Originally Posted by Efrem

Don't know much about the Hyatt program, but between the others: if a Hilton point is worth about 1/3 of a typical airline mile, it would seem that you get 1 airline mile per $3 from Starwood but the equivalent of 4 from HHonors. To the extent that earning maximum miles from this meeting is your objective, that would seem to make it a no-brainer. (It becomes 1.25 from Starwood if you transfer at least 20,000 of them to an airline program at one time, but the gap is still pretty big.)

That said, unless the properties you're choosing among are comparable in all other respects, there are more important things than miles to consider in this decision. I realize this may be FT heresy, but speaking as someone who's been responsible for lots of meetings of different sizes, the downside of the wrong choice far outweighs the loss of a few miles. It may at first seem that there can't be a "wrong choice" among major chains, but believe me, there can. Of course they'll all have the basics covered, but that's not the issue. The #1 choice factor, IMHO, is the hotel's coordinator you'll work with. Make a bad choice here, and you'd give up any number of miles to be able to change your mind.