Originally Posted by
pinniped
I too have a little spreadsheet somewhere...a little different from Guava's raw numbers but similar in conclusion.
Specifically, the conclusion: someone who actually does a huge number of actual hotel nights gets the biggest bang-for-buck from Hilton or Marriott. (In my analysis, these two were very close - perhaps because I was valuing the Travel Packages a bit higher.)
Or perhaps your HH double dip partner assumption wasn't BD, in which case, it would reduce the value of your HH awards overall quite significantly. In the past two months or so, I racked up over 60,000 BD miles thanks to the HHonors Q2 promo on some 20 hotel nights only. This translates into roughly 5
return trips within North America and the Carribbean/Mexico in First/Business class award on UA, US and AC (11,250 miles + 75 GBP cash for each trip + a total of rougly 20~40 GBP in taxes/airport fees per trip). Clearly, you need to have experience with BD in order to appreciate the amazing value it can bring and this cannot be learned overnight. It's not just what's on paper, it's also how to deal with BD's ICC which is an art form on its own.
I've done a similar analysis for credit cards: someone who does few actual hotel nights gets their biggest value from SPG or HH Amex, with the two being very close. (I still give SPG the edge.) Marriott is a very distant third here, although the aforementioned Free Night Certificate still makes their card worthwhile.
I don't agree with this, the SPG AMEX's lack of double point features on everyday purchases + an annual fee signifcantly cut against its overall attractiveness.