American Express Membership Rewards - SPG vs. HHonors?

Hi everyone. I finished school in June and about to start my first full-time job. I've been researching both the SPG AMEX and HHonors AMEX program and I'm a little unsure which card would be right for me. I fly more often than staying in hotels, since I usually crash with friends. For this reason, I'm leaning toward the SPG. And I'd like to keep my spending tracked to one card, for convienence sake. I've also used Priceline for hotel stays.

Should I go for the SPG AMEX card?

Why not go for a normal Amex and join Membership Rewards? You then have the choice of transferring into SPG, Hilton or an airline programme. The rate is not as good as having the dedicated card, but you keep flexibility over where your points go.

Why not go for a normal Amex and join Membership Rewards? You then have the choice of transferring into SPG, Hilton or an airline programme. The rate is not as good as having the dedicated card, but you keep flexibility over where your points go.

RJB may not know that the SPG card has more airlines than the AMEX cards, that 20,000 points equal 25,000 miles and that to use AMEX MR points at Starwood hotels you suffer a 50 to 67% loss!

Go for the Starwood. For first year free and $30 thereafter it is a great bargain.

Go for the Starwood for the reasons mentioned above. It is my primary and definitely my favorite card. That said, you may want to consider getting an HHonors card as well for the extra points awarded at gas stations, restaurants, supermarkets, etc. I use the HHonors card wherever I can get extra points; everywhere else I use the Starwood. It works well.

Why not get both? Both have sign up bonuses and the HH Amex doesn't have an annual fee. HH bonus points are a plus and you get silver VIP status for just having the card. Usefull if you ever want to redeem a VIP only reward.

If you are primarily interested in airline miles, the SPG card is certainly a better choice. It sounds good to earn "5 points per dollar" with the Hilton Card, but the points have very little value when converted to miles. $20,000 charged to the Starwood card can become 25,000 airline miles, while $20,000 charged to the Hilton card can only become 6,000 to 15,000 miles, depending on where you use the card and which airline.

dennis

Dennis,

What you said is correct about the Hilton HHonors card if you plan on converting them to a specific frequent flier program as miles. However, Hilton HHonors program also lets you redeem airline tickets on American, United, or USAirways to the 48 states or Canada for 100,000 points, a ticket to anywhere in the 48 US States on southwest for 85,000 points, 150,000 points to Hawaii the carribbean or mexico on American or USAirways and various other rewards. Also, Europe on USAirways, united and Amirican are 200,000 points.

Most of these if you earn the points through purchases on the card in the everday spend categories of Dining, groceries, drugstores, or gas equal $20,000 spent for a 48 states or canada ticket, $17,000 spent for a ticket on Southwest, $30,000 spent for a ticket to the Carribbean or Hawaii, $40,000 spent for a ticket to Europe, all of which are better than the airlines frequent flier program and there is no annual fee for the card. So I would say that this is an attractive offer. If you think about it the Hilton HHonors card is giving you the bonus 5000 points for every $20,000 spent when only making purchases in the everyday spend category for continental US tickets, and European tickets.

This being said, for general purchases the Starwood card offers the better bang for the buck but this card is still extremely valuable for airline redemptions when you consider Southwest is only $17,000 worth of everyday spend dollars.

<<Hilton HHonors program also lets you redeem airline tickets on American, United, or USAirways to the 48 states or Canada for 100,000 points, a ticket to anywhere in the 48 US States>>

I confess I do not think much about coach class airline awards or fares, but I acknowledge your point, particularly for United and Southwest flights if your spending is primarily in the 5 points per dollar category. However, as far as American is concerned this doesn't seem to offer any advantage over the Starwood card. $20,000 charged on Starwood yields 25,000 AAdvantage miles enough for a Mile SAAver roundtrip "Wholly Within Continental U.S./Canada".

dennis

Thanks for the discussion. I'll prolly go with the SPG AMEX card. I'm tempted to get both cards, but I'm afraid that I won't accumulate enough points/miles if I split my expenses on two cards.

