JakeW

Sweet, good to know. I'm checking right now (not logged in) and it shows 91,750 miles per night, but maybe because I showed 6 people per room. Did you put in 2 per room? 4 per room? It seems like 2 bed/2 bath could easliy sleep 6. Do you know if they have an occupancy limit on those suites?

JakeW

Sorry, it's my mom's 50th, not my wife If it was my wife's, we'd definitely be going all out! Actually, might make a great 30th in a few years, but most likely will include Italy and a lot of wine

JakeW

Thanks for the tip. I'll create a profile and see what I can find

sdsearch

First, stop worrying about the new devaluation in abstract. Some hotels got devalued, but many stayed about the same, and a few even gotter better. And meanwhile, several other program devalued at the very same time (you just may not have realized because you weren't paying attention to them the way you were to HHonors), and since Priority Club went from award pricing by brand to award pricing by tiers (totally decouple from brand), that change was way bigger than the changes at HHonors.

Next, stop focusing only on AOR. The key to HHonors is that this card:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...nors-visa.html

is churnable several times a year. Thus if you're not doing AORs several times a year, you should "decouple" this card from AOR-only thinking. It's fine to get your first one on your next AOR (and you can get that one at the same time you get the Reserve), but for subsequent apps, don't wait for your next AOR if that's a long way off.

(It used to be that you could get 2 of the 50k HHonors cards at a time, but about a month ago that ended. But you should still be able to get one every few months at least.)

And the other key to HHonors is that it's so much easier to earn HHonors points through credit card signups (because the above card is so frequently chunrable), that even if HHonors points are worth less in abstract, you may be able to get more recurring hotel nights out of HHonors compared to other programs (where even if the redemption rates may look better, the earning is harder).

Finally on HHonors, do you realize that the best value these days is often cash+points, and that the savings with that can dwarf any losses with outright-award devaluation?

So stop reacting to headlines, please.

caGALINDO

75k HA arent bad if you wanna go to HA...

JakeW

So, since I have all year, should I try to maximize UR points? I could do a couple Chase Ink Bold for another 100,000 and have my wife sign up for CSP for 40,000. Can I use those at the Westin and/or another Kaanpali resort?

kpd905

Do you have to cancel the card each time, or do you upgrade/switch to another card?

2000subaru

Don't forget that your Hyatt free nights have a 1 year expiration. I'd hate to see you overlook that.

Alex_I

If you are a little flexible with dates, you may consider staying in Westin from Feb 21, 2014. Then your nightly rate will be 12K SPG points per night. Because SPG will give you the 5th night for free, you may want to stay 02/21/2014-02/26/2014 for 48K SPG points per room. This will give you 2 rooms for 5 nights for the total of 96K of SPG points instead of just 3 nights if you are staying before Feb. 21.
We had no problem with taking our 15 year old son for an award stay at Westin Maui.


Finally, for 6 adults in the party I would simply rent a condo or a 3 bedroom townhouse for the entire stay and shop for supplies at the local Costco.
This way you will not be paying for an extra adult and avoid resort fees that are added to the award stays. And if you don't mind cooking your own breakfast you will be $aving even more.
This would save you and your wife enough SPG points for another nice vacation!

bta15

You can use UR points at the hyatt or Marriott.

You could also get a british airways cc, use 50k avios for 2 RT tickets on AS to Maui (if you live on west coast in a city with direct flights), then use the money that you were gonna use for companion fares for hotels.

Miles Meyers

I do this all the time for my brother, mom and dad, since I am the mileage junkie of the family. Just make sure you have all their key info on hand, if they ask if you are that person, say yes. If they continue to make a stink about it, just have your wife (or whoever you may be calling for) on hand to pipe in and say you are calling together, and she has a sore throat or something. If all else fails, follow the Golden CSR Rule and just call back.

floyd777

Quick update - last card - Freedom was also approved.

5 out of 5 - now just to figure out how to spend $7250 in 3 months

kpd905

If I applied for and received a Chase Freedom and an Amex BCP card in the last 3 months, will I have trouble getting any of the following cards in an AOR in the next few days?

Amex PR Gold (50k) (1000/3 months)
Citi AA Visa (50k) (3000/ 4 months)
Amex Hilton HHonors (50k) (750/3 months)
Citi Hilton HHonors (50k) (1500/6 months)
Chase Sapphire Preffered (40k) (3000/3 months) or Southwest Chase (50k) (2000/3 months)

sdsearch

In case you're not aware, with Citi, unless you cancel 6 months before you need the credit limit from the cancelled card again, the credit limit from the cancelled card will not be available for new card apps. So with Citi, it's generally better to not cancel before applying for a new card, because they might ask you (in the new card app process) if they can move credit limit from one of your existing cards to your new card.

And, also, Citi doesn't care whether you have an existing card or not. (For those cards where there's a "first-time cardholder" clause, like the AA 50k cards, the long 2-year-ish wait is from the time you last applied for a card of that type, not from when you cancelled.)

Now, if you're doing this repeatedly this fast, you'll eventually get to a point of having "too many" Citi cards ("we can't open another card for you, you're at your limit"), so at least by that point you'll have to cancel some. But the point is you don't have to cancel all the cards you have of that type to apply for another one.

Having said all this: While the maximum churn rate would appear to be one every 65+ days, I don't know many people who've even done it several times a year. Not because it's not possible, just because not that many people tried going to the limit that way.

(I myself have only applied for a couple a year, then cancelled and waited at least 6 months and actually usually much longer, then applied for a couple more, etc, back in the time -- prior to about a month ago -- when you could apply for two of them at once.) I've got over 500,000 HHonors points, and I only apply tend to apply for this card just enough to "replenish" after using some. But obviously, with that many, and not using them that fast, I'm not in great need of building up my stash as quickly as possible. (FYI: I maintain points in quite a few different hotel programs, and use each program only when that seems like the best option for me in that city. So it's not like I use HH every time I'm in a city that has an HH property. And that's why only need to replenish my HH points occasionally.)

But, at any rate, the above-linked thread is a better place to discuss how to best churn this card, as the situation has been changing a lot as of late, and may or may not continue to change.

rajin

This is a silly thought. Have you considered that money can be used to purchase good and services, including hotels and airfare?