question from a to-be-bride. plz help.
 

Hi all,
I am getting married on Feb 2012. A few of my relatives( 10) from abroad will be attending my wedding here in Pennsylvania and they'll be staying with us for approx. 2 weeks. I live in a 1 br apartment and I cannot accomodate them there so the obvious choice is a economical place like the choice hotel chain. I really need your help to get a gr8 deal with rewards and points.
I am new to points and mile and rewards CC as a whole. Me and my boyfriend applied for the 2 AA visa/amex cards as we'd b spending a lot of money on the wedding and we cud use the bonus points for our honeymoon later. The other CC we have is the chase southwest card with 50k offer. And we both have discover and chase freedom as our old cards. I read that we can convert choice hotel points to SW points but not other way round :( Is there any way we can use the points from our existing cards or apply new cards to get free or cheap nights at choice hotels. I know they are already very affordable but with all the other wedding expenses we'd like to save as much as possible and besides we only need place for them to crash at night.
I am researching extensively on this too but if someone here knows a good idea we'd really appreciate the help. This would make our wedding very successful :)

Yes, the Choice hotels are modest in price, but the rewards program isn't that generous, from what I've seen.

Do you have any Hyatt Places near you? The reason I ask is that the Chase Sapphire Preferred has a 50K signon bonus with a 3K spend. The 50K points can transfer to Hyatt points 1:1, and most Hyatt places have redemptions at the 5K or 10K levels.




http://www.hyatt.com/gp/en/awards/index.jsp

Go to the above and see if there are any low point awards near you where your guests could stay.

http://goldpassport.hyatt.com/gp/en/...jsp?category=1

Another option is the Chase Marriott

thank you so much for your reply. I checked and there are no cheaper hyatt places near me :(
I applied for chase southwest card just last week. will i get approved for the chase marriot card? The wedding is in Feb so i should be good if i wait a lil bit and apply for the marriot card right? Any other idea would be highly appreciated.
Thank you

Ask yourself how many guests you want to be able host, what hotels are close to you, what your time frame is, what your general credit score is, is your fiancee and other family members willing to participate in this too, etc.

Many of these cards have requirements for a minimum spend, which can be time consuming for the average Joe, so watch out for that.

The special credit card thread is a good place to start:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...er-thread.html

You might spend a few minutes reading some general blogs about points & miles such as

http://www.freefrequentflyermiles.com/index.htm

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/mommypoints/

http://thepointsguy.com/beginners-guide/

Not saying the Choice hotel card is a bad choice, just make sure you can get what you expect for the 24K current sign on bonus:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...signature.html

Priority club (Holiday Inn) might be a good choice too if you are outside the major metro areas

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/inter...ed-1st-yr.html

Depending on the Choice properties near you, you may find the program worthwhile. Choice redemption values can be crazy. For example, a hotel in Virginia Beach near my home is currently available for 20K points/night although it costs only $70/night to stay there: http://www.clarionhotel.com/hotel-vi...state_country=. On the other hand, I'm getting ready to stay at a Choice propety in London that costs 8000/night in points but $250/night if paid in cash. You have to check award redemption costs for your area.

The lower range Choice redemptions run from 6000 to 8000 points per night but can run as high as 25K per night. If you have properties in your area that are in the lower range for the dates around your wedding, you and your boyfriend could each apply for the Barclay's/Choice card that's running a 24K bonus on first purchase, plus a 16K bonus on first stay. If you and your boyfriend do a weekend trip and split the payment for your room between yor two cards (I'd suggest staying in two different properties just to be sure you qualify for the bonus), then you'd have 80K points. Even if awards couldn't cover the entire period, you might find that you could cover a fair amount and then would only have several extra days that would have to be paid for out of pocket.

Keep in mind that Choice redemptions require the same amount of points no matter the room you choose in the hotel, so you could choose a room with a king-size bed as well as a sleeper sofa that might accommodate four adults. That would also reduce your redemption costs.

thank you so much guys...i'll look into the articles and try to find the best solutions for me. You guys are really helpful :)
I'll b back if I have more question.

After thinking about it awhile, since you are interested in budget properties, I would look closely at the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Citi ThankYou Premier. But you need to get moving on these to get the minimum spending done before your deadline.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...irst-year.html

Both have more flexible points than high-end branded cards like the Hyatt Hilton Marriott etc.

I just went to both the Chase Ultimate Rewards website and the Citi ThankYou web site, with Harrisburg as an example (not to say you live there).

My almost 57,000 UR points are spendable up to $700 through their travel web site, which should get several nights at Super 8, Howard Johnson, America's Best Value, etc. To be clear you have to book through Chase's UR website (I don't think you can access it until you get a UR account); however their prices seem un-inflated vs. a normal budget motel/hotel.

Same thing at Citi's ThankYou website. 50K points will buy several nights at Howard Johnson at 6,492 points each night.

As far as two cards goes, most people with good credit scores are able to get two Chase cards within a short amount of time. If you are denied, there is a reconsideration phone line to call to ask to get your credit limit moved from one cc to another.

I think the general rule of thumb for Citi is one new (different) card every 60 days.

Be sure to get your fiance and any stateside family members with good credit involved too if you can.

Not to stray too far OT, but I read in another thread that you'll be staying at the Comfort Inn Hyde Park. That's another of the London hotels I've been keeping an eye on.

Would appreciate a report on the hotel when you get back.

Thanks.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

Welcome to FT and congratulations on your upcoming wedding.

Have you considered using Priceline's name your own price/bidding method to get rooms on the cheap too?

I was there some weeks back: small rooms, tight bathrooms, with the rooms looking as if the rooms/bathrooms have all been recently renovated; breakfast not worth getting up for; complimentary bottles of water in the room; pleasant enough staff but very lightly staffed, as if you want an iron, you have to go down and pick it up yourself to take back to the room; convenient location, including to two Tube/Underground stops, although one of them was closed last I wanted to use it. I'll be using the hotel again.

And again to interrupt for a test of the emergency broadcast system--I will indeed do a report, but echoing GUWonder, my preliminary research on TripAdvisor and booking.com confirms his comments and were a factor (in addition to the 8K redemption cost) in my decision to stay there.

This was only a test. . .

I would suggest contacting a local hotel and telling them you want to book approx. 3-5 rooms for 2 weeks (42-70 total room nights) and ask if there is a reduced rate he can give you.

This can be done with any accommodation you decide to go with.