TravelPhotographer

(hotel pts cache at bottom)

a. drive MIA-WashDC 21 days May approx as follows:
(via Enterprise full size one-way $171)
(changeable if great hotel-resort pt value elsewhere)
2 nights StAug-Jax region
1 night BrunswickGA region
2 nights SavannahGA region
2 nights CharlestonSC-HiltonHead region
2 nights MyrtleBeachSC region
2 nights RaleighNC region
2-3 nights RichmondVA region
7 nights Wash DC (prefer city ctr nr. Metro+buses)
(Amtrak award roomette WashDC-MIA)

3 wks later:
14 nights LIS Jun-Jul (Lufth award on TAP)
(prefer city center nr. public transportation)

Am seeking general starting advice & tips from experts
My first efforts flopped,
WashDC Wyndham only Days Inns below average ratings...
Lisbon = 0 hits!!!? (me searching incorrectly???)
(seeking balance of quality & points frugality, e.g. good HIE OK)
(keeping eye out for next batch IHG 5K properties)
Thanks in advance. ^ ^ ^

42,766 URP ChaseInkBusn (+65K pending) (866-951-6592 URP booking)
53,000 citi ThankYou pts
28,348 AmEx PRG wife (mine)
35,980 ChaseFreedomVisa wife

747 Hyatt
30,651 IHG +85K-pending
90,832 IHG wife
280,427 HiltonH +75K-pending
145,459 HiltonH wife
97,504 Club Carlson (me) by 2018
97,663 Club Carlson (me) by 2018
104,567 Club Carlson wife
187,247 MarriottRew +1-night level 1-5 certif. by 2/2018
12,973 StarwoodPG free transfer to wife
30,001 StarwoodPG wife
147,401 Barclay Wyndham
3,654 Barclay Wyndham wife

guv1976

Sometime towards the end of April (exact date not yet known) IHG will release its list of "PointBreaks" properties (just 5,000 points per night) for May, June, and July. No guarantees, but it's possible that some IHG properties between MIA and WAS will be on the list. Monitor the FT IHG forum for more information.

If you want to keep the rental car during your week in WAS, you might need to avoid downtown D.C. hotels: parking fees could be steep.

If you do decide to keep the car, you might want to look at properties in nearby Virginia that are close to Metro stations -- or that at least have free shuttle service to Metro stations. Take a look at the "Key Bridge" properties, for example. Some will offer free parking.

TravelPhotographer

Can one get PointBreaks breaking news notification? How?

Good point about car -- maybe start at free parking hotel few days
& give up car when relocating city center...?

KathinJax

In Jax/St Augustine (my suggestion, stay in Jax & Drive to St. Augustine) is to pay for the hotels. I have rarely found point redemption to be worth the cost. Let me know if you want ideas of things to do around here.

Do not stay in Brunswick unless you have a specific reason to stay. Go see the St. Simmons Island area on your way to Savannah. Stay three nights in Jax instead.

In Lisbon, we paid for the hotel because it was so cheap (Holiday Inn Liberdade), but the Intercontinental was around the corner and worth a look. If you decide to split the trip (train to Porto), then the Intercontinental Porto was a great hotel.


Savannah - Hotel Indigo Points + Cash was a pretty good deal and is in an excellent location.

TravelPhotographer

> my suggestion...is to pay for the hotels.

Thanks for response.
Not understanding, why pay if one has points?!
One can pay AFTER running out of points, if that ever happens...?
(can understand being point-frugal if point offers are lousy)
(new cc bonus offers sure to come...?)

guv1976

While not exactly what you are looking for, you could subscribe to the "2017 PointBreaks Discussion" thread in the FT IHG forum.

Not sure if there is another, better option.

sdsearch

14 nights in just Lisbon? Aren't you going to get bored as a travel photographer? With 14 nights, i'd roam all around Portugal photographing, instead of staying in just Lisbon.

