sdsearch

Impossible to say, because the number of points needed for a free night varies by a factor of almost 10:1 at most programs.

You have to figure where you want to stay, how many points are needed there at the time of year you want to stay (it can vary in some programs by peak vs non-peak times), and then what the earn rate is of the card.

Also, whatever is the case with the SPG card, it's temporary. The card will likely either go away or be significantly changed within a year or two, because of the upcoming merger with Marriott (and Marriott being the much bigger program, SPG will be swallowed up by Marriott Rewards rather than the other way around).

The only card for which it's easy to calculate is the WyndhamRewards Visa card from Barclay: It earns 2 points per dollar, and every hotel every night everywhere in the WyndhamRewards program is 15k points a night (if it has availability). So it's easy to calculate that every $7500 of spend will get a free night. The only thing is: In many cities those free nights are mostly (or solely) available at lower-end brands, like MircoTel, Ramada, Super 8, and Days Inn.

In the same cities where WyndhamRewards has all its properties at 15k a night, Marriott can easily be 35k a night, and Hilton HHonors can easily be 50k or 60k a night (though sometimes you can get great values with cash + points rates), and SPG and Hyatt may not have a property at all. So all those "big" hotel programs are going to way worse at earning free nights with a credit card on ordinary spend, unless you only need to stay in the "unpopular" places where each program has low-redemption-cost properties. (In the Tampa area you can get an Holiday Inn for 10k IHG Club points and a Fairfield Inn for 10k Marriott Rewards points. But forget finding anything like that in Anchorage in the summer: That's where I got my sample comparisons at the start of this paragraph. And Amsterdam in spring is more like Anchorage in summer than like Tampa.)

Another thing to consider is that not every hotel chain has a presence everywhere. Want to stay near the entrances to US National Parks? WyndhamRewards, Choice, and/or Best Western are likely to be the only hotels near many of those parks. Want to stay in Livingstone (near Victoria Falls) on points? Only Marriott Rewards has a hotel there. Want to stay in Bergen, Norway? You better have Club Carlson, Best Western, or Choice points; no other hotel programs cover Scandinavia outside of the big capital cities. (Note: There is currently a problem booking in Scandinavia with Choice points, and we have no idea if/when it will be resolved.)

flyer4512

Did you just email HH for the SPG to HH Diamond match ?

I can get another SPG business in August , hopefully it's still around.

Happy

Well, I only know both our SPG Golds are from the Business cards. We even got a Congrat email as "You are Golden" something like that.
This is what is shown on the Sept e-statement shortly after I got the SPG Biz card:

You're Golden.
Take advantage of your elite Gold benefits >

YOUR STAYS YTD: YOUR NIGHTS YTD:
2 2

My SPG personal card was canceled in Aug 2014. Until Sept 2015 before the SPG business card had enhanced benefit, there was no SPG card in our household. Certainly there has not $30K spent on the newly obtained SPG biz card in Sept, nor I met the stay requirement, and our Plat cards were long gone in Mid 2015. Therefore the ONLY reason that I became "Golden" was via the SPG biz card, regardless what the current T&Cs said.

Regardless, SPG Gold is NOT worth any effort to get that is my opinion. As sdsearch points out, the Preferred (Plus) members have the same benefit as Golds. The personal SPG card makes you Preferred (Plus).

Happy

Yes. I did, a few days after the official announcement of the match. I lost my Gold in March, then gained Diamond thru the match. HH also matched husband to Diamond when his Gold will expire in 2017. So now we dont need any fee-based HH cards until the Diamond runs out in Mar 2017. The irony is, in our upcoming trips between now thru Sept (4 in total, 2 are very long), there may be only one Hilton in it, the Hilton LAX for an overnight before our flight to Hong Kong.

HH did an excellent job, it even created a website for people to submit their credentials. A 10 times better operation than how Hyatt handled it. Though it is doubtful HH will repeat the status match again anytime soon.

runb4fun

For the sake of the argument, let's assume:

1) The only points generated with the card will be from hotel expenses. In other words, I'll not use IHG to earn 2x at gas station nor will I use SPG to earn 1x in regular spending.

2) I'm only out to get free night. So, forget about category, what hotel is better, etc.

3) AF is irrelevant.

4) You can account for any additional status that comes with the card if the said additional status earns you extra points.

Now, the question, as the title says is: using what hotel card/program, can i get the a free room the quickest?

For instance,

I) Any room in Wyndham is 15k. Wyndham card earns me 5x points at Wyndham. So I need to spend 15/5 = $ 3000 at Wyndham to get a free night.

II) The cheapest room I could find with SPG cost 3k in Chicago. I can earn 5x points with their amex card. So, I need to spend $600 at SPG to get a free night.

