I'm having a bad time managing my time.

I'm Platinum with Marriott and PC, Diamond with Hilton. They all have properties where I travel.

I have 10,000 Marriott points (just redeemed 140,000)
I have 160,000 HH points (plus I get 6750 points/week from Budget)
I have 108,000 PC points

Marriott has the Mega Bonus - spend 25 nights, get 40K points
Hilton has double points
PC has all sorts of addons, Double Points, Anniversary bonus, Stay X get Y points Chase bonuses.

Since I just redeemed Marriott, I feel like I should build the balance up again, but it is tempting to stay at PC to get all the bonuses and really get points. Hilton, could really accelerate with the Budget promo.

If I do Marriott, I feel like I will be missing out on better points. Of course, I can't do everything, although I did a mattress run at a Holiday Inn in the end of June to get Stay 3, get 5,000.

So, my question is, with these balances, and status, how would you play it? Alternating between the three is not an option since the Mariott bonus would not kick in.

Thx

You didn't explain about how many nights and how many stays you typically do (per whatever period of time).

You also didn't explain if you pay or someone else pays for your stays.


I'm not familiar with the Marriott program or bonus so won't comment on that.

The "stackable" PC bonus tend to max out after a certain number of stays. For exampe, stay 3 get 5k bonus can be great, but you have to go up to 7 I think for 10k and 15 I think for 15k so n a per-night basis they're less lucrative the more you go for.

Many of the "stackable" PC bonuses either only apply to your next stay (though several may apply to one stay, making that one stay rather lucrative), or just for the first 30 days after you register, or whatever.

Therefore you might "run out" of bonuses if you can do 25 nights soon.

OTOH, some of those PC bonus are on a per-stay, not per-night basis. Do you typically hotel hop every night? If so, in that case "stay" and "night" would be the same thing. But if not, you might "waste" many nights on stay-based bonuses if you've got multiple nights per stay.

IMHO the Hilton double points offer is rather rubbish, since if you're HH Diamond it doesn't double much. It doubles your base points only. It doesn't double your status bonus, it doesn't double your Amex bonus, etc. And if you do "points + points", it doesn't double the "+ points". So it's a lot less than a 100% bonus, maybe even less than a 50% bonus, on what you normally earn (which, unless you're paying very high rates that someone else is paying for, is rather little at HH). If you collect miles, the Double Miles is actually more "as advertised" IMHO, since it does actually double all the miles you'd normally earn. (But that of course doesn't build up your HH hotel points any faster.)

Another problem with the HH promo is that excludes tons of properties. Have you checked to see whether the properties you'd be staying at are excluded?

IMHO you either need to go for the Marriott, or you need to add other hotel programs to the mix. I think you'd do better mixing PC with WynhdamRewards (1000 bonus points per stay for up to 3 stays, but only a certain properties; see their website for which properties), Best Western (earn a free hotel night voucher for just 3 qualifying stays), and Choice (earn 8000 points -- enough for $200++ rooms in Italy in the fall, for exaple -- for every 2 qualifying stays, capped differently depending on whether you register or not).

Unless you have use for Double Miles, I think the HHonors promo in Q3 is forgettable (unless again you're paying astronomical rates).

And I don't think you'll get much value out of PC beyond 15 nights. Which is why if you can do 25 nights (but Marriott is useless if only for a part of that) you probably need to "fill in" with other programs to get the most points bang for the buck.

... Also, when does the Marriott promo end? Not all hotels do their promos at the same time. You need to look at the calendar carefully. For example, if the Marriott promo ends well before Sep 30, you'd still have until Sep 30 to do PC's stay 3 get 5000 for Q3. So depending on when the Marriott promo ends, maybe it does makes sense to do Marriott first and then PC when the Marriott clock has run out?

Sorry. I travel weekly 3 nights per week on expense/govt rate.

Thanks for the detailed analysis!

