Wedding Spend
 

I am getting married in August 2014 and hoping to use the wedding spend to go to Hawaii for honeymoon. What credit card bonuses would serve me best. My fiance and I would be flying from Cleveland.

So far I have CSP, SPG Amex, Freedom, US Airways Mastercard. She has CSP and Freedom.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

EDIT: We have decided against Hawaii and are thinking Caribbean....possibly Barbados! Once again, any thoughts and suggestions are appreciated!

Wedding Spend
 

I think hotels are the bigger expense for Hawaii...not so hard to find inexpensive flights. You might consider a hotel credit card like spg Amex which often has a big bonus, or the Amex play from which you can transfer points to multiple programs....but has a large annual fee.

I think you should both get the Hyatt CC, giving you each two free nights to any Hyatt hotel (options on most islands!). You can combine those via two reservations getting you four nights and then you can add additional nights by transferring to Hyatt via UR points. Make sure to do so before Hyatt devalues on January 7th!

Also, it'd be nice to know how many points you have currently within each program!

You are starting late ( trip is in ~ 8 months) but here is away to get 8 free hotel nights without paying any credit card annual fees.

I also believe your US Air card should have a $99 companion fare if you can't pull off the miles needed for 2 flights.

Your best bet saying you are starting from zero hotel points and have no status at any hotel is to get a Hilton Amex card for both of you and the 40,000 points that come with spending $750. Just as important is the HH Amex gives each of you access to book AXON 7 awards.

Then each of you ( you're running short on time so do it the same day) get the 50,000 point/$1000 spend Citi HH Visa. You can each get 2 of these cards every ~70 days, churning 3 cards each will cost you $3,000 in spend and bring over 150K points each.

After getting the HH AMEX and 3 Citi HH Visas and spending $3750 on the cards you each have over 190K HH points which then allows you to book an AXON 7 award which is 4 nights at a Hilton Cat 7 , each of you do this and you will have 8 nights in the same hotel , most likely not even having to change rooms

This hotel is on the beach in Hawaii and a CAT 7 so 190K for 4 nights.

http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/haw...VHH/index.html

The companion pass is only for the continental US and Canada.

I second the idea of the Hyatt card... that's 4 nights easy right there. You can get another 4 with both of you getting the Citi Hilton Reserve, but those certs only work for Fri, Sat or Sun so you'd have to jump between hotels on the weekend (which might not be that much fun on a honeymoon). Or you could just use 3 and save the 4th one for a different trip.

I see that Hyatt car lowered it's spend to $1000 and has no Annual fee the first year so I would go with 2 of those cards if you don't mind changing hotels and book 4 Hyatt Nights.

I would still get a HH Amex and 3 HH visa's for the other 4 nights unless you need a hotel better than a cat 7 as the Reserve Card will involve spending more $$$ ( $ 5,000 vs $ 3,750) and cost $190 in annual fees while the HH visa's and Amex have no annual fee and the 4 nights can be any nights, not just weekends. The Reserve does bring Gold status which will most likely only be a continental breakfast but I do know of Hilton brand hotels in Florida where gold get you an oceanfront room ( if available ) and full cooked to order breakfast.


Being your coming from Cleveland you are going to want to stay 8 nights minimum

Doesn't all of this hurt your credit?

Short answer- yes short term for a little
Long answer- the inquires will ding your credit some, but the available credit will make it raise and as you let some of the cards age the AAOA will also make it raise some, when you cancel the cards try and move the credit around so you don't lose utilization.

You might want to visit myfico and ask about credit.

All they are doing is applying for 4 credit cards each over a 4 month period, nothing compared to what some here do.


I have been denied one credit card in my life and it was from Chase and they can be funny as 60 days later I was approved for the same card with a $20K limit



If you make your payments on time and don't have your balance too high you will be fine IF you have a good credit history

Interesting.... I've always been told to not have more than a few credit cards... is that just false?

You have a lot of posts, do you ever read the cc portion of this forum ?

Look at the AOR ( apparama) threads and you ma lose it, those people have 30 cards open.

All I can say is it never effected me

we switched it up and are now thinking Caribbean, possibly Barbados.....sorry for the inconvenience.....

In that case, unless you're thinking Aruba, better off going with Hilton for a hotel if you are wishing to use points. The Hilton in Barbados is 50k a night or 20k points + $85. You should use some of the strategies above to get HH points.

I would start with one of you getting Citi HH Reserve for 2 free weekend nights and then each getting the Virgin Atlantic CC and transferring the 50k 2:1 to HH for 200k HH points. This would give you two free nights with the Reserve and four nights on points with the VA CC. if you want to add another night, you can get the Hilton Surpass for an additional 60k points or go the Citi route.

Other options are: Bridgetown Resort (Radisson Aquatica), Fairmont and others which I do not know enough about their programs to continue!

Edit: Here's some ideas for the Radisson Resort in Barbados.
You each get the Club Carlson card by US Bank, giving you 170k points + spend (5,000). It takes 44k/night, so that roughly gets you three nights. However, when you book two nights as a cardmember, you get the third night free. Therefore you could both book two nights (88k each) and have the third night free, giving you six nights. In order to get the 176k points, you're going to have to do $200 of additional spending because it's 5x points/$1.

PS: If this doesn't make sense, let me know! I am in the midst of studying for law school finals and as much as a relief this stuff is, I may be making mistakes! :)

Where ever you choose as long as it has a Hilton Cat 7 or less that fits your needs the 8 free night scenario I gave you will work and there are no annual fees to pay.

Pick your dates and the look at the hotels as Hilton points go up and down with the season and hotels can cost more than 50K per night. For instance the Cat 7 I stay at in Florida each year varies from 30k to 60K per night throughout the year, the good thing is the 190K 4 night AXON award works year round.

Whatever earning route you choose you have to spend some decent cash to get the free points and be able to get approved for every card so I would get going now.

Wow, throwing curve balls arent we, first I thought I wanted to the Citi Hilton and was just going to get that card and churn as everyone else does here, but now you bust out this VA CC which seems like a hell of a deal

Which would you go with to get hilton points and just start stacking them up for when you need them?