And, btw, if you were thinking of driving day trips out of Lisbon, city center might be the wrong place for that. When I travel to a European city, I typically stay in the city center only for as long as want to see the city proper, then move to the suburbs for a free parking hotel if I'm going to do day trip excursions by rental car. (For example, I stayed a few nights in Madrid proper, then moved to an airport hotel -- which was at a crossing of two major freeways -- to drive to the south to photograph centuries old-windmills and north to photograph aqueducts.)

You haven't explained how you're searching, so how can we know if you're searching incorrectly?

But if you're searching only for one hotel which has all 14 days, that's definitely searching incorrectly. That won't show you any hotel that has only 13 of those days!

Also, are you familiar with Hotel Hustle?
It searches a variety of chains and shows the cash rate next to the points rate (plus the cash + points rate if available).

You didn't provide your dates, so I just pick a random date in late June (June 22), and I see that in the city center hotels start just above $100 a night but at 25000 IHG points or Marriott points or 28000 Club Carlson points, so it hardly seems worth using points there.

Good luck with that. There's a Holiday Inn Express - Lisbon - Alfragade that's out the town center that's already normally just 10k (but only about $80ish a night on June 22, so again not worth using points IMHO). I bet if any IHG hotels anywhere in Portugal go for 5k Pointsbreaks, it'll only be out-of-the-way ones that are probably so cheap who cares if you can get them on points.

Portugal is generally not an expensive country, so unless you want luxury hotels (which are not likely to require few points in most programs), the ratio between points required and cash required will likely mostly be such that points make zero sense unless you were awash in multiple millions of them in some program.

sdsearch

No matter how poor the value in points?

Let's say IHG has a promo in summer where you can earn 5k points per night. Would it really make sense to pay 25000 points per night for a property where you can stay on cash at $115ish per night?

In some cities you'll find great values on points compared to cash. In other cities the values are horrible. If the points don't have a hard expiration (of your stash, only WyndhamRewards does, at 4 years from when earned) why not keep them for those cities where they'll be a great value (or at least where the hotels are "unaffordable" with cash)?

Does it make sense to use up points now at poor value, then find you want to take another trip where you could get great value out of them but you can no longer earn them back fast enough?

And don't assume that the earning possibilities for all these hotel programs will be just as good two years from now as they are right now. You never know how things may change. Could you have foreseen two years ago that Citi would go to 24-month rules per program (not just per card)? Could you have foreseen two years and two months ago that Chase would institute 5/24? Etc, etc.

What if every bank follows Chase down the 5/24 path? Then where will you be with your assumption that you can just sign up for cards left and right to replenish your points at any time?

guv1976

When one can buy 5,000 IHG points for about $30, it will rarely make sense to pay cash for a PointBreaks property.

Fyd

Hotel Hustle is a great tool - it shows you the cash vs points rates for various chains, so you can see what's available and whether you get good value for your points. Check it out here!
I stayed at the HIX Liberdade - nice, new and good location for public transport. There are trains to Estoril, Cascais, Sintra, etc - so you don't need a rental car to go.

TravelPhotographer

Thanks for HotelHustle tip!

MIA-WashDC 2 wk drive (various pts, not yet researched)
(ultra cheap $171 total full size one-way Enterprise)

WashDC 7 nights, maybe 2+4&1-free via Hilton pts
(free Amtrak roomette DC-MIA)

Lisbon 4 nights, maybe IHG HIE 20K/night (central location)
Coimbra 2 nights, maybe URP
Porto 3 nights, maybe URP
Lisbon 4 nights, maybe IHG HIE 20K/night (central location)

Why pts over $$?
a. lower overhead (exceptions, e.g., TAP 2x$389 fees)
b. more pts-miles almost always available via new bonus
sign-ups + necessary spends

some corrections to OP pts-miles:

99,566 AAdvantage
517,567 AAdvantage -wife
162,110 BA Avios
~52,000 BA Avios wife
110,545 Lufthansa (minus 100K Lisbon)
517 Frontier
55,507 Southwest
52K Southwest wife
35K+ Delta
100,504 United expires 10/18
~50K USAirways --> AA wife

21,003 Amtrack (companion+upgrade coupon)
22,365 Amtrack wife (companion+upgrade coupon)

