at priority club due to a 2 month hotel stay in training.

We presently both have Chase Freedom cash back cards and put everything on the card and pay it off completely each month. As of right now I'm getting 1% cash on everything and 5% on certain categories so obviously I could use that money towards hotels.

However I was curious if there is a card out there that could give me more bang for my buck on hotel stays. I've researched the HH, SPG, PC, and Marriott cards but want to know what you pros think about the programs and credit card benefits. My wife and I plan on redeeming stays all around the US and occasionally internationally but we aren't too flashy and don't care too much about staying at the top tier places in any program.

Thanks so much!

The new U.S. Bank Cash+ card can get you 6.25% cashback on hotels. That is probably worth more than any hotel points and you're not tied to one chain.

I think you are better off getting your hotels on Priceline. Without knowing your exact travel patterns, I can't be sure, but I think you would. If you traveled so much that elite status was significant, or had to be in a particular location (like two blocks from your client site rather than two miles) you might need to book a particular hotel, but Priceline will do you just fine for staying at airport locations and if you don't care as between Marriott, Hilton, or Raddison.

Booking a $119 room for $55 with no points, status, etc. is going to be a better value than booking it for $119 plus getting points.

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with getting the hotel cards and using them for the signup bonuses.

Although you can almost always get a Priceline hotel at the last minute, there's also nothing wrong with booking a backup full-price reservation, as long as you remember to cancel it by the deadline.

The only real downside I can see is that if you are literally waiting at the gate until you know if you are going or not, you can get on the plane and make a reservation over the phone, but it will be harder to make a reservation using your laptop once you've boarded.

The optimal Priceline bidding process (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/online-travel-booking-bidding-agencies/1341415-priceline-bidding-primer.html) has a little bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy.

Except when booking a hotel where I have to be for a specific convention or the like, I haven't booked a non-"Name Your Own Price" hotel in about 6 years.

My company stays at a wide assortment of hotel chains and certain ones give points to crewmembers while others don't. I

Welcome to Flyertalk. Are you looking for a card to pay for hotel stays -or- are you looking for a card to use for general spending which will generate hotel rewards?

Welcome to Flyertalk. Are you looking for a card to pay for hotel stays -or- are you looking for a card to use God general spending which will generate hotel rewards?

I am looking for a card that racks up free night stays as I use the card on daily expenses.



Thanks for all of thr input this far everyone! Sorry for not returning here earlier...

Welcome to Flyertalk Elbow. If you happen to work for Skywest, Mesa, or ExpressJet I might end up on one of your planes. I have two flights booked right now with United, 7 of the 8 segments are on a regional carrier. Will book a third flight soon and all 4 segments will be on a regional.

In any case I will mention a card here that nobody has mentioned so far. You said you don't care where you stay and stay in cheaper hotels? Give the Capital one Venture a look. Their "miles" are worth one cent each and obviously the cheaper the hotel, the less miles you need to redeem so if you priceline a room very often you can especially get a lot of free nights with minimal spending.

A rebate card like the Venture is perfect if you are not brand loyal. Also Bank of America has recently came out with the same type of card as the Venture so they might be worth a look as well.