CPRich

Other than extremely limited special events, when are redemptions at SPG "not allowed"?

I can't understand your second statment. I've gladly spent 7,000 points for a room that would have cost $225. Why can't you fathom this? How are you comparing a stay with a property - that just makes no sense.

StephenW

More of the first point I made, that the Cat 7's are not really a good value for redemption, especially at 'all suite' properties. You are correct - extremely limited special events, specifically around the holiday season. I have not run into these issues with redeeming my Hilton or Hyatt stays.

Regarding your second comment, I was originally going to add that there are some Cat 1 and Cat 2 sweet spots where you're seeing 2-4 cent per point redemptions, but I decided not to complicate things in my post (and somewhat contradict myself). You are absolutely correct and I think these are some of the best redemptions to make.

I would also like to add that I'm not against SPG in any way - in fact I have 200k+ points. The program just doesn't fit my personal travel preferences right now.

pinniped

I've had good luck with SPG for "somewhat-big" special events. (e.g. Not the Olympics or Super Bowl.) I've used SPG points for Oktoberfest, Rose Bowl, 3 of the 5 big-city marathon "majors", and several resort Spring Break stays where paid rooms were going for rack rate and the hotel ended up sold out.

Plus a few other smaller/regional type events...regular-season college football games and the like.

In most of these cases, the local Marriotts had gamed the system and were preventing award rooms from being booked. I wasn't as active with HH for many of them, but in the few cases I checked I didn't have much luck there either.

My best HH experiences redeeming rooms are mostly outside the U.S. My best Marriott experiences redeeming rooms have been MVCI or city hotels. (Marriott's withholding of elite benefits at "resorts" is annoying.)

sdsearch

What do you mean by MVCI?

pinniped

Marriott Vacation Clubs - the timeshare villa properties.

SteamyUncle

I am with you on that one. I am here to afford what I can't
If you like the HH sweet spots, nothing beats it.
6 nights a year in the Maldives for 380000 points is good enough to buy my loyalty, earning rate at Hilton being absolutely awesome, even without a CC.
If you are looking to redeem outside Asia or Egypt, just don't pick Hilton.... or get ready to start a cash+points quest

valdor

What about the other chains? They seem to get neglected a lot on Flyertalk but if you play the game properly you can get amazing value out of them.

Accor (3600 hotels)
Choice (6372 hotels)
Shangri-la (80 hotels)
Wyndham (7400 hotels)

There are also non-chain programs that can be very valuable for some. LHW is a good example.

pinniped

I don't think they're totally neglected. I suspect for a lot of people they present some challenges in that they don't have as robust of a standard business hotel brand where many Flyertalkers earn the bulk of their hotel points. So that makes them less popular here than MR, SPG, HH, and HY.

I will log a Wyndham stay in a small-town Ramada next month, but that's the only stay this year where any Wyndham property will even be considered. It's a town where the Ramada is the best hotel for 25 miles in any direction...otherwise I'd be in a Fairfield, HIX, or Courtyard.

I think IHG would be immensely more popular here if the Crowne Plaza brand was stronger. That program has both excellent luxury hotels and great rural coverage (not to mention solid promos, good earnings for members, and international coverage)...but without the strong Marriott/Hilton competitor brand in the middle for my standard urban business trips it's hard to give them many of my stays.

sdsearch

Except that this a thread about hotel status tiers, not just redemption.

And Choice and Wyndham (I don't know about the other two) don't have in-hotel benefits for status. In fact, Wyndham doesn't have true elite status at all (they have something they call "gold status", but it's nothing more than a points promo), and at Choice the main benefit of status is a greater booking "window" (at Choice you can't book award stays far ahead of time, but how far ahead you can book depends on your elite status level).

So it depends what threads you're reading as to why these programs are "neglected".

Choice and Wyndham are rightfully neglected in threads about elite status (like this one). They're also rightfully neglected in threads about getting multiple hotel nights at desired destinations with credit card signup bonuses, since their credit cards generally have not so good signup bonuses).

The main reason Accor isn't mentioned is because it has extremely little presence in the US, where most FTers that participate in these general discussions tend to be based. Also, Accor "fractures" its frequent guest programs, where some brands have one program and other brands have another program!

And there a lots of different programs that have 80 hotels or so.

spearsba

Well I'll buck the trend here and say I prefer Hilton Honors to all others. I maintain Diamond status, rake in points plus points. While the redemption rate was devalued, I still earn enough for really nice vacations. A week in Hawaii last year, 4th of July week at Destin Embassy Suites this year. Lots of points in my account. I just pick and choose when to redeem.

In house benefits are also nice, upgrades, breakfasts. I will stay in an Embassy Suites for the manager's reception and breakfast over staying at a Hilton to be on the Executive level. Plus the locations I travel to have very nice Hilton properties. Lots of new-styled Embassy Suites popping up as well.

I used to use Hyatt, and enjoyed them a lot. However, my business travels just don't give me much Hyattt choice.

I had too many bad experiences with Marriott back when I was new in my job and bounced between Hilton and Marriott. Marriott may have changed, but Hilton would have to piss me off to get to start over in a new program.

pinniped

spearsba, are you still getting good (meaningful) Diamond upgrades in 2014? I'm Diamond as well...and will probably keep it as long as it's easy to maintain via credit card...but the upgrade side of things has gotten weak for me in recent years. Many properties are sticking to the "one category" rule, and lots of properties insert a junk "category" or two into their hierarchy to effectively prevent themselves from ever having to give an actual suite to a Diamond.

I do still enjoy the other aspects of the on-property benefits and we've managed to find some sweet spots where devaluation wasn't too crushing. But all of my *best* HH upgrades where as a Gold many years ago...where getting a junior suite or otherwise large, desirable room was routine for Golds (and obviously Diamonds too).

SteamyUncle

I got upgraded at Conrad, Hilton and WA to the Executive floor every single time my last 80 nights. This includes WA NYC and the awful Conrad Indy in the US.

spearsba

Doubletree seems to give me the best upgrades. The Doubletree in Waikiki most always puts me on the penthouse floor with a nice big suite. Most Embassy Suites that have the "premium floor" place me on that if I ask in lieu of the HHonors floor.

Actual Hiltons I travel to in Tokyo, Seoul, and Frankfurt always treat you like a king.

I tend to use my points for long weekends or weeks that I was not able to plan out and get a good rate. The short notice rate is ridiculous, for example, last 4th of July weekend we wanted to stay at the Embassy Suites in Destin, FL. The rooms were running $379 per night. The points redemption was 40K per night. I figure 120K points for three nights instead of $1137 plus tax was a better deal.

vickh

I think a good deciding factor would be current promos.

Do we have a thread that tracks that across diff. chains?

sdsearch

One problem with that is that more and more promos these days are targeted in their specifics. For example, Marriott's fall MegaBonus has half a dozen or so variations, and IHG's fall Into The Nights promo has almost as many variations as it has members. So how do you track such promos, except to mention their existence?

Anyway, I don't know about a thread, but this site:
does its best to try to gather all that up into one place.