topic Re: What card do you use for hotel spend? in Credit Cards

What card do you use for hotel spend?

red259 — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 06:29:58 GMT

Not factoring in the fourth free night benefit of the prestige what non co-branded card would you use for hotel spend? So cards like the spg/ritz/hyatt etc are out.

Re: What card do you use for hotel spend?

happypill — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 08:17:29 GMT

Security Service FCU Power Travel Rewards WMC. Simply the best.

Re: What card do you use for hotel spend?

redpat — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 10:55:21 GMT

CSP and Amex FHR.

Re: What card do you use for hotel spend?

redpat — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 11:20:54 GMT

@happypill wrote:
Security Service FCU Power Travel Rewards WMC. Simply the best.

Not necessarily true. I booked a Hyatt for 12,000 points which cost $450, that's 3.75 cents per point. Your cost would have been 45,000 points.

CSP and Ink w/ 5x cat and 2x gas I may never pay for a hotel again.

Re: What card do you use for hotel spend?

takeshi74 — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 13:47:04 GMT

I don't have any cobrands. I don't use a single chain enough to really benefit. I use the CSP.

@happypill wrote:
Simply the best.

Best is simply subjective.

Re: What card do you use for hotel spend?

DrZoidberg — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 14:06:08 GMT

Cobrands always give you the most points .

I spend about $25k a year on hotels. I use my Hilton Surpass which gives me 12x points. That's 300k points just for using the card. CSP would only net 50k and Citi would net 75k.

Re: What card do you use for hotel spend?

red259 — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 21:21:59 GMT

@DrZoidberg wrote:
Cobrands always give you the most points .

I spend about $25k a year on hotels. I use my Hilton Surpass which gives me 12x points. That's 300k points just for using the card. CSP would only net 50k and Citi would net 75k.

Usually true, which is why I specifically did not want to ask about co-brands, because that changes the math and would also require staying with specific chains where I am curious about a card for general hotel spend that could be used at a variety of chains.

Re: What card do you use for hotel spend?

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 22:41:46 GMT

@red259 wrote:
Not factoring in the fourth free night benefit of the prestige what non co-branded card would you use for hotel spend? So cards like the spg/ritz/hyatt etc are out.

Even if you exclude the 4th night free benefit, the Citi Prestige is 3x TY points per dollar spend on hotels. As a reference point, ThePointsGuy values TY Points at 1.6 cents per point, so that's 4.8 cents per dollar spent under that valuation. That's pretty good.

Then when you add in the 4th night free (especially if you get reimbursed by your employer like me) and it's an absolute no-brainer.

Re: What card do you use for hotel spend?

red259 — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 23:09:58 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@red259 wrote:
Not factoring in the fourth free night benefit of the prestige what non co-branded card would you use for hotel spend? So cards like the spg/ritz/hyatt etc are out.
Even if you exclude the 4th night free benefit, the Citi Prestige is 3x TY points per dollar spend on hotels. As a reference point, ThePointsGuy values TY Points at 1.6 cents per point, so that's 4.8 cents per dollar spent under that valuation. That's pretty good.

Then when you add in the 4th night free (especially if you get reimbursed by your employer like me) and it's an absolute no-brainer.

Yea, my problem is I rarely stay at a hotel for more than three nights when I travel. I tend to move around a fair bit on vacation. I think the prestige may be my go to card for general hotel spend when I don't have a co-branded card for the particular property I am staying at.

Re: What card do you use for hotel spend?

happypill — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 02:11:55 GMT

@redpat wrote:
@happypill wrote:
Security Service FCU Power Travel Rewards WMC. Simply the best.
Not necessarily true. I booked a Hyatt for 12,000 points which cost $450, that's 3.75 cents per point. Your cost would have been 45,000 points.

CSP and Ink w/ 5x cat and 2x gas I may never pay for a hotel again.

45k spend on the SSFCU Power Travel Rewards card would be worth $1485 at the 3.3% rewards rate. The thing about that is, you're not locked into any particular hotel or any particular booking site. To redeem hotel points, even with an exchange partner, you'd have to book on their site. Often, the best deals (depending on where and when you're booking for) appear on sites like Kayak, Priceline, Hotwire, etc, which you'd be excluded from using if you're booking with points. So, if the cash value of a redemption is anywhere in the neighborhood of a point value redemption, I'd take the cash value 100% of the time becuase you have infinitely more flexibility in brand, time, location, etc.

