I think Hyatt clearly makes more sense than Marriott. Also makes more sense than the Hilton Visa. I am currently using the HH Amex as primary and Hyatt card as backup.

Keep in mind the points required for each category and also the liberalness of each program with its rankings. For example in Seattle hilton requires 25K spend, marriott requires 25K spend and Hyatt requires 15K spend. Grand Hyatt is the best hotel of all those.

Chicago yields similar results unless you think the palmer house hilton, conrad or marriott are more similar to the Park hyatt than the Hyatt regency.

My experience with Hilton is that everything is a cat. 7. Equivilant hotels might be anything from a cat 4 to a cat 8 at other chains. If you need a room in a midpriced city like Seattle or LA hilton sucks because you pay cat. 7 prices.

Also I like to compare to those who earn points by staying at hotels. At HH you get 15 points per dollar spent. So visa yields 2 points or 13% of what hotel guest gets. Hyatt is 5 points per dollar so the CC pays 20%. Marriott earns 10 points per dollar so the car pays 10%.

My opinion is that the marriott sucks and hyatt is OK. HH amex and SPG are the best.