If my travel profile was LEISURE ONLY, hotel points wouldn't even enter my mind. I'd use Priceline.com every single time, without question - regardless of the quality level of hotel I was looking for. A top-level elite status MIGHT cause me to think twice, but most top-level statuses are outside the reach of a leisure-only traveler.

Hotel points yield their biggest bang-for-buck for the whopper awards. If you can to those levels with credit card spending, AND you feel that you have more FF miles than you will ever need, I guess you might as well accumulate the points and use 'em for a great international vacation where Priceline and similar services can't help you out.

Just make sure to evaluate all options before you decide to go after hundreds of thousands of hotel points. The last thing you want to have happen is to get halfway to your dream reward and all of a sudden feel trapped into paying $199/night for hotel rooms on leisure stays to earn the points when $60/night would get you the same room without the points.

I concur . . . for the past 2 years or so, I have often wondered if straight out Priceline bidding does not undercut most or all hotel loyalty programs.

Thanks for all the advice. It keeps coming back to Hilton as the easiest way to accumulate points. The idea of using the Delta Skymiles card for this is excellent.

My only hesitation about Hilton is that in the course of my travels I have generally found that Hiltons are not up to the standard of Marriott which, as I said in an earlier post, was my hotel chain of choice for many years.

Contrary to what a couple of people posted, I have found the hotel points valuable. As a former platinum member of Marriott I accumulated hundreds of thousands and the combination awards (air for two and hotel) was always the best deal going. They took me and my family all over the globe.

I used my last hotel award this summer at the Zurich Marriott where for the second year running I was upgraded to concierge, a tremendous benefit at this hotel. Frankly, I don't think this would have happened if I was simply staying there at the least expensive room rate I could secure. I have found that hotels, particularly Marriotts, value the guest who has earned enough points for a reward stay.

I have never done Priceline because I want the flexibility of making last minute changes and I don't think that would be too easy with Priceline. Maybe I'm wrong about that.

At any rate, I do travel a lot, stay in charming local hotels in certain areas (hiking in the alps for example) but in big cities and in resort areas I do like the majors.

Here's one other thought. Is there a way to accumulate all those Hilton points and then convert them via an airline so that they end up as Marriott points?

One other thing to consider with Hilton HHonors is that you can earn points for proile updates (1,000 per quarter) and through pay-per-click programs like MyPoints and E-Rewards. You can also pick up 1,000 points for a GMAC insurance quote.

My wife has picked up 20,000 points this year (which we are redeeming for our holiday stay at the Hotel Roanoke) without ever staying in a Hilton. Since rewards are transferrable, we will stay using my Diamond Number; I will get stay credit; and we'll enjoy Diamond benefits.

It is also a good place for the rescue of orpahned miles. Since you can transfer from Delta, United, Continental, and American, you can get points that are fallow and convert them to free hotel stays.

You have received alot of good and accurate advice here.

Converting points thru other programs is always costly.

Sounds like money is not an issue for you, so go for the program that you like best.

If money were an issue, Priceline would be the route to go. I figure the best hotel programs are worth up to a 15% rebate, plus the upgrades and amenities. It's not unusual to save over 60% when booking on Priceline. Just don't try to cancel a PL stay.

Yep .. that's what you asked. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Which program is best for easy point accumulation.

I generally don't do Hilton either. I agree with you on that, though you'll find many Hilton supporters around here.

I agree .. compare a normal vacation. Where does a leisure traveler spend more money? If your goal is first class or business class travel the answer might be a little different, and even so, the hotel programs have awards that transfer to airline miles too.

The only problem I mentioned is that the earning power of the Marriott FUSA Visa, frankly, sucks, compared to Starwood, Diners Club, and almost any other co-branded card.

Stay with Marriott if you want to, but use a different co-branded card for daily spending and point accumulation. I like the SPG Amex card right now.

Not really. Not in any decent ratio even if there were a way to do it.

