MilesBuzz! - Maximize points/miles for my 5 day stay

I will be staying in Seattle for 2 nights, and portland for 3 nights. Any suggestions to get maximum points/miles and other benefits for my stays?

I have starwood card, and accumulating miles on united. Thanks

[This message has been edited by prmangena (edited Mar 15, 2004).]

prmangena, welcome to FT! Since it looks as if your post is focused on point/mile accumulation and not setting up a get-together with other FTers, it's much more appropriate for our MilesBuzz forum. I'll move it there and invite all others to help you out at that location. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by prmangena:
I will be staying in Seattle for 2 nights, and portland for 3 nights. Any suggestions to get maximum points/miles and other benefits for my stays?

I have starwood card, and accumulating miles on united. Thanks</font>

I'd start by recommending that you charge whatever you charge to your Starwood card as that'll transfer out - if it's a new one & you are still eligible for the 1000 mile stay bonus', see if there are any SPG properties that you can stay at. I'm assuming you don't have any status with any hotel chain - otherwise you would probably have an idea of what brand you'd want to stay with.

People aren't going to be able to give you any recommendations unless they have an idea of what your price range is. 5 nights at one brand is half-way to a lower level elite status with a hotel & if you stay with the same hotel brand, it may be more beneficial to you in the long run - however, if you don't really care, I would recommend that you look at the airline programs that you participate in (or hotel programs) and see which hotel in the areas that you are staying will offer you the most points.

Of course, if it were me, I'd look at the hotel points as an added benefit - not basing my stay on maximum points (unless it was a mattress run) - when I travel, I'm more concerned with location and price. Saving money is more important than the miles. Although, if you're not paying for it, it may not matter as much to you.

Since you have 5 nights - you may want to look into Hyatt's free nights deals (if there are Hyatt's there) and if you want to save a little bit of cash, I think Choice Hotels have a thing where when you stay 2 nights, you get 5000 bonus points - 4 paid nights = 10K bonus points which could be almost 2+ free nights within the coming year.

[This message has been edited by bhatnasx (edited Mar 15, 2004).]