FullMoonMadness
Level 2 Member
I’ve been meaning to revamp my hotel strategy for some time (way too long), and I really wanted to hear others’ strategies, and their thoughts on the options I’m considering below.
Goal
My overall goal is to use two programs/strategies so that I have options where ever I want to travel. That may be slightly ambitious, but I don’t want to concentrate on one program only to have it devalue badly, or not find a property at a destination. This is all complicated by not having a specific destination/goal planned at the moment.
I find that there are so many nuances to the points game that it’s hard to know all of the ins and outs of each program or strategy. I would love to read your strategies and/or suggestions to mine.
My Hotel Requirements
Not a Priority
Current (Legacy) Strategy
Why I'm Considering a Change (and some more history)
Potential New Strategy 1: Hotels.com
Credit Card Pairing:
Potential New Strategy 2: Replace Carlson or Hilton with Marriott/Starwood/Ritz
Credit Card Pairing:
Potential New Strategy 3: Replace Carlson or Hilton with Marriott/Starwood/Ritz AND Pair with Amex Platinum
Credit Card Pairing:
Potential New Strategy 4: Replace Carlson or Hilton with IHG
Credit Card Pairing:
Potential New Strategy 5: Replace Carlson or Hilton with Citi Prestige
Credit Card Pairing:
Goal
My overall goal is to use two programs/strategies so that I have options where ever I want to travel. That may be slightly ambitious, but I don’t want to concentrate on one program only to have it devalue badly, or not find a property at a destination. This is all complicated by not having a specific destination/goal planned at the moment.
I find that there are so many nuances to the points game that it’s hard to know all of the ins and outs of each program or strategy. I would love to read your strategies and/or suggestions to mine.
My Hotel Requirements
- Room Access Through the Lobby (rather than the parking lot) - It's a safety/security/paranoia thing
- Free Breakfast - Saves time and money
- Lots of Properties Around the World - Would like to be able to book a room in almost any city I might travel domestically and internationally (my struggle with Hyatt)
- (preferred, but not required) Ease of Booking - I define this as not having to use Google Street View to determine if the hotel I'm considering has lobby or parking lot entry to the room
- (highly preferred) A Way to MS Points - Use a co-branded CC, shopping portal, etc. to accumulate points at a reasonably cheap rate
- Avoid All Eggs in One Basket – I don’t want to be all-in with one hotel chain
Not a Priority
- Top Status - I don't need top status unless it gets me the breakfast, however I do subscribe to the philosophy 'some status (even low), is better than no status at all'
- Upgrades - The room is just a place to sleep; I'm exploring my destination the rest of the time
- Luxury - No need to stay in the nicest places as long as the hotel is in a safe area
Current (Legacy) Strategy
- Neither my spouse nor I travel for work. Therefore, all points are earned from spend (including MS) and occasional paid stays
- I put non-bonused (and some MS) spend on the Club Carlson card - I'm now sitting on a bazillion Carlson points, so I'm not using the card as much. But 5x on non-bonused was really nice when MS costs were cheaper
- My spouse puts non-bonused spend on the Hilton Reserve (for now) - almost no MS
- Because I do some MS on Carlson, if we pay for a stay, it's at Hilton
- (somewhat unrelated) I have Amex MR and Chase UR earning CCs, but I prefer to use those points for airfare since the value tends to be better than transferring to hotels
Why I'm Considering a Change (and some more history)
- I picked up the Carlson card back when they offered the last night free when using points. That perk allowed me to overlook the lack of free breakfast at some properties, but is now long-gone
- I rarely find great value for my points when staying with Carlson
- We originally chose Hilton as the other hotel because they had just devalued, and I was hedging on it being a while before the next devaluation. Now they've gone Delta (no award chart) and I don't like the way they make it difficult to plan ahead
Potential New Strategy 1: Hotels.com
Credit Card Pairing:
- Barclay Arrival – MS and paid stays to be refunded with points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve for paid stays (not refunded)
- Other CC for discounted Hotels.com GCs (opportunistically)
- Essentially a 10% return per night paid from Hotels.com’s rewards program
- Hotels.com GCs are often sold at a discount and/or can be purchased at stores with CC bonuses
- Portal payout is generally pretty strong (7% for paid/rewards eligible stays)
- Already have the Sapphire Preferred
- No direct MS options for Hotels.com’s program (unless paired with a 2% card like Barclay Arrival)
- Buying discounted Hotels.com GCs may require speculative/floating purchases
- not all bookings accept Hotels.com GCs – I found this out the hard way and was quite unhappy
- Am I back to using Google Street View to determine room access (at least for non-chain hotels)?
- What kind of breakfast is available (at least for non-chain hotels)?
- No status of any kind - low status is better than none (see above)
Potential New Strategy 2: Replace Carlson or Hilton with Marriott/Starwood/Ritz
Credit Card Pairing:
- SPG – MS and paid stays
- Chase Ritz Carlton – MS $10K for Gold
- Already have the SPG
- Spending $10K on the Ritz CC gets me free breakfast (with higher tiered status) at many locations, and is doable in a couple of months, even for determined busy people
- Easily meets the first 4 requirements above
- Marriott has a shopping portal (heck if I’ve ever been able to get it to pay out, though)
- I'm not as blown away by MS on the SPG as everyone else. Perhaps I have a mental block when I see that I'm only getting 1 point per $1 (I realize 1 SPG = 3 Marriott/Ritz)
- Offshoot of the previous point: cannot MS points cheaply on any Marriott/Ritz CC
- Breakfast not guaranteed at some locations, even with status
- The Ritz CC carries a $450 fee (alternatively, MSing $30K on the SPG is doable and likely in this strategy, rendering the Ritz CC moot)
Potential New Strategy 3: Replace Carlson or Hilton with Marriott/Starwood/Ritz AND Pair with Amex Platinum
Credit Card Pairing:
- SPG – MS and paid stays
- Amex Platinum (personal or business) – automatic Gold
- Same as Strategy 2, except I’m replacing the Ritz CC with Platinum, and I don’t have a minimum spend to reach Gold status since the Platinum card gives it automatically
- same as Strategy 2, except I’m paying a $450-$550 annual fee to Amex rather than Chase if I don't MS 30K on the SPG card
Potential New Strategy 4: Replace Carlson or Hilton with IHG
Credit Card Pairing:
- Chase IHG – MS and paid stays
- I already have the IHG card
- Security (room access) and status (with CC)
- Free night from CC without any minimum spend
- Points Breaks, though I hesitate to add this since I tend to have my hotel room booked long before the PB list is published
- MSing with the CC at 2x is not very exciting/profitable (IMO – convince me otherwise?) depending on your valuation of IHG points
- Breakfast not guaranteed at all locations, even with status
- No shopping portal
Potential New Strategy 5: Replace Carlson or Hilton with Citi Prestige
Credit Card Pairing:
- Citi Prestige
- Citi Thank You Premiere (or AT&T Access)
- Citi Prestige 4th Night Free
- $200 annual fee after airline credit (not discounting for Global Entry since it isn’t yearly)
- Msing 3x on the Premiere can add up quickly
- Most of my domestic trips (majority of my travel) tend to be less than 4 nights
- Msing on the Premiere CC requires gas station spend; that tends to be tougher to accomplish, and a lot more difficult to explain to Citi if they question it