sdsearch

Welcome to FlyerTalk, mrwhy.

Funny you should mention SPG Amex as a card to keep and use down the road. The SPG Amex may be going away in a year or two due to the upcoming merger with Marriott.

Do you ever pay for hotels (eg, when they're not too expensive)? The card that works best for earning hotel points is the card that helps you "top off" what you earned elsewhere (eg, through stays) to get to enough for what you need for redemption, not so much a card where the only points you get are from card spend.

Every other hotel card earns points more slowly than the SPG Amex when using them "anywhere". The IHG card gives extra points for a few categories: restaurants and grocery and gas, plus of course IHG hotels. IMHO it's only worth using in these categories, the points you earn elsewhere are just too few.

There are three credit cards, all from Chase, that give an annual free night of one sort of another. The IHG card you mention, the Marriott card, and the Hyatt card. Of those, Hyatt has by far the smallest "footprint' (the fewest locations). So unless you often go to where Hyatt's are, I'd focus first on the IHG and Marriott cards. (The Marriott free night is "capped" at category 5. So you need to become familiar with Marriott hotel categories in the places you want to visit to know if it would work there.)

rekehs

look at the amex hilton honors and surpass, 100k signup and 70k signup for the no annual fee, 100k is 20 nights free on a category 1 hotel.

mrwhy

Unfortunately, I do not have any business travel and I seldom pay for hotel for my vacations as I use my starwood points to redeem for rooms (which is probably not the best strategy).

There is so much to learn from the community on the best way to earn and use the points.

runb4fun

As far as keeper cards are concerned:

1. IHG is the king. Nothing comes close to it.

2. I think Hyatt is a runner up granted you can make use of the annual credit.

3. Club Carlson Business is amazing IMO. A lot of folks seem to have given up on the card but it is still awesome. It only costs $60 and you get 40k points which can get you 4 nights at category 1 hotel (hand countable in US) or 2 nights at cat 2, or 1 night at cat 3 or 4. Alternatively, you can burn annual points for cash and you would end up with something like:
40k points = $50 cash + 400 miles (many airlines to choose from) + 1000 leftover Club Carlson points. In doing this, you get to keep the CC and Gold status with Club Carlson. It isn't the worst use of $60 IMO.

4. Marriott is another contender. For those who can't make use of Hyatt annual credit this is a decent alternative.

5. rest aren't worth holding past a year.

steve4

I like the Choice Privileges Visa card because you can redeem the points at various Choice hotel locations (has more hotels than Starwood or Hyatt). The current bonus is 32,000 points (4 free nights) after spending $1,000 and you get a free night every year if you spend 10K per year. No annual fee. $4,000 of regular spending per year usually gets you a free night.

muji

I agree. Start with IHG and Choice.

EmailKid

Big fan of IHG ^

Generally not as fancy as some others, but I am Budget and Value traveler

HUGE fan of PointBreaks, as I've been able to stay several times for 5K points, and over Thanksgiving had a great view of Hong Kong skyline from across the water at Intercontinental that I got after I paid $49 (IIRC) AF and redeemed my free night ^

darthbimmer

Here's my advice:

1. In terms of hotel credit cards to use for earning free nights from ordinary spending, you already have the best, the SPG Amex. If you value that night you get for 3,000 points at $120 you are earning effectively 4% back on your purchases. No other card does that across all purchases.

2. As you anticipate a spate of travel coming up it's worth you signing up for various credit cards to get the sign-up bonuses. Hilton, Marriott, Intercontinental, etc. Each of these could be worth a few free nights (or more) depending on where you travel.

3. As you travel infrequently I recommend against keeping any of the cards from Step #2 long term. The points they pay for general spend aren't worth as much as you're getting from the SPG Amex, and many of them charge annual fees that offset any status benefits you'll realize.

4. As the SPG Amex might disappear or see its benefits watered down in the future due to Marriott's acquisition of Starwood, start looking now into getting a solid, no-annual-fee, cash back card like Citi DoubleCash.

runb4fun

also, i suggest OP read this
http://travelisfree.com/2016/02/22/b...rds-program-2/

Rinzler

Do you also get a free night each year with the SPG Amex?

dukerau

No

kmandrew

I just finished a 6 month Barclays spend to get an extra 30k AA mile, now looking for a new card; I only fly AA but am tapped out on Citi AA personal and Business card for a few more months. We are going to be in Auckland March 16/17 and trying to find a plan B to the Hilton which would run us 120k Honors points; I thought Hyatt would be the most logical but it seems the new Hyatt will not be open by then. Any advice on what hotel card we might apply for; a 3/5k spend in 3 months would not be a problem, already have the Citi Honors Reserve Visa and AX Surpass. I thought about getting a second Visa card in my wife's name but we are there on a Thursday/Friday so weekend certs will not work.

sdsearch

To find possible plan B's, I suggest using Hotel Hustle:

http://wandr.me/Hotel-Tools/Hotel-Hustle/

It's a site where you can put your destination and specific dates and it shows you both cash and points costs for hotels in a bunch of different programs. It doesn't let you search on Auckland city but does let you search on Auckland Airport, so you have to play with the map (zooming the map itself while letting it search out to 14 miles) to figure out which hotels are in the city itself, but:

1. You'd want to check reviews, but there are hotels in the WyndhamRewards and Choice Privileges programs so inexpensive (~$100/night USD) that you'd want to earn rather than burn if you stay there.

2. There's a Crowne Plaza (IHG program) that's 25000 points a night, and at that rate you could cover both nights with one Chase IHG credit card signup. (Plus that's a card worth keeping, because every year after the first it gives you an uncapped free night certificate, good on any day of the week at most any IHG property in the world in exchange for a measly $49 annual fee.) You may or may not get lounge access at the Crowne Plaza with the mid-level (Platinum) IHG elite status that the Chase IHG card gives you. But even if you have to pay for the breakfast, which you wouldn't at the Hilton, 50000 points that are easy to get with one card vs 120000 points which are hard to get even with two cards, I'd suggest it's worth considering the Crowne Plaza (or an inexpensive hotel at which you pay cash) over the Hilton.

Duke787

You are better off checking out AirBnB for Auckland. Are you going to Sydney at all? If so I'd go for the Hyatt and then use the 2 nights for PH Sydney.

Alternatively why not go for the Citi Prestige and do a 4 night cash stay using the 4th night free?

IMO it's the best card out there for a variety of reasons beyond just the 4th night free but it's a great benefit especially in a place like Auckland with limited points opportunities.

kmandrew

No Sydney this trip, straight OMA-LAX-AKL then home; I like the Airbnb idea we will certainly explore this. Is there anything AA related I can do, I was thinking of contacting Barclays, been spending 3k a month, to see if they will offer any new incentives; they don't know I'm in a quiet period with Citi? I know a lot of people are upset with AA right now but my wife and I have redeemed over 4mm in Saver J/F travel and pretty much loved it, just trying to see if there are is a bonus I not aware of?
Thanks