Mastermind

Hyatt 1-4's includes most major "cities" including, Boston, Vegas, Austin, Toronto, Seattle, Chicago, D.C., San Fran, Denver, Tampa, Miami, ATL, etc.
Some Hyatt Cat 4's are equivalent to IHG Cat 9's.

This also includes great cat 4 resort properties such as:
Hyatt Coconut Point Resort
Andaz Costa Rica

lotrbfme

Hyatt has too few properties overall and the aspirational ones are 6 and 7. IHG has a lot of properties and you can use them in any of them.

I have both. But if I were to have only 1 it would be IHG for sure.

nk15

Here is my list:

1. Ritz Carlton visa, for $395 gives you Marriott Gold (free breakfast), Priority Pass lounge access (you plus one guest), and $300 credit for incidentals.

2. Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton Citi Reserve, and IHG all equally good.

thebob6

Wouldn't the AMEX Plat (with its included Hilton Gold) make the Hilton card kinda pointless?

jediwho

I have both the Plat and Citi HHonors. I got Reserve because of the annual free night after 10K spending (the signup bonus does not hurt) and 3x on spending. So, every year, you get a free night and every other year you can get 2 free nights (one with certificate and the other with points). Amex Plat is mostly for Centurion lounges and GoGo passes.

christianj

If your expecting or even hoping for a room upgrade as an IHG Platinum I think you will be left disappointed. Sure it can happen but in my experience it is very rare.

If your strictly looking at which card gets you the best bang for your annual fee it is a good card because you can use it at ANY hotel. (That is until they devalue the card benefits because they've gutted the program so much that that's the only place they can save any more)

lotrbfme

I agree with you. However I have been upgraded on IHG properties 7/10 compared to marriott gold 0/5 it depends a lot on where you are going (europe > us) and if the hotel is full. But my point is, they do upgrade you IF YOU ASK. I always ask before hand. The worst thing they can say is: no sorry.

pritomd

I've had good luck with Marriott, even when i was gold (then again, I always ask)...so I figured if mid-tier upgrades were as plentiful with mid-tier IHG, it'd be nice. but still...the night alone def makes up for it.just gotta get through all my other minimum spends first.

sosamo

I have:
Chase Hyatt (got the 2 free nights. Used it for Park Hyatt in Paris, and Milan. They both run for about $700+). Some are getting targeted with the 50k Hyatt points + 5k for AU. This might be better for like the Park Hyatt Hochiminh, Vietnam which is Cat 4. You can get 3 nights with the 50k points.

Citi Reserve (got the 2 free nights. Used it for Hilton in Venice. Keeping it, put $10k spend a year to get the 1 free night)

AMEX Surpass (got the 80k points, and use this card to get Hilton points)

AMEX SPG

I had:

Chase Fairmont (got 2 free nights, Stayed at The Savoy in London. Canceled after the AF hit. I should have kept it. You do get an annual free night, and upgrade / breakfast certs).

Chase Marriot (got the 70k points. Canceled after the AF hit)

Cards I want to apply for:

IHG (trying to save my hard inquiries. Probably won't apply for a CC within the next 6 months)

Wyndam (I would want to apply for this, but Barclay is pretty strict. I already have 3 barclay card, probably won't get approve.

Cards I won't apply for:

Carlson

jeepie

Agreed.
Club Level 3x/year is a huge benefit that pays for the card many times over if you'll use it. Cheers.

jediwho

Why not Carlson? I have Fairmont, Ritz, Hyatt, Wyndham, Citi Hilton and plan on keeping all of them. Planning to apply for Carlson in six months and was just curious why you don't think it's worth it.

jediwho

I thought Ritz CC offered Lounge Club, which is quite different than PP offered with Citi Prestige and Amex Plat.

sdsearch

I'm not the OP, but: Many people considered the Carlson card good when it first came out. Then it completely devalued the benefits, and now most people don't find it very useful (at least as a card to keep).
The other thing to understand is that Club Carlson points are "calibrated" about double of most other hotel programs (ie, you earn 20 points/$ [not counting any card] on paid stays, not 10 like a Marriott, IHG, Hilton, etc). So 85k sign up is really comparable to 43k with another hotel card. 40k annual bonus is really comparable to 20k with another hotel card.

And Carlson has a relatively small footprint, with hotels in cities requiring a huge number of points, and then the hotels that require a decent number of points being in scattered places on the fringes of cities (and often not costing much in cash).

So I'm sitting on 250k+ Club Carlson points (from Club Carlson rich promos a few years ago, plus occasional 8000ish points Avis car rental promos), and for a few years I've checked on each trip whether there's a Club Carlson hotel that would work for me on points and so far I haven't found one (given that I have points in lots of other programs too).

sosamo

I applied for the carlson, was denied. They are too strict. I guess it's a good thing. I heard they devalued, and no more free anniversary night.

qLir

Club Carlson definitely still has value. I have both the business and personal cards, and while not the amazing deal it was, the annual night with $10,000 spend is nice. With two cards, spend $10,000 each, and end up with two nights good at any US property (for a weekend in NYC or Chicago for us), and 180,000 points (40,000 for renewal + 50,000 for spend on each card). If you're MSing, that's $335 cost ($100 MS fees per card + $60 annual fee + $75 annual fee) for two nights at $200/night+ hotels and 180,000 points, which I value at 0.4c = $720.