Hilton HHonors program also lets you redeem airline tickets on American, United, or USAirways to the 48 states or Canada

This is a very interesting way of using the HHonors card. Are tickets purchased this way subject to the same capacity controls as frequent flyer tickets?

I confess that this is a benefit I have not used so I am not sure and Hilton HHonors definately does not do a good job of explaining whether these come from frequent flier tickets, whether there are blackout dates, or any other rules or exceptions. I just look at this as an added benefit of the card since I can get some decent hilton properties that are 5 or 6 stars with the card for only 125,000 points for a 4 night stay which is about 31,500 points per night. Hopefully others have used the airlines benefits I mentioned above and can comment. Also, I stay at hilton several times a year so the base points plus silver bonus points help me accumulate points in addition to the 12,000 points I get through erewards each year and the points I get through my points.

I have both but use my SPG card as my first card (except for airline tickets where I use my new PremierPass card from Citibank). I only use my Hilton when staying at a Hilton.

<<only use my Hilton when staying at a Hilton>>

Mind sharing your strategy? How does it benefit you to use the HHonors card there, but not at other five-point-per-dollar merchants?

dennis

I prefer starpoints - I think that they are more valuable. When I was working on LIfetime Platinum status with aa, I took advantage of the 5K bonus. Then BA had their 2 for 1 sale and I transferred what I had. For the first time I used points for a hotel in San Diego 3 nights for 10K which I thought was a terrific value. They have some cash and point hotels. You can transfer between household members. I have used Hilton points in London at the Kensington - but I just prefer Starpoints. I now use my citibank Premierpass to purchase airline tickets and only use that card for that and purchases of gas and supermarkets where you get 2 points per $1. I'm not sure if it is a strategy. I just think starpoints are worth more because you can get hotels for less points.

I have both but use my SPG card as my first card (except for airline tickets where I use my new PremierPass card from Citibank). I only use my Hilton when staying at a Hilton.

But can you use the "Thank you" points of airline tickets directly?
Whether the next step is using the PremierPass card?

Flight points need to be matched by other kinds of points, but I bank at Citibank and get points for banking - 1200 a month for one, 600 a month for another, and I have the 15K bonus points I got for getting the card, so I will have points to match the flight points. If it happens that I have more flight points than spend points, I guess I will have to use the card more, but at this point I think it won't be a problem.

<<prefer starpoints - I think that they are more valuable>>

Agreed, just curious why one would use the Hilton card even when staying at a Hilton property, aside from the bonuses during the first year.

dennis

<<prefer starpoints - I think that they are more valuable>>

Agreed, just curious why one would use the Hilton card even when staying at a Hilton property, aside from the bonuses during the first year.


Maybe dgordon just feels awkward about using the Starwood card at a Hilton hotel...

<<awkward about using the Starwood card at a Hilton hotel...>>

I was slightly apprehensive the first few times I used the SPG card at other hotel brands, but to my knowledge no one ever noticed. Now the question does not arise because I typically use the Gold Rewards Plus card which earns more points per dollar, even at Starwood, than the SPG card.

dennis

I believe that you get extra points for charging for a Hilton property on the Hilton card. It also keeps my Hilton account active. This doesn't happn very often because I don't stay at Hilton's that often ( the last time was a vey nice Hilton Garden Inn in Markham (Toronto)). I use my SPG with all other chains.

<<believe that you get extra points for charging for a Hilton property on the Hilton card>>

I do not have the Hilton card, but we have a stay planned for October, hence the questions. The way I read it charges at Hilton earn five points per dollar (as do various other purchase categories), but five HH points are worth less than one SPG point. I just wondered if there was some other aspect I had overlooked.

I do see that it would be worthwhile using the card to top off the HHonors balance to the next multiple of 10,000, rather than transferring from Diners or Membership Rewards.

dennis

I believe that you get extra points for charging for a Hilton property on the Hilton card. It also keeps my Hilton account active. This doesn't happn very often because I don't stay at Hilton's that often ( the last time was a vey nice Hilton Garden Inn in Markham (Toronto)). I use my SPG with all other chains.

I do not think that anyone even notices when I use the SPG card at a Starwood hotel...