Hilton and Diners are generally used as conduits to move air miles from one airline to another or from an airline to Hilton. There's always a loss involved, except for certain times when Diners has a promotion going, you can get miles into one airline (typically BA) with no loss from the miles from the original program. Diners to Marriott and Diners to Starwood are transfers to avoid because the ratios are generally not very good. If you need to top off an account for an award, sure, but as a source of points in general, no.

-David

Ah .. here's one relatively easy source for hotel points, at least with Marriott and Starwood, not sure if Hilton does this, but they might. (Hilton tries to pitch me with cheap stays in Las Vegas which turn out to not be available on any of their strip locations and not be as cheap on the times I might want to go, so I've never gotten far enough with them to actually take a tour.)

During your travels, check if you are traveling to locations where Marriott or Starwood is selling timeshares, then take the timeshare tour. I think Marriott offers 15k MR points for a timeshare tour and when I took the Westin Maui timeshare pitch, I got 7.5k SPG points. Marriott is much easier, because there's less pressure, but the 7.5k SPG points was a better deal, since 1 SPG point is worth much more (relatively) than one MR point. (I couldn't believe the amount of pressure Starwood applied during their pitch .. they just did not want to accept that I was only doing it for the points and kept on insisting that I purchase at least an every other year unit.)

If you do this, just make an agreement with yourself that you are not going to buy at the time of the pitch even if it seems like the best thing since sliced bread. After the pitch wears off and you're still interested in buying, head on over to Timeshare Users Group and start your research.

-David

How many Hilton points does it take to stay in the NYC Waldorf, or the Langham in London for 5 days?

Hilton and Starwood are different currency's

- Starwood awards 2 Points/dollar spent
- Hilton awards 10/dollar spent

- At Diamond level you will earn 15 Points per dollar - Iam currently earning 25 Points /dollar by giving up 500 airmiles per stay - A targeted promotion

The nominal value of the redemption should be 5 times that of starwood You can book 6 six nights almost anywhere in the world for 195,000 - Divide that by 5 and you get 39,000 Starwood Points

Apples need to be compared to Apples not Oranges

We're getting closer to the apples and oranges. If I generate most of my points on regular old credit card charges, how many Hilton points do I get per dollar spent on the best card. I know I get 1 SPG point per dollar. Another way of putting it is, can I get about 160,000 points for spending $56,000, with all the bonuses thrown in?

If you can put it all on a Hilton Amex, you won't need a bonus - you'll get 3 points/$. If you can put it all on a DL Amex on weekends (the double mileage promo coming up), you'll get 4/$. If you have to go Visa/MC, 2/$ is about the best I think you can do right now.

I am learning so much from all of your responses. I can't thank you enough.

Re the timeshares, I had thought about that and there is one close to where I live that is offering 10,000 Marriott points. However the fine print says that I must be a homeowner and I'm currently between houses having just closed on my old one last month and not yet in a new one. Do you think this is really a hard and fast rule or one that can be fudged a little? I'd love to get those 10,000 points.

They seem to be fairly strict about awarding the bonus to their target market. Also, both you and your spouse must attend, and you have to have a certain income level. (Not sure how the income levels apply to retirees .. perhaps they use net worth instead in that case.)

My suggestion would be to call. Since you were a homeowner and are going to be one again, then you might meet their marketing target.

The other side of the coin .. they don't actually check tax returns or real estate records, but you do have to sign something stating that you meet the requirements.

-David

Last time I checked, you could also earn some Starwood points with AT&T. Both as a switching bonus and for using their service.

Yes ..

www.att.com/starwood
2000 Point sign-up bonus, then 1 SPG point per dollar spent.

And www.att.com/marriott
5000 point sign-up bonus, then 5 MR points per dollar spent.

Last time I suggested the ATT/SPG deal, it was shot down by Randy since there are better mileage earning deals with the airlines.

-David