So, are there one-off cases where if you stay at a particular hotel or fly a particular route where the point redemption value is more valuable? Of course. But if you use points you'll often need to book way in advance, limit yourself to certain brands or properties, be subject to blackout dates, be locked out of last minute deals, be locked out of additional earning (if you book on Orbitz, Hotels.com, Expedia and elsewhere with your cash rewards you get those rewards on top) and be subject to whatever restriction or devaluation they want to subject you to. So, for a given example, points might look great, but cash will always be cash and the Power Travel Rewards will always give you 3.3% instead of 3.75% in some unique instance.

Re: What card do you use for hotel spend?

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 02:30:41 GMT

I've got a CSP, but my next non-IHG, non-Hyatt paid stay or two will probably go on Arrival for "mile" redemption.

Re: What card do you use for hotel spend?

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 02:43:11 GMT

Bank of America AAA rewards card. 3% on travel, including hotels.

Very rarely Amex will offer a deal that beats that, and I'll use Amex instead. But that's not often.

Re: What card do you use for hotel spend?

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 02:46:08 GMT

It all depends. Not always the IHG card as much as they'd like me to. Since the ihg points are worth about 0.5 cents, even at 5x points that still only 2.5% not including the other bonuses. just their regular IHG rewards club will earn me 10 points per dollar, so you can see why missing out on that extra 5 doesnt matter so much. Of course I always do my IHG booking through ebates portal for the extra 4.5%.

My amtrak earns 2 points per dollar on hotels, which ends up being about 5.8% in return with amtrak.

That being said there are plenty of times when I use expedia and a 2% card. Using mobile app and coupons usually get 25 off 100 at the least, plus 3 expedia points per dollar spent via mobile app, so ends up being another 1.5 percent off or 3 percent off if used at VIP hotel list.

BUT now that I have the free hilton diamon status match courtesy of my IHG platinum status, I guess I can get 5th night free.

I also kinda like staying with airbnb but I dont know if that would code as hotel for a Citi Premier?

TDLR, usually do IHG properties through ebates portal and pay with amtrak card. But if i'm doing anything wrong I'd love to know how to save more!

Re: What card do you use for hotel spend?

dilettante — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 02:50:46 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
It all depends. Not always the IHG card as much as they'd like me to. Since the ihg points are worth about 0.5 cents, even at 5x points that still only 2.5% not including the other bonuses. just their regular IHG rewards club will earn me 10 points per dollar, so you can see why missing out on that extra 5 doesnt matter so much. Of course I always do my IHG booking through ebates portal for the extra 4.5%.

My amtrak earns 2 points per dollar on hotels, which ends up being about 5.8% in return with amtrak.

That being said there are plenty of times when I use expedia and a 2% card. Using mobile app and coupons usually get 25 off 100 at the least, plus 3 expedia points per dollar spent via mobile app, so ends up being another 1.5 percent off or 3 percent off if used at VIP hotel list.

BUT now that I have the free hilton diamon status match courtesy of my IHG platinum status, I guess I can get 5th night free.

I also kinda like staying with airbnb but I dont know if that would code as hotel for a Citi Premier?

TDLR, usually do IHG properties through ebates portal and pay with amtrak card. But if i'm doing anything wrong I'd love to know how to save more!

I stayed at an airbnb in Paris last year, on the Citi Prestige it was coded as hotel. I would assume the same would be on the Premier.

Re: What card do you use for hotel spend?

fot1 — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 03:02:30 GMT

Non branded I was say CSP but I haven't looked that hard at it that hard.

Re: What card do you use for hotel spend?

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 03:18:07 GMT

AWESOME! Yeah I dont plan on getting Premier any time soon. But its on my radar. I would want to devote most traveling to AA, And I would want to be with Citi for at least 2 years. I would probably get the prestige and also the citigold checking. All or nothing baby lol. Then again my friend says to get the premier or prestige (from in branch) for the bonus now since there is no lifetime limit on it, right? I wonder if the prestige can be PC'd to the dividend?

@dilettante wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:

I also kinda like staying with airbnb but I dont know if that would code as hotel for a Citi Premier?

I stayed at an airbnb in Paris last year, on the Citi Prestige it was coded as hotel. I would assume the same would be on the Premier.

Re: What card do you use for hotel spend?

CreditScholar — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 06:00:46 GMT

CSP, Premier or Amex Plat (FHR) