Originally Posted by
bladerunner6
I am not annoyed at all. We buy points at discount, leverage the two IHG cards so we get 10% back and/or four nights for the price of three. We get an anniversary night that is worth more than the annual fee, room upgrades, better treatment, welcome points or drinks, late checkout and sometimes other random perks.
I know hotel points combined with co-branded credit cards totally rock if you are savvy about using them.
Well, yeah, Flyertalkers who pay close attention to the programs and know how to extract value from ideal acquisition and redemption of points can still make out well.
But to millions of others, the marketing of these programs is a little sneaky at best, intentionally deceptive at worst. They make a lot of implied promises to someone who isn't already super experienced in being disappointed by these brands.