Debrief from a recent trip of which I used the Chase travel portal to book my hotels:

- Langham Hotel, London: Booked using points boost and "The Edit". The direct rate corresponded with the refundable breakfast rate for ~$900/night. I have stayed here before and the breakfast was a ~50 GBP value per person and was quite enjoyable. Not a .... continental buffet. We checked in at 8AM after our red eye flight, which was value in itself. The front desk gave us a whole packet explaining the benefits. We used the $100 credit for breakfast on the arriving morning, though it did not include service charge, which I was a little irritated with. They also tried to tack on a "discretionary service charge" of which I discretionarily removed.

- Nimb Hotel, Copenhagen: Booked using points boost and "The Edit". The direct rate was ~$50/night cheaper on the Chase travel portal on their regular refundable rate of $1,500/night. The breakfast would have been 350 DKK a person, and was quite enjoyable. Again, not a .... continental buffet. We used the $100 credit on massages from the spa, which was properly credited. They gave us late checkout at 1PM the day we left.

I value reward points at whatever rate I can get straight cash from them, or $0.01/point with UR. I would have never stayed at either of these hotels if I was paying cash for them. However I very much enjoyed a high class stay at both brands. Based on this, the points boost and Edit hotels were of great value to me. Ultimately Chase is playing a game with the whole Edit/Points Boost concept. The participating hotels are trying to fill rooms, and there are very few hotels anywhere under $500/night. A lot of the participating hotels are places which have a strong floor on pricing, regardless of the time of year or day of the week you are booking. The Four Seasons brand is a perfect example of this. It should be noted that during high demand periods, a lot of hotels disappear off the Edit and/or Points Boost list. Seattle is a perfect example of this, though other cities are similar. Weekends in the summer have next to nothing, but a weekday in February have a lot. The Edit hotels are obviously focused on bigger cities.

Aside from all of this, I definitely think it is somewhere were all parties can be winners. The Langham was a great hotel in a great location in Central London that I got for $450/night with a killer breakfast and an early check in that made my trip much more enjoyable. They filled an empty room. You just have to be okay with paying that much per night. This is not a tool for staying at a Hilton Garden Inn.

Some other thoughts and strategies:

• Confirm the direct rate with the hotel for any bookings using the Chase portal.
• Sometimes the Chase portal will only offer "upgraded" rooms, even though regular rooms are available on the direct site. If you don't want the upgrade, it may devalue your point redemption.
• If the direct website has a breakfast rate, the Chase portal may be using that rate for its comparison booking. If you don't want the breakfast, it will devalue your point redemption.
• If the direct website has refundable versus non-refundable rates, the Chase portal will likely match the most expensive. If you don't want refundable rates, it will devalue your point redemption.
• The $100 credit does not include service charges or other resort mandated fees.

One question I do have: Are the $250 credits cumulative to the end of the year? That is if I don't travel in Q1 and Q2, but travel in Q3 will I have a $500 credit for a stay or only the $250 for the second half of the year, with the first $250 credit forfeited.