Originally Posted by stevens397
But for those of us who amass most of our points from charge cards, there is no questions that Starwood is the way to go. It requires many fewer Starpoints for a room than any other chain.
Hold on a second.
I love Starpoints as much as anyone, but as a fellow credit card guy, you need to look at your bang for the $CC. I get 4,5, or 6 Hilton points per $CC - 5 from 5X spending on my Hilton Amex, 4 or 6 from my MR Amex, which has been in a perpetual promotion state since November of last year. For enough points for a top-end 6-night award at Hilton, I need to put no more than $43,750 on my cards. Your 5-night award at the Princeville requires $48,000 in CC spending. The wildcard will be how easy it is to get Hilton awards with this new gold benefit. And do top-end Hiltons measure up to a cat 5 Starwood?
Having said that, we were at the Princeville earlier this year - it's a tough act to beat.