adamnmurad

I know the Starwood Preferred Guest AmEx is pretty much everyone's favorite hotel card. I've had it for years and loved it, but I'm actually considering canceling it. I feel like I must be missing something, so I'm wondering if you all can talk me out of it.

Basically, I'm considering canceling because the Starwood card has an annual fee, but it doesn't include an annual bonus and doesn't give you automatic elite status (with no minimum spend). It is great in that it gives you points worth about 2.3 cents on everything.

I got the Club Carlson card about a year ago. It comes with an annual bonus that more than covers the annual fee, and gives you automatic gold status. Further, you get about 2 cents worth of points for every dollar you spend, plus when you redeem points, you don't have to pay out for the last night for every stay two nights or greater - this last perk is really key.

The Hyatt card (which I don't have yet, but I'm considering getting) also gives you one free night per year to compensate for the annual fee and also gives you platinum status. It gives you about 1.8 cents worth of points for every dollar you spend, and twice that for restaurants/car rentals/flights.

So, if I'm only going to have two hotel credit cards (and I am - no more than that!), I'm surprisingly thinking that the SPG shouldn't be one of them. What am I missing? There must be something... (P.S. I know one of the great things about SPG points is ability to transfer them. I never make use of that perk, so that carries no weight to me.)

lhzeng

I think you can ask them to waive your annual fee.

acrollet

Why only 2 cards? Amex sync offers more than make up for the annual fee on the SPG card as far as I'm concerned...

echip

I think people prefer SPG points because it can be transferred to other programs, such as airlines and get 1.25 miles every 1 SPG point.

Club Carlson card is nice, but most hotels in the US are not worth it.
I went to Orlando just this past summer, it cost 38000 pts for a $100 room.
Not a good rate.
But if you travel to Europe often, then Club Carlson points worth a lot more.

hamhead

Keep in mind you do earn 5 points per dollar. So it is more like a 7600 point room when comparing to Starwood (38,000 / 5). Carlson also has the stay one, get one - so when you stay one night, the next night is free for award stays. This drives Carlson's value pretty close to Starwood's on low tier properties.

For the OP, I don't understand the "only two hotel cards" mindset. Having three open instead of two is going to have no meaningful impact to you, and in the long run will probably help your credit score rather than hurt it (lower utilization, more lines of credit open).


With that said, I wouldn't put much stock in the hotel status either card gives you. Most properties aren't going to treat you much different with Hyatt Plat/Carlson Gold compared to some random guy off the street, especially if you are an infrequent traveler.

adamnmurad

I just think it's preferable to have a lot of points centralized in a few accounts as opposed to fewer points spread out amongst more accounts. Two seems like a good number to me. Go with one and there's a chance I'd travel to a city that has no properties associated with a given loyalty program, but in most cities there will an associated hotel if I have two hotel groups to choose between.

ftomasze

Another vote for Amex Sync offers. I have saved $305 so far this year utilizing them, which is enough to cover my AF for 4+ years.

I'm also a firm believer in diversification in your points portfolio, while I tend to focus on 1 program (SPG) I have points / miles in several different programs.

ucacm

I won't speak to whether or not you should cancel the SPG, but I am a huge fan of the Hyatt Visa and think it is a generally underrated card, especially if you spend a lot on dining or the other 2x categories. IMO, there is tremendous value at the lower end of Gold Rewards. With a lot of programs, the lower category properties are either dumps or in extremely remote locations. That isn't the case with Hyatt. I also think the annual certificate is worth a lot more than the annual fee. I think Hyatt is the best card for people that actually redeem their points for US based hotel stays.

0limits

+1 I'd keep it just for the Amex Offers...

adamnmurad

OK, I've read the comments above and I think I might be coming around... Specifically, from looking into this further, it looks like Carlson has the best redemption offers on its low-end properties, Starwood on mid-tier, and Hyatt on high-end. Maybe that's a triaging system that makes sense to me and getting/keeping these three cards is the ticket.

Regarding the AmEx sync/offers, admittedly I haven't been very religious about adding these to my card, but I just skimmed through them and none of those are stores I'd normally shop at. (My taste just isn't that good!) And, I think it's silly to, say, spend $500 at a high-end jewelry or furniture store for something I would never normally buy just to get $100 back. I should probably add them all to my card more consistently, though, just in case I'm pleasantly surprised at some point.

roki

Amex offers change frequently. I have over $600 in sync offers back in the last year and a half or so. Places like:

Best Buy
Walmart
TigerDirect
Lowes
Staples
Ticketmaster
Bonefish Grill
P.F. Chang's
Buca di Beppo
Panera
McDonald's
Sprouts
Whole Foods

Right now it's a pretty hoity toity list of retailers, but in the past they've had a good selection

adamnmurad

Alright, Ticketmaster, PF Chang's, and McDonald's - that I can get behind! I was looking through the Pottery Barns and Mr. Porter's thinking

robertw477

Knowing what I do about Hyatt and SPG, SPG for redemption is far better than Hyatt. Much lower point costs for high tier rooms. I stay mostly in Westin and Le Meridien. Overall SPG is far over any pther program in variety of properties across many levels at fair rates redemption wise. Hyatt will tell you they have no standard rooms. To me that alone makes SPG far superior.

rambo

I agree with the other FT'ers about keeping all the 3 cards.

I have Carlson, Hilton and SPG card. My SPG card came up for renewal and I called them and got a 3K SPG point bonus. It's not much, but I value it at $50.

Amex sync is a great deal and small business saturday is coming up.

If you order Amex GC, it is good to have an Amex card handy. They might be some decent portal offers coming up for this holiday season.

steve4

I would also keep all 3 cards. I think 3 hotel programs hit the "sweet spot" between too few and too many rewards programs. I mainly use my credit card rewards for hotel redemption (Choice Privileges, Hyatt, SPG). Location is the key for me. I would like to have rewards availability in most locations that I plan to go.