Quote:
Originally Posted by Edward64
Do you focus getting hotel points from a specific chain? Which one do you recommend?
I'm a lifetime Marriott Titanium but I've not been staying at a lot of Marriotts in my personal travels. In Europe, I find the Accor chain more economical. In Asia, it's IHG or the local hotels. I'm not in it for the hotel "experience", I've stayed at enough nice hotels.
So, I'm going to focus on IHG for the next year, got the IHG credit card. I would actually prefer Accor but they don't have a great credit card/rewards program.
It sucks not enjoying my Titanium privileges but not worth the $30-$40 premium a night.
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I get a lot of value from IHG, and yes, a bunch of that is from the 4th night free. That's how I set up our vacations now when I have flexibility. I did it in Auckland/Sydney, I'm doing it in May in London, and even when we go to ND/SD in October, I've split it into 4 day increments to use IHG points for the free nights (effectively lowering the points cost by about a quarter).
The downside - IHG rewards booking are generally for a low-level/basic room. You're often times not getting any kind of a chance to book a suite or upgraded room with IHG points. But I've gotten great value out of them combined with having an IHG Premier card for Platinum status and Intercontinental Ambassdor status.
The way I look at rewards points - unless you are running a business or spending so much money that you are able to accumulate hundreds of thousands of points a year where you have enough points to do both option A and B - is that there are two options:
A - Use your points to maximize free/low cost flights. Obviously, economy travel is going to get you more trips, but researched/flexible luxury travel can be even more cost-effective in terms of points value if you care about such a thing. Having just flown in non-business class back and forth to NZ and walking like Fred Sanford today, this is a priority for me going forward (unless the deal is just too good to pass up for main cabin/economy). It's imperative to learn about alliances and whose flights can be booked through partners, which are the best value, etc.
If you do this, you either have a different strategy for hotels, or you just pay cash for hotels that is freed up by not having to pay for travel.
B - Use your points for Hyatt. It is by far the best redemption for hotels out there. You can book 5 star hotels for a week in some places for under 200K points. I've read about people booking $500-1000 rooms for 10-20K points. In places like SE Asia where things are relatively inexpensive from a US perspective, you can get unbelievable value at luxury hotels for next to nothing. It's phenomenal value.
I would not use my AmEx/Chase/Capital One points to transfer to IHG, unless it's just a small top-off to use immediately. Marriott is also not a great use of transfers, but better than IHG based on relative value (those points are better used for flights or Hyatt based on what you get for the points). Personally, as an IHG person, I'd rather accumulate some points through IHG stays, IHG credit card spend (we use ours for gas since its 5X points and IHG stays where you get up to 26X points), or buying points when they offer 100% bonuses. The bonus buys yield .005 cents per point cost and I guarantee if you do it right, you'll get at least 1.2-1.5+ cents per point value in rewards bookings with IHG (particularly if you maximize the 4th night free option). We're staying 12 nights at Intercontinentals with a per night cost of anywhere from $300-600 and I bet I didn't spend more than $1500, tops, for the points.
I suppose there's Option C, which is booking travel through the bank's travel portal, or D, which is the terrible option of using points for stuff like Amazon or other low-value redemptions the banks would love you to do. I have a Chase Reserve, so I get 1.5x the value of my points in their portal. That's decent. BUT... lots of issues I prefer to stay away from. You sometimes can't use your loyalty rewards number for flights or stays since it's booked through a third party (which can be important for status or accumulating points in their currencies), and if you have an issue (cancelled flights, etc.), you have to work through Chase/AmEx, etc. - typically, the airlines and hotels treat them like Expedia and make you go through them instead of helping you directly. For that reason, I almost always book direct.
So, for me, Option C isn't a great deal unless it's tied to some sort of cashback or perk opportunity (like my Delta Reserve has a $200 a year credit for stays booked through Delta Stays - I book a 1-night stay, get $200 off, and that's it). Or, the AmEx Platinum Fine Hotels and Resorts deals - $200 a year credit plus some nice perks like free breakfast, late check out, upgraded room based on availibility, and usually a credit that can be used at hotel restaurants, spas, minibars, etc. I just did this for our last night in Auckland - booked a Park Hyatt balcony room that was $1000 on Hyatt's website for $700 on AmEx's portal, got a $200 statement credit, plus free breakfast and $150 to spend. Good deal!
That's the basics of how I use my points and general philosophy on the best way to maximize value.