myb821

Me and my wife are planning a europe trip next summer for about 3-4 weeks. i need to figure out what crads to apply for between now and then to hopefully go for almost free. We are planning on going to denmark, norway, paris, venice, rome and possibly one more city. Currently we have together about 220k united miles 230k mr points and should be receiving either 75k or 150k aa miles. So i already have enough miles for flights i need to work on hotels. its a given that in the next round of apps i will apply for spg for both of us and sometime next yr apply for the hyatt for both of us. I am not sure what other cards to add into my plans any info is greatly appreciated.

imasosec

Look into the Hilton AMEX

philemer

I'm also looking at the PC card for Holiday Inn, HIE & the rest of the IHG brand. Most HI & HIE are only 25K pts/night. http://www.mychasecreditcards.com/ihg/pcrofferspage260k 60K pts.

Also, the Hyatt card gives you two free nights & status for a year. http://www.mychasecreditcards.com/hy...mxjN4HzZOwEtLw

Evan!

This thread might be of help: What's best US hotel chain for Western Europe?

It's primarily a discussion on their loyalty programs and not so much the credit cards but, as we all know on FT, much of the time these go hand-in-hand.

sdsearch

Where in Norway? Other than Oslo, you will not find most of the "major" hotels represented in Norway. Your best best for redemption will be the Choice program, but while it's very easy to earr hundreds of thousands of points in Choice via cheap suburban hotel stays in the US (because they keep running promos like stay 2 times and get 8000 points, while redemptions in Norway are typically 16000 points/night, and so 4 cheapo suburban [non-consecutive] nights in the US give you a free night at a great hotel in western Norway). But try to get the same points on cards, and it'll take I think $4000 of spend.

Choice could also help in Denmark (their redemption partner Choice Scandinavia is the key to that region), but for Paris and Venice and Rome they're not necessarily the chain I owuld think of.

Rome is tricky. IHG has a great hotel at the top of the Spanish Steps, but it's 40000 points a night, the riooms are very small (even for Europe), and that doesn't include breakfast (which at the hotel is $35+!). But Priority Club has a credit card where you can get 60k points just for signing up, so if you only need one night in Rome and don't need the breakfast free and can deal with a small room this could do it. Forget Hilton unless you want to stay at the airport (in which case the HGI is great); Hilton doesn't have a hotel in Rome proper; their Rome hotel is really nice, but it's far off on a hill outside the city proper and there's no public transport to the city proper, and a sometimes iffy shuttle.

That's the issue, you might need a different hotel program for different countries or even different cities! (Of course, that might help, if you can get more card signup bonuses to help you that way! )

Evan!

While it's true it's off the main path the Hilton Rome Cavalieri is well worth a stay. I found the only "iffy" part of the shuttle was that it stops running at a specific hour every evening. The view is phenomenal. The hotel itself is grandeur. THE ABSOLUTE BEST ELITE LOUNGE I HAVE EVER SEEN.

One way we avoided the frustration of its location (NOT walking distance to anything we wanted to see) was to use the shuttle to the first stop where there is a Metro station. Then we had the whole city at our fingertips. When the shuttle didn't run, we would simply take the Metro to that stop and hail a taxi from that point back to the hotel. It greatly reduced the $$$ for using a taxi and the traffic from that Metro stop to the actual hotel was never bad.

FamilyMan

Go with SPG...you'll be happy in the long run.

myb821

thank you for all the advice keep it coming

PatMike

My programs of choice are
1. SPG
2. Hilton
3. Priority Club

However, there are many Priority Club hotels in Europe where there are no other major chains and their Points and Cash awards are often great deals.
I generally don't use a PC hotel if there is a SPG hotel in a city, but for smaller Europe cities (Heidelberg, Toulouse, Burgundy, Bruges, etc... ) PC is the only option. Same for Phi Phi Thailand, most of New Zealand, etc...

I would apply for the 60K PC cards for both of you. You will both be Plat (the top tier) for your trip.

I use the Journey Searcher and IHG Google Earth application whenever I am planning a trip, which shows me SPG and PC hotel locations.

chemist661

At a later date (this Fall?), have each apply for the Hyatt Card. Each applicant would get 2 nights free and the Park Hyatt Paris Vendome is very nice from what I'd heard. That can be your spluge hotel on your trip.

Since the Hyatt free nights have a 1 yr expiration, I would wait until later this year to apply (or early next year). There is a $79 annual fee per card but for 2 free nights/applicant for expensive Hyatts, it is worth the fee.

For a decent long term card, the Starwood AMEX is decent. My wife have a person & Biz card and there seems to be a decent value in "cash & Points" when available. Also, one can transfer 20K Starwood into 25K airline miles.

chemist661

I would suggest joining the Priority Club and sometime afterwards, you may get the targeted 80K offer. I got the 80K offer & applied for the card. My 80K posted with a $5 gas purchase.

darkhunter

I agree with priority club and Hilton and also the joining PC and then soon after you should be targeted for the 80K offer.

But for the Scandinavian countries most of the US brands have little to nothing there. Would be a good idea to maybe get a Choice hotels card. Plus its a different bank so it should be an easy approval (barclays) where everything else is chase/citi/amex. You may not get approved for more than 1 Chase card at once so you have to make a tough choice there. If you can get the 80K offer the PC is your best bet value wise I think. Even the 60K offer is still a nice deal.

mnscout

Although how soon is debatable. I received the 80K offer only 6 months after signing up for that Platinum promo.

myb821

any other opinions out there?

sdsearch

Yes, please explain where in Norway and Denmark you're planning to go. The recommendations could be quite different depending on the specifics.

In the other cases, you mentioned cities, but it's unclear to us if you just stays in Copenhagen and Oslo or somwhere else. The situations varies a lot from city to city in those countries.

So please answer the quesitons you've been asked, instead of just asking us the same question repeatedly with the same incomplete info.

Also please tell us roughly how much credit card spend you anticipate doing in a year. That'll help determine how realistic each card is for each hotel/destination.

Also please explain your existing paid hotel stay pattern. That'll help us recommend how to maximize points for your trip from stays (which is way way faster than trying to earn it all from cards, unless you have very high annual card spend due to business expenses or whatever).

Thanks.