Hi everybody,

I'm looking for a card that I can use towards my vacation in the Spring. I know that I will be going to east Asia (perhaps Hong Kong) for some much needed R&R. I'm wondering what hotel card is best. I have recently seen cards that had as much as 50K points attached to them, but even these only have enough points for one night at a level 4 hotel.

I think I remember seeing a hotel card that was two free nights at ANY hotel in their chain, and some of the hotels (like those overseas) were $800-$1000 a night.

Basically I am looking for the card that will allow me at least one night at one of these top top tier hotels, anywhere in the world. I would even consider booking a vacation specifically around whatever is the most expensive hotel I can find.

Thanks,
Simon

Any suggestions?

I believe you are thinking of the Hyatt Visa from Chase. Within the first year, you can take two nights at any of their properties in the world. It also has no foreign exchange transaction fee, gives you Platinum Status in their loyalty program, and offers one night at a category 1-4 upon renewal. It's $75 a year.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card currently offers a 50,000 point sign up bonus for spending $3000 within the first three months. If you can meet that spend, those points could be transferred to certain hotel chain programs, including Hyatt, for potential redemption for even more than two nights. (Hyatt's top tier hotels are 22,000 points per night.) This card is $95 a year, first year fee waived.

AmEx has a Hilton card, free, that offered a 62,500 signup/spend bonus earlier this year.

I would be sure to research the locations where you want to go if you pick a card for a particular chain. I got that Hyatt card with a trip to Spain or Amsterdam in mind, only to discover later Hyatt has no hotels in either place! Thankfully, between Hyatt and Hilton points, I'm doing five nights in London for free next month.

Ack! I've received 3 chase cards in the last 60 days, no way they're going to be ok with a fourth... I'll look instead for Citibank or BofA or something.

What point system (hhonors, marriot, hyatt) have the nicest international hotel redemptions?

There's also the Intercontinental Hotels Priority Club Visa card out there. It gives you a free stay at any hotel in the chain each year....free night is awarded on your anniversary date. Not sure what the current sign up bonus is right now but it should be enough for one free night. So basically what you are looking at is probably one free night as a sign up bonus and then one free night every year. Details can be found on the IC forum. Return on everyday spend is not the best on this card but I use it for other category spends that earn more points. Hyatt or SPG is better IMHO for everyday spend returns.

What do you consider "nicest?" Each one has it's benefits which vary based on where you are traveling. For example....Starwood is best IMHO for Italy and Greece since they have the most hotels in those areas.

Are you asking specifically for Hong Kong?

I would suggest that you look at the various card options offered by Starwood, Hilton, Marriott, Intercontinental and Hyatt. Then compare the earnings potential and sign up bonuses and also the availability of hotels in the areas you are looking to travel and then chose a card accordingly.

Good luck avoiding Chase. Chase and AmEx have a near lock on the big programs. I think Citi offers a Hilton card. Not sure if it's a better deal than the two Hilton AmEx cards.

I think the Citi Hilton Honors Card recently changed some of their things around. (it used to not be as good as the two AMEX cards) This past week I saw two ads for the card in various papers and I think the earnings ratios are now the same as on the AMEX HH card but I would recommend double checking that.

I have the AMEX SPG (for many years), Chase Marriott Visa (non-premier), and the Chase Hyatt Visa (recently acquired).
If the upfront free night is important, only the Chase Hyatt card offers that (of the cards I have).
Marriott and Hyatt cards provide automatic lowest tier "elite" status for whatever that is worth--free internet access and upgraded rooms for Hyatt worldwide, free internet only in Asia/Pacific for Marriott, late checkout for both brands.
I've actually been very happy with AMEX SPG primarily because of the airline transfer potential (virtually every airline on a 1:1 basis plus a 25% bonus if transferring 20,000 points). I also like Starwood properties in general. Starwood has made a major push into Asia, especially China. Unfortunately, no automatic free night or elite status except for what is called (very quietly) "preferred plus." I've never understood or seen any value to that. I've earned SPG Gold status by having stayed 10 times in a year (AMEX card now provides 2 stay credit towards that goal) or spent $30,000 using the card (and sometimes both in one year). Benefits of SPG Gold used to be unique, but now other programs especially Hyatt seem comparable.
For your purposes I would probably suggest the Chase Hyatt Visa.

I've heard a lot of good things about the SPG. With the 25% bonus when you make transfers, this makes it a great hotel card.

I owned a SPG card for 1 year before I converted it to Blue AMEX card, because of the Annual Fee. Can I reapply for this card, and get 25000 points again ? Can I convert the Blue AMEX back to SPG? Which is a better alternative? Thanks.

Yes. Don't assume you even need points everywhere. If you can find a decent business hotel for US$80/night, why use up tons of overpriced points per night?

I found JJ Hotel to be fine in Hong Kong, and it's often available starting at about US$80ish per night. It's not very famous, but that's why it's a good deal. Back when I went there a few years ago it was only available on an Asia-specific booking site, but now TripAdvisor has several sites you can book it on:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...Hong_Kong.html

Use points only where the hotels are expensive on dollars, if you don't have many points to start with.

I stayed at JJ Hotel for about a week, and I had no problems, once I found it. It's only big drawback is that it's a little hard to find (it's several floors in the middle of a high-rise in the middle of a block, without great signage, and most locals don't know about it, so you have to have the address and directions if someone is driving you there or if you're walking there for the first time. So for a one-night stay, it might not be as practical, but for a multi-night stay, after your first arrival and wandering out around the hotel, you'll know how to find your way back, and it's a great location once you know where you are.

... On the more general point, I agree, if you don't know which country you're going to, it can be folly to choose the hotel program first, because hotel presence varies a lot between countries. One country might have plenty of hotel program A but none of hotel program B, and the next country over it might vice versa!

And, yes, as you noticed, the signup bonuses only tend to cover one or two nights at expensive-on-points hotels. About the only program where you can get two or three nights at expensive-hotel-programs is Hilton HHonors, because you can get signup bonuses for both their Amex (form Amex itself) and their Visa (from Citi). (Tho Citi may at first put the bonus miles in the wrong account, and then you may have to make several calls to fix that!) But once it's done, you'll have the bonuses from both cards in one hotel program.

But again, I wouldn't suggest blowing that someplace where a decent hotel is cheap on cash. I'm sure you'll have a need for more hotels on some future trips, but many of these hotel program cards you may only be able ti sign up for once. So don't get a bunch of bunses and the blow them all away on places where you could have gotten cheap hotels on cash, and end up with ilttle to show for your credit card apps.

Think about foreign transaction fees. Most Chase cards take care of this (PC,Hyatt,UA).

Seems like the concensus is that Hilton points are too devalued, MArriot does not have enough luxury brands. International & Hyatt have too few hotels.

I have AMEX points to transfer and need hotel points.
Which card would be the best.

I tend to ignore "the consensus" when it comes to miles and points and stick with what works for my unique situation. What do you want from a hotel card and where will you be traveling? Considering the issues you bring up, maybe the SPG card would work for you or maybe you'd be better served by a couple hotel cards. Tough to say without more information.

I would not typically transfer MR points to hotel programs as the value is usually not very good but again, it depends on your specific needs.