Help me pick out hotel cards

[Anonymous]

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@kdm31091 wrote:
With that income you likely wont be able to spend enough to really reap long term benefits from hotel cards. Something lower scale like IHG or Wyndham would be an exception, but you still have to spend to get enough points for a worthwhile redemption, and youd have to focus the majority of your spend on the one card, possibly foregoing other rewards.

Point is that hotel cards really only benefit big spenders outside of the bonuses. For smaller spend and income you will take awhile to rack up meaningful points. Just my opinion

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This is true and one of the things guiding my search. You are right in that SPG probably I won't be able to justify beyond the bonus. 

I like the IHG card that I can get a free hotel night at a hotel i would normally not be able to afford without any spend required. This seems worth $50 a year to me. That is why I am leaning towards this and not the Hyatt, because with the Hyatt the bonus is much nicer, but the annual recurring benefit is worth a lot less (less hotels to choose from and limited to categories 1-4). The AF is also larger on the Hyatt but $30 is not what is gonna make or break a deal for me. 

The current plan I have is I am eyeing a couple of highly-rated Sheraton's that are both Cat 3s. With the fifth night free benefit I can stay there for 5 days with the SPG signup bonus points. 

The Citi hilton visa reserve is a very good suggestion. I should look more into this. I wanted to get a no AF card that I can keep forever with Citi, but i forgot I could just downgrade to the no AF version later on. 

Thanks guys! Great suggestions all around! 

[Anonymous]

And thats when booking via priceline name your own price through the ebates portal and using the priceline visa could get you 12% off.

And also expedia has 25 off 100 coupons fairly regularly.

You can rationalize spending some money out of pocket for a few hotels and instead use that inquiry for a better sign on bonus on a non hotel credit card.\\

Well said kdm

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@kdm31091 wrote:
With that income you likely wont be able to spend enough to really reap long term benefits from hotel cards. Something lower scale like IHG or Wyndham would be an exception, but you still have to spend to get enough points for a worthwhile redemption, and youd have to focus the majority of your spend on the one card, possibly foregoing other rewards.

Point is that hotel cards really only benefit big spenders outside of the bonuses. For smaller spend and income you will take awhile to rack up meaningful points. Just my opinion

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[kdm31091]

Great point. Similar to ebates, the upromise offers 10 percent or more on several travel sites. So I plan to use it for my next trip booking. 10 to 12 percent cash back beats a hotel card for me

[kdm31091]

Really im not sure why the high cash back on hotel sites via ebates or upromise isnt mentioned more often, as its a very good deal for occasional travelers

[Anonymous]

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@kdm31091 wrote:
Really im not sure why the high cash back on hotel sites via ebates or upromise isnt mentioned more often, as its a very good deal for occasional travelers

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right and paired with a cash back card is also icing on the cake!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@kdm31091 wrote:
Really im not sure why the high cash back on hotel sites via ebates or upromise isnt mentioned more often, as its a very good deal for occasional travelers

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right and paired with a cash back card is also icing on the cake!

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This is what I usually do when I book hotels cash. Got 7% CB through orbitz on my last booking. Coupled with Orbbucks and 2% from the Fidelity Amex that's a good discount. Pretty awesome! 

With a hotel card though I would be looking at more value than that, either for a signup or even better from a recurring bonus. 

[weehoo]

Certianly get the IHG, it is worth the AF, me and my wife each have one and we stay at $500+ night hotels for free, twice a year for $90 total.  

We used SPG now for all non category spending now