Hilton points tend to be fairly useless for any even remotely desirable hotels, and everyone in the USA has gold or diamond status from their CC. Right now, Hyatt is the only decent program left since SPG was swallowed up, but since that is not one of your options, I say Marriott wins hands down. They have been devaluing their points quite a bit, but not nearly as bad as Hilton (where standard rooms in 4* hotels can easily go for over 250k/night). Obviously, your location and the type of hotels you stay in is very important (urban or suburban; USA vs EU vs Asia, etc). If your travel is mostly in the USA, then Hilton status is completely worthless for anything above the absolute minimum that is guaranteed. Right now, I am sitting on 300k Hilton points and artificial Gold status, yet I cannot find a single hotel in any of my travels (US/EU/Asia) that I want to stay at.
If you are in the USA, your best bet is to focus primarily on Marriott. You can get the $95 AF Hilton card, which grants Gold Status for free breakfast and upgrades on the occasion that a Marriott is not available or convenient.
Last edited by downinit; Jan 10, 2019 at 7:15 am