Originally Posted by
eajusa
More or less... in some scenarios I get almost 3/4 of a cent per point. I weighed it carefully, and will not apply. I agree that spending 5K for 50K points is not that great. Only SPG has a more expensive sign up bonus, but Starwood offers free nights for far fewer points than does Best Western. There are so many chains that offer 30K points for 1K spend or 50 to 80K for 2 or 3K spend.
Not to mention
the Citi no-fee Hilton HHonors Visa which gets you 50k points for 1K spend, and is (so far still) churnable multiple times per year. (50k HH points may be worth only what 30k at another hotel program might, though. And then, of course, remember that SPG and Hyatt are "calibrated" completely differently than all the other hotel programs, so SPG and Hyatt points should never compared directly to any other hotel program's points.)
Having said all that: If you are traveling only to cities where you can choose from a wide variety of programs, you probably have little need for Best Western. But if you are traveling to small towns, chances are the only programs in those small towns (if any programs at all) are either Best Western, and/or Choice, and/or WyndhamRewards. And then if you travel outside the big capitals in Scandinavia (for example, out on the fjords in western Norway), the only hotel programs that tend to get you anywhere on points in that expensive country are Best Western and Choice.
So it depends on where you travel whether it makes sense to compare earning Best Western points to earning other hotel program's points (and of course, it depends whether those other hotel programs are "lower end" or "major" hotel programs).
Finally: Many Best Western hotels in the USA are very reasonably priced, and it's a good question to ask whether it makes sense to earn Best Western points, if you do need them, from this card, or only from stays at inexpensive Best Western hotels (and bonuses on such stays during stay promotions).