III) With Club Carlson, at certain hotel it seems like I can get 30x points. Their lowest redemption (although rare) is 9k at Category 1 hotels. So, I only need to spend $300 for a free night. I need to spend $500 at qualifying hotels to get a free night at Category 2 hotels.

Anything else I should look into for maximizing return?

mia

You need to spend $600 at Starwood properties. All other spending earns 1 point per dollar. The "5X" rate is a combination of Starwood Preferred Guest earning plus credit card earnings:

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runb4fun

yes yes, that is what i meant. edited to make it more clear. thanks mia.

gooselee

What is your end game here? More details about exactly what you're trying to do would be useful.

If all you need is a single hotel night and don't care about the property at all, just search around and book the cheapest thing available, including nonchain hotels, basic service brands like Super8, 3rd party rates that don't earn points, etc.

Not worth playing the CC game just to get a single night at any random hotel IMO.

runb4fun

The end game is to occasionally pay to stay in nice places while earning good amount of points that I can redeem later.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

With the Chase/IHG credit card, you get immediate IHG Platinum status, and a 10% rebate on point redemptions (limited to 100,000 rebated points per year). The credit card earns 5 points/$ at IHG properties. IHG Platinum status earns 15 points/$ at Holiday Inn, HI Express, Hotel Indigo, and Crowne Plaza, so a combined earnings rate of 20 points/$ at those brands when charged to the credit card.

After the 10% rebate on redemptions, a one-night PointBreaks stay would have a net cost of $4,500 points, so $225 in spend at any of the four qualifying brands would net a free night. PointBreaks properties change every few months. Here's the current PointBreaks list:

http://blog.ihg.com/ihg-rewards-club...breaks-preview

(Be aware that some properties sell out of PointBreaks rooms quickly.)

The credit-card sign-up bonus is currently 60,000 points, and upon paying the $49 annual fee at renewal, one gets a free-night certificate valid at any IHG property. (I used mine at the InterContinental Times Square last month.)

runb4fun

thanks guv. i already have IHG. i'll use it for this scenario.

runb4fun

I had never heard of this, where can I find this info?

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Never heard of what? The 10 points/$ at those brands? The 50% bonus for Platinum members? Or the 5 points/$ charged to the credit card at IHG properties?

For the first two, see here:

https://www.ihg.com/hotels/us/en/cus...re/faq/program

As to the latter, Google "Chase IHG credit card."

runb4fun

I'm aware of 50% for plat and 5 for IHG. I wasn't aware of 10 points for brand. thanks a bunch for the info. it was very helpful.

sdsearch

Again, you're mixing what the hotel gives versus what the card gives.

The 10 points per dollar spent at IHG you get whether you use the IHG credit card or not. (Except look closely: It's not 10 points at every brand; it's only 5 points at Candlewood Suites, for example!)

Also, the credit points "hotel use bonus" works for incidentals, which at many hotels don't earn any points from the hotel program at all! So yet another reason to keep credit card earning and hotel program earning separate!

At Wyndham, you get a minimum of 1000 points per stay (even if it's a one-night stay), and you didn't factor that in.

So why are you factoring in points that don't come from the card at SPG and IHG?

You need to seperate the marketing hype from the facts. Some credit card companies add the points you earn from the hotel itself (whether you use the credit card or not) to "inflate" the supposed card earnings. The iHG card really earns only 5 points per dollar spent on IHG stays, but the "15 points" hype is because they say you'll earn (not from the card) that much per stay.

But at WyndhamRewars, even at a $30 hotel, you'll earn 1000 points minimum from WR itself and then whatever the card really earns. 5x on $30 is just 150, so if you're always doing 1-night stays at cheap oWyndhamRewards hotels, the card earning itself is pretty marginal, you simply get 1 free night anywhere for every 15 1-night stays at cheapo properties.

It's similar at Choice. While you can earn 5x on the card itself (the card wesbsite touts "15 points" but that's again mixing 10 your get from the hotel program with 5 you get from card), that's dwarfed by the often run "stay 2 times, earn 8000 points" promos. If you're staying at inexpensive hotels, the 4000 points you get from a one-night stay during one of these promos totally dwarfs an 5x $ 75 = 375 points you get from credit card. That's less than a 10% bonus on points by using the credit card. But that's only because the stay bonus itself is that good.

So that's a big point: In a hotel program which gives you big amounts of points for the stay itself (through either bonuses or at WyndhamRewards through regular minimum earnings), the credit card is going to be less signficant.

At a hotel program like like Hilton HHonors which usually does "timid" promos like "double points" and "double points again" and "yet again double points" (which at Hilton really means only 2/3 of your points are doubled), then the credit card earnings may be more significant.

Same goes for any hotel program where you simply can take advantage of the bonus much (because of caps or whatever). There the credit card may be more significant.