65,001 URP ChaseInkBusn (866-951-6592 URP booking)
28,348 AmEx PRG wife
35,980 ChaseFreedomVisa wife

747 Hyatt
30,651 IHG +87,00K new bonus
90,832 IHG wife
280,427 HiltonH +75K new bonus (in 4-6wk from 4/17)
145,459 HiltonH wife
97,504 Club Carlson (me)
97,663 Club Carlson (me)
104,567 Club Carlson wife
187,247 MarriottRew +1-night level 1-5 certif. by 2/2018
12,973 StarwoodPG free transfer to wife
30,001 StarwoodPG wife (1:1 airline, 5K bonus/20K transfer)
147,401 Barclay Wyndham
3,654 Barclay Wyndham wife

SK AAR

Admittedly I haven't checked rates, but hotel rates outside Lisbon are very reasonable. I wouldn't waste points if a room is less < 100 Euro/nt. When we were at the locations in Portugal you state, we paid around 50-70 Euro for very adequate and fine rooms. That was in mid October, but rates may be higher in July (high season).

sdsearch

I wish you luck with that. But what if Chase extends 5/24 to all the hotel cards, then what? What if Barclay adopts something very close to 5/24, then what? Wouldn't either of these scenarios suddenly cut off most of your ability to get new bonus sign-ups on hotel and transferable points cards?

Again, 5/24 did not exist before May 2015, and did not apply to Chase non-partner business cards until a year later. That latter change is less than a year ago. Also, Amex's "one bonus per lifetime" did not exist two years ago. Also, Citi's 24 month lockout per program type did no exist even one year ago or so. So the world of churning-prevention measures seems to be increasing, not decreasing, at banks, of late. What makes you think that's over?

So why do you assume that you will be able to churn just the same a year or two from now as you can today?

20k IHG points per night for a hotel that's just over $100 a night seems like a horrible waste of points to me, when I've used 35k IHG points per night for hotels around $400 a night in midtown Manhattan. Why not take advantage of Lisbon being a cheap country to earn rather than burn?

TravelPhotographer

> what if Chase extends 5/24 to all the hotel cards

Recently signed & triggered Chase IHG 85K total offer; no 5/24 wording;
yes, pts-miles generosity thinning out since my start 2011...

> 20k IHG points per night for a hotel that's just over $100 a night seems like a horrible waste

What if, due to choosing moderately, all my 21-day + 14-day itineraries are
20K / $100-night properties... Should I pay $3500 cash-via-cc??? IMO, $100
cash properties will always be there to choose, & if we run out of pts-miles
& MUST travel on cash, I'd probably shop top-rated $50-100/night...
(some prioritize 2-20Kpt $100-nights over 1-40Kpt $550-night, to each their own...)

Although there is advantage to high-end = photo opps on property more niche,
less competition from other travel shooters; but it is also possible to visit lobbies,
dining, in high end & take some images, without being guest...

sdsearch

In the first case, I was asking what you would do if that happened tomorrow. I wasn't claiming it had happened yet, so I don't understand why the example of it not happening yet.

In the second case, a tie-breaker might be if there's a bonus going on with that program for doing paid stays. I did a bunch of paid stays in South Africa at Protea hotels around or below that price level (but used points for the $200ish a night ones), in large part because I was in the middle of a promo. Perhaps if there had been no promo, I still might have paid for the $55/night Protea in George but not for the $109/night Protea in Havyiew.

Unfortunately, it's too early to know yet who's going to have what promos come July. (Except it's very likely Choice will have their ultra-common do 2 separate stays [can be 1-night stays as long as different hotels on consecutive nights], earn 8000 points, because they tend to repeat the same summer promo year after year after year after year. But Choice doesn't seem to be on the list of hotel programs you're considering. Btw, Choice is a program where it's easy to earn tons of points on cheap 1-night stays, harder to earn points from credit cards.)

IHG already has some semi-targeted promos from mid-April through mid-May, some people for example getting stay 2 nights and pay with your IHG credit card and earn 8000 points, but I'm not sure how early in May you're starting. And, btw, nobody knew that promo was coming two weeks before it starts (ie, no one yet knew about it before the start of April).