Originally Posted by
RedRiver
It is definitely easier to accumulate points for Hilton, though they won't go as far as SPG points.
The Hilton Amex gives 6 HHonors Bonus Points for every eligible dollar you spend at Hilton Family hotels, and at grocery stores, drugstores, gas stations, wireless and home phone, internet, cable and satellite TB service providers. It gives 3 bonus points on all other purchases. The current offer is pretty good at 50,000 points.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-50k-easy.html
Hilton also has a Visa card with CitiBank. It gives 6 points at Hilton hotels, 3 points at supermarkets, drugstores, and gas stations, and 2 points on all other purchases. The current offer is decent at 40,000 points.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilto...us-points.html
You CAN get both cards together and you'd have 90,000 points to start with right off the bat. If you and your wife got both, you'd have 180,000 points to start with, plus whatever spend you put on the cards.
SPG only gives 1 point per dollar spent. SPG's points are definitely worth more, but their signup bonus is pretty poor currently. You only get 10,000 points with first purchase and you have to spend $15k to get to get 15k bonus points. So if you could spend $15k on the card, you'd have 40k points. 40k points could be stretched if you use their cash+points option.
All in all, SPG points have more value, but with the current sign-up bonuses, I think Hilton is the better option. You could easily have well over 200k points by the time you book your trip and if you utilize Hilton's cash+points option, you should have enough points for quite a few nights.
I agree with everything RedRiver said but to elaborate I think that to properly do this analysis you need to put a value on what a SPG point is worth and what a HHonors point is worth.
As RedRiver correctly points out a starpoint is worth much more than an HHonors point. Everyone values their points differently and again as RedRiver points out using certain redemption options such as cash and points or AXON also alter the value of your points (but keep in mind both of these redemption options are not available in all circumstances)
In general I value a SPG point at around 1.8 cents. I value a HHonors point at around .6 cents. Therefore a signup bonus of 25,000 SPG (assuming you can meet the spend requirements) is worth about $450. The HHonors signup bonus of 50,000 (since this is the easy portion to earn) I value at $300. If you simultaneously signup for the Citi version and get approved for that too you would earn an additional 40,000 points valued at $240.
At the end of the day you need to spend some time on the websites of both hotel chains doing some dummy award booking and then compare those to dummy paid bookings and derive a point value for your particular redemption patterns.
Originally Posted by
Cubswin
4. Convert the leftover 150,000 American Airlines to HHonors points at a 3 to 5 ratio. You now have 250,000 HHonors points.
I understand that this was part of a broader strategy, but that being said I don't think that's a very good ratio