gkbiiii

There is a promo listed that you can get the top (Gold Elite) level in 5 stays. Then you get a 50% bonus on all stays (20 points per dollar: plus Elite bonus), great elite point promos (20k bonus for five stays), plus 50% off hotel night point stays, up to four nights. Also I have found that many of their hotels are at or near your price point of $100, even in Europe. There are many Radisson, Park Plaza, Park Inn, Regent, Country Inn & Suites, and SAS properties throught Europe. Seems a good option to Holiday Inn and great Sleep Number Beds too!

theplug

hsolo, I've been doing exactly what you want to do for the past 8 years. Itravel in canada every week and stay in starwood properties (namely 4 points by sheraton). With all the promotions and my spg MC crecit card, I've had enough points for 2 weeks in Hawaii in 2007 and another 2 weeks in Italy last year. This is all done with 100 to $140 hotels. Current promotion is get 500 points per night and an extra 5K after 10 nights.

Highly recommend Starwood. Great service as well if you become platinum (24 stays per year). You then get elite bonus points and 3 points per $ spent at the hotel, a dedicated platinum phone line where i've never been on hold.

Happy travels

MaryAO

Have a business. Didn't know Starwood had MC. Now have HHiltonAMEX.
Like no annual fee. Any suggestions? Use points for hotel stays

BMGRAHAM

I didn't think MBNA existed anymore, they were acquired by Bank of America. Do you have a link for where I can find more about the card you mention?

soitgoes

The MBNA/BoA SPG Mastercard is for Canadian residents only.
https://wwwa.applyonlinenow.com/CACC...=bdyl&lc=en_CA

Points Surfer

Not counting hotel credit cards or stay X get a free night promos....in my experience you''ll earn more points faster with Priority Club Rewards "if" you use FT. Unlike other programs that are often targeted, PCR can often allow you to collect under several points promo's at once. To maximize value you can save rewards and used the Points Breaks for 5000 pts (doing 2 nights this weekend at the IC Yorkville Toronto for 10K and saving $360+ ) or convert into Amex Stay anywhere cards like we did with Fairmont Banff Springs & Lake Louise. I've dabbled in other programs but always come back to PCR to generate the best return....of course I'll take points from any vendor so sign up for them all anyway.

Wayfahrer

In general how status expires in hotel programs if you only acquire status by staying? Say, you have stayed in the year 10 days in X branded hotels: you are gold. you have stayed 25 days: you are platinum. What happens next year? How status expires or does not expire as the general rule; industry standard?

pinniped

OP: you mention business trips in the $100/nt. range. Are these small/medium towns or extremely rural spots? Are they in a particular region of the U.S.? Along major interstates? Do you also have rural Canada trips?

IHG tends to go a full degree "more rural" than Fairfield Inn or Hampton Inn (at least in the U.S.). Often with new-ish HIX properties. I've stayed in a few HIX's in recent years that were a solid 45 miles from the nearest FI or HI, some in little towns that are not near an Interstate.

Play the promos right and you can be sitting pretty with points in a hurry.

If your goal is resort properties on your awards, then Hilton could be a very good experience...but recommending them would be useless if you're traveling to places without Hampton Inns.

Using Marriott will be disappointing: even if you hit a high elite tier, Marriott excludes resorts from most elite benefits.

Starwood is a great experience as a Platinum - perhaps the best you can reasonably get - but they have almost no rural or small-town footprint. Even in suburban areas where they're building out Aloft and Element, they are often above $100 during the week.

philemer

This is an OLD thread so I'm going to close it and ask anyone still interested in the topic to start a new thread. Thanks.