Originally Posted by
vulgarboatman
You will have to do your own research but here are some ideas. I had a Chase United and added 4 more Chase in 10 months without the slightest hint of trouble. Given that you can transfer Sapphire to Hyatt there is a possibility right there, not that I would burn those in that way. Better used for airfare in my case. The Hyatt gives two free nights anywhere on signup. Must be used in 12 months which requires care; I and my wife each got it so 4 free nights, but we had a trip to Paris already booked with an apartment and so could not use the nights there which would have been pretty cool. Now we are looking at the deadline wondering where to use and not lose those nights, looks like it will be Chicago Park Hyatt but clearly could have been planned better. I suggest waiting and getting the Hyatt within 12 months of a trip to someplace $$. We did convert Sapphire to Hyatt for a week stay at Andaz NYC and that was so nice. SPG miles-and-points can be good, the Million Mile, TPG, and Award Guru blogs each have a different take and can be a useful read.
Note that my experience is based on staying at luxury hotels, I do stay downmarket but usually pay cash for that. Your style may be different. Priority club might be better for the more ordinary stays. PS I am in Saettle, pm me with questions if you want. You might consider Priceline for the hotels, the downtown hotels are pretty nice and there are too many of them and the pricelining can be good.
Thanks for the advice.
The other couple we are going to New England with will be getting the Chase Hyatt deal, so we have 2 rooms for 2 nights at the Regency Hyatt Boston ($150 for a $1,200 hotel bill is nice savings).
I think my wife and I will sign up for the Chase Hyatt deal after this spring, we might go to London or NYC next spring.
Only reason Hilton points are attractive is because of the flexibility in some of these areas we are traveling, and the ability to acquire A LOT of them for low spends, plus it saves on Chase cards (I still want to try and get the Sapphire card). If you can do a churn with the BoH 35k (70k) hilton points, BoA VS Amex (90k hilton points), Citi 40k hilton points, that's 200k hilton points for a relatively low spend and I've saved the ability to get the more "valuable" chase cards.
I would also like one of us to get a SPG card, but since we did the Delta Gold deal for some easy miles, they won't approve another application for at least 30 days (i applied and was denied, but told to apply again after 90 days).
I'm a novice, and I didn't churn my cards all on the same day the first time through. Going forward, I'm going to be more coordinated and less reactionary. My wife is still somewhat dubious of having all of these credit cards open, so it has been hard to convince her to apply for some of these.
Also, I think I'll just book cancellable hotel reservations for these next trips, try for the hilton points and if I don't get them, use priceline to name my price and see if I can swing some deals.