flyte

How do you do that exactly? I have the IHG card, and I've never asked! Do you say something like "do I qualify for any platinum upgrades?"

Justtony

As a "your status" member, are there any available upgrades at the moment.

xooz

As someone who has previously had very few paid stays, and who collects points almost exclusively with cc spend, I have a lot of interest in this. While I do have some airline cards, I don't put hardly any spend on them.

For hotels my wife and I curently have:
- 2 SPG Amex (Bus/Pers)
- Citi Premier HH
- HH Amex Surpass
- Carlson Visa
- Chase Sapphire Preferred
- Chase Ink Bold

Last year's plan was to focus on SPG, so our plan was :
Business spend
-$30K on my SPG.
-$30K on wifes SPG
- Variable spend on Bold MC for nonAmex suppliers and bonus categories
- $10K spend on Citi Premier to get free night
- Remaining spend on SPG until...
- Late year spend on HH Surpass to get to $40K for Diamond in 2016

Home
- HH Surpass spend
- Occasional airline spend for new card bonuses etc.

With the clear devaluations of virtually every program, I may finally go to a cash back card. Take NYC for instance:
- SPG Sheraton Times Sq. = 12K spend on SPG
- Hilton Times Sq: About 18-20K spend
- Hyatt: about 18K spend on CSP
- Carlson: 15K spend (but rare availability)

So (as we all know) if I can get a room for $240/night or less, I should do that rather than use the points since I spent <$12k to get that cash. Since my travel is short stays and last minute, I often find bargain rates and should start taking advantage of that.

Bottom line is that I will probably add a 2% cash back card, Currently my plan is to hit my SPG and HH Surpass spend for status, the Premier card 10K limit for the free night, then just accumulate cash back for hotel spend. I will have to look at the Barclay card I suppose. Sorry for the long post. Good luck to all.

lotrbfme

Japan: auto upgraded always.

US: ask if there is any upgrades available and insist at check in.

Europe: email the property before hand.

pritomd

I never leave upgrades to chance, I always actively ask upon check in or beforehand. Even with top tier Marriott. Even when I was mid-tier Marriott, I got an upgrade since I asked.

pritomd

Once you look past sign up bonuses, what's the best hotel card? I.E. what gets you to the fastest free nights? I'm looking at Europe, primarily Belgium, Netherlands, and Italy. Looking to put any MS that isn't going toward sign up bonuses on a hotel card as well as things that don't earn bonus points like NW Buxx.

Like, I know Hilton has low point value...but earning at least 3 points per $ at minimum means at least you get there faster?

Or will most of the cards get you to free nights at relatively the same rate?

flyte

Excellent question. I'd love to hear an answer to this question as well. I have IHG which earns 2x per dollar, an annual free night, and 7x per dollar at select restaurants, but I'm sure there are better ones out there for general spend.

eajusa

Never had IHG. I found Marriott Rewards to be a hard program to rack up the free nights. I have done much better with Hilton and SPG. Hilton has so many ways to earn HHonor points and SPG has so many ways to get value from Starpoints. In both programs their credit cards have played a real boost to earning enough for free nights.

jediwho

If I was to pick just one hotel branded card, then I would go with Wyndham -- 2x points on everyday spending and redemption at 15,000 points.

For a combo, I would go with Hilton: a combo of Citi Reserve and Amex Hilton Honors (no annual fee) given that you can also get pretty good points on grocery (5x), 3x points with Reserve and a free night after 10K spending.

The 5x on office supplies with Chase Ink is not bad if one is looking for a non Hotel branded card.

sdsearch

It's impossible to answer without knowing what kind of hotels and exactly where (ie, at what point levels) you're looking to redeem for. In the same country (in fact, in the same metro area), a hotel that's in the "hot" part of the city (with high parking rates that aren't included in the points rate for a room) may require way more points than a hotel in the suburbs (with free parking).

Only at WyndhamRewards (where very single hotel is 15k points a night) is it easy to calculate.

I just stayed at two hotels in the Buenos Aires area using IHG points, for example. The Holiday Inn Express with smallish rooms near the city center was 25k points per night. The Holiday Inn with big rooms near the international EZE airport (well outside the city) was only 10k points per night. There was no big difference in paid rates; the big difference was only in points needed.

But obviously you need 2.5x more card spend to earn enough points for a 25k room than for a 10k room. Yet both the 25k room and the 10k room are "a free night". And thus, without knowing where exactly you're going stay (since point requirement can vary so much), it's not possible to say how much spend it will require for a free night with a given card (other than WyndhamRewards).

Fly1Away1

I did Italy this summer. Most places I visited didn't have chain hotels in the city center. The chain hotels were all in the suburbs. I have points in all the hotel programs but mostly used my Barclays Arrival. I used the Barclays Arrival in conjuction with Priceline and Hotwire. I hate that msing a 2% card feels like a waste of time but it returns more value if you know how to use it.

pritomd

Yeah, understood that without a specific goal in mind, the answer becomes harder. I was mainly looking for some thought/discussion on general trends with some general requirements (Amsterdam/Brussels/Italy city centers) but, as you showed, even that can be quite different.

With me being done with earning airline miles since my next two trip flights are covered, it's starting to seem that stashing points in a card like Arrival or Venture to use to rebate true costs might be the way to go. Seeming like that will also allow for flexibility since at this point I'm not even sure which program I want to focus my spend on to continue building my hotel stash.

sdsearch

I think your statement about airline miles is symptomatic of why you're having problems on the hotel side.

Even more so on the hotel side than on the airline side, IMHO you need to be continually collecting points in multiple hotel programs, rather than waiting until you have a trip in mind to start collecting them, exactly because it's hard to know which program you'll need more. If you have a bunch of points in multiple programs, then the question becomes not what to start collecting, but what to "replenish".

Arrival or Venture don't rebate you much more than setting aside the cashback from a 2% cashback card would. They're not AFAIK cards that are easy to churn (while keeping the points from the previous card), so you need to do everyday spend to get slow 2% back.

As opposed to hotel cards, which dumps the points in the hotel program, so as long as you abide by the hotel program's expiration-avoidance rules, you may be able to cancel the card and then get another signup bonus in another year or two. And you may be able (especially in the Hilton case) to apply for several cards that all are tied to the same hotel program, and get the signup bonus for each one.

jediwho

I still think cash back cards have the least value and would rank: hotel cards, followed by MR/UR/TY, then airlines and finally cash back rewards.

NRTBound2015

1) Because each program has geographic strengths and weaknesses, I think you would be well served by spending some time on award mapper. It's a website that allows you to put in a city, and see the chain hotel options available in that city, as well as the cost per point. If you want to go to Pisa, you need to have points in a program that has hotels there.

2) For pure, unbonused spend, the SPG card is nice. It only earns one point/$ but a single SPG point is more valuable than a single point in the other major programs. I would even value one Starpoint more highly than 3 Hilton (but it is close, and would depend on how you are redeeming). I would generally say that one Starpoint is slightly more valuable than one Hyatt which is more valuable than a Hilton or Marriott.

3) If you want to churn, Hilton is a good candidate because it has so many flavors. Also, the various Hilton cards do have some bonus categories (groceries, rental cars, etc.) that could be useful depending on your spending habits.

4) If you are going to hold cards long term, consider other benefits besides points for spending. The SPG and Hilton Amex give you access to Amex Offers. The Citi Hilton Reserve grants automatic Gold Status (and a free weekend night if you spend $10k). IHG gives you one free night in any category every year. Marriott and Hyatt grant free nights in lower categories (which may or may not be useful, depending on where you like to stay).