Where I travel, there are no HH exclusions.
I agree, the double points is sort of wishy washy. In Q1 they had the 1x,2x,3x,4x bonus for each night! That was sweet.
With PC, I am already on Next Stays, so that's no prob.
With PC I am doing the 2x bonus, plus I started the Stay 7 get 10k(iirc)
The 2x Points promo ends 8/15. The Stay x get y promo ends 9/30
With Marriott, I will have 9 nights next week and would have 25 by late Aug if I don't split.
Marriott Promo ends on 8/31

If I split at all, I may not get to Marriott 25 nights unless I do a mat run. And I look at the balances. I'll have Marriott ~50k which is not good for too much. 1 night cat 7 plus change.

I belong to Wyndham, but I dread the thought of starting over with another hotel without status...

Thx again. I'll do the math.

Any other comments? I decided I'll call Marriott and see if I can switch to a lighter Mega Bonus and divide my time between IHG and Marriott at least through 8/15.

I've got points in seven hotel chains, status in five, and top tier status in three. Most of my travel is in the US and is usually one night per location.

YMMV, but what I try to do is value the points for each chain based upon my redemption proclivities (locations, number of nights). Once you have a value per point, it is simple arithmetic to see which chain gives the best deals based upon your travel plans for the next couple of months. Since these are all unique to you, it would be hard to give advice based upon my travel.

The other factor, and the reason I stay at so many brands, is the cost, location, and quality of the hotel choices. Those are still the primary drivers in my choice of hotel. I will be shunned on this board for saying that I even sometimes stay in non-chain hotels. eek.

I do find that status means little for most of my stays, especially at IHG if you stay at HI or HIX. The exception, of course, is the status points bonus. I value the points, and status will affect what I have to do to get them.

It is the opposite of airlines, where I value status more than the miles.

Thank you.

I think my decision was made for me. For me, I value service more than anything -- even a friendly greeting, remembering my name. Today Marriott customer service really dropped the ball on me as I wanted to change my MegaBonus which I know is commonly done. Instead, they said No. I don't have time to fight. I'll divide my time between Hilton and IHG until Marriott does something to get me to come back.

Regrettably, for the time being, I go to the same place each week, so my only variety is when I vacation! While I like the Marriott in South Beach, there's a nice Hilton next door and a really nice IC in Miami proper.

Thx again!!

You could really do both bonuses... 36 nights (3 nights/week x 4 weeks/month x 3 months?) would get you the marriott megabonus plus the PC quarterly stay bonus.

The better question is what the points are actually worth. In general, Marriott points are worth far more than PC points and far, far more than Hilton points.

My personal redemption values are:
Marriott = 1.05 cents
PC = 0.43 cents
Hilton = 0.26 cents

It has to be quite a bonus to get me away from Marriott.

Have you considered saving up for a travel package reward? With your stay pattern, you should be able to get there in 2 years. That's an incredible award to snag.

You would also do well, if you are US-based, to think about using a branded hotel credit card, no matter which chain.

Regardless of your recent customer service issues, there is a lot to recommend Marriott over other chains...

Mega Bonus ends 8/31, and if I stayed exclusively Marriott, would meet 8/23 or so. Right now, the PC double point bonus (not counting Plat + CC bonus) ends 8/15, so if I mix that in, I'd miss out on the Marriott. As I wrote, I already just spent 140,000 Marriott points. Building it up to that level will take time. If I do the whole mega bonus, I would get the following:

20750 points (not counting incidentals)
10375 plat bonus
1800 arrival bonus
40000 mega bonus
72,925 points

I have a trip planned in late September, and would have more than enough points in either PC or HH to make me happy. Marriott no.

I appreciate your insight. I am bad at computing point values.

I see what you mean about your short term goals. Fair enough.

Perhaps we should revisit this question in September to plan for your next vacation?

Yes, what a life! ITMT, I will wait a bit to apply for a Marriott CC as well (since I just got two Chase cards, one for CO and one for PC). Every now and then a real good point accelerator offer comes about. For some reason, I stuck with my Citi card and ThankYou points for everything, and enjoy that a lot! Now, I've seen the light that a loyalty card can map to much more.