Earning better rewards "value" for hotels than the BCP?

[Anonymous]

Alright, looks like a lot of positive words on Hyatt. Wyndham doesn't look too bad either.

@wingennis
What exactly do people say that's so negative about Cap1 that makes Venture not a good travel card?

[MrDisco99]

Venture is not a good travel card because you're paying an annual fee to earn 2% across the board.  There are other cards that do that for free.

It's got a great signup bonus (worth $500), so it's worth getting for that. However, once the fee comes due, it's not worth paying to keep it.

Even if you get it for the 10x at hotels.com (a great deal), you can get the same deal with the VentureOne which has no fee.  If you want to keep getting the hotels.com deal, you can downgrade to the VentureOne and still get 10x.

Also Cap1 is always a HP on all three bureaus and lately they have been stingy with the Venture, so it's a risky app.

[Anonymous]

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@MrDisco99@ MrDisco99 wrote:

Venture is not a good travel card because you're paying an annual fee to earn 2% across the board.  There are other cards that do that for free.

It's got a great signup bonus (worth $500), so it's worth getting for that. However, once the fee comes due, it's not worth paying to keep it.

Even if you get it for the 10x at hotels.com (a great deal), you can get the same deal with the VentureOne which has no fee.  If you want to keep getting the hotels.com deal, you can downgrade to the VentureOne and still get 10x.

Also Cap1 is always a HP on all three bureaus and lately they have been stingy with the Venture, so it's a risky app.

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Oh darn. That makes sense, wonder what's their reasoning for needing to pull all 3 bureaus, seems rather excessive. I've never booked at hotels.com, I'll have to take a look at the VentureOne to see the worth. I suppose unless I'm booking at hotels.com, then it's not very good then. 

[longtimelurker]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@MrDisco99@ MrDisco99 wrote:

Venture is not a good travel card because you're paying an annual fee to earn 2% across the board.  There are other cards that do that for free.

It's got a great signup bonus (worth $500), so it's worth getting for that. However, once the fee comes due, it's not worth paying to keep it.

Even if you get it for the 10x at hotels.com (a great deal), you can get the same deal with the VentureOne which has no fee.  If you want to keep getting the hotels.com deal, you can downgrade to the VentureOne and still get 10x.

Also Cap1 is always a HP on all three bureaus and lately they have been stingy with the Venture, so it's a risky app.

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Oh darn. That makes sense, wonder what's their reasoning for needing to pull all 3 bureaus, seems rather excessive. I've never booked at hotels.com, I'll have to take a look at the VentureOne to see the worth. I suppose unless I'm booking at hotels.com, then it's not very good then. 

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Yes, and it is also time limited (though for quite a while) and then the card becomes pretty useless.     As MrDisco99 says, despite its popularity here, after the first year it is not a great travel card (just a 2% with a fee) and not a great cashback card (just a 2% with a fee!).   The hotels.com deal made it a little more attractive until you realize its available on the free Ventureone

[Anonymous]

@longtimelurker

Ah, okay then. Is hotels.com a good site to book hotels? I've never used it.

Also, what exactly do you mean by "time limited"? 

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@longtimelurker

[Anonymous]

I was going to suggest looking into Wyndham Rewards as well.. especially since you're into road tripping and there seems to be one along every major highway.

I never had much luck with sites like hotels or priceline because when you get to the checkout the fees would make it higher than if I went to the website directly.  My cheapest hotel deals lately seem to be through SouthwestHotels.com even if not flying.

At least, make sure to register on Hyatt or Wyndham so you can collect points and watch for deals there too and just compare prices. I guess you'd collect the points on a card like Cap1 Venture while also collecting points on Wyndham? 

Amex deals sometimes has coupons for hotels or cash back..nothing ever interests me though.

[longtimelurker]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@longtimelurker

Ah, okay then. Is hotels.com a good site to book hotels? I've never used it.

Also, what exactly do you mean by "time limited"? 

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@longtimelurker

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By time-limited I just meant that this isn't a permanent feature of the card: it expires Jan 31 2020, which is pretty good if you plan to stay in hotels before then.

Best way to evaluate hotels.com is to look at some hotels (and dates) you are interested in, and compare with other sites.   No one site is going to win all the time, when I last used it for a few hotels, it was fairly competitive, and the 10x will make it more so.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
MountainDew yeah I regularly find about 2.5cpp but I figured I'd say conservatively speaking 2.25.

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I just booked at 2.5 cpp tonight.  380 a night for 15k a night.  Got to love Hyatt.   I got over 5 cents a point on SPG points transferring over to Marriott.  Hotel points seem much more valuable than airline points.  

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
MountainDew yeah I regularly find about 2.5cpp but I figured I'd say conservatively speaking 2.25.

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I just booked at 2.5 cpp tonight.  380 a night for 15k a night.  Got to love Hyatt.   I got over 5 cents a point on SPG points transferring over to Marriott.  Hotel points seem much more valuable than airline points.  

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SPG and Hyatt are the only exceptions, but SPG will eventually be converted to Marriott's program. Marriott (0.9), Hilton (0.5), and IHG (0.4) are all worthless points programs. IHG is only decent because of the points and room promotions plus the free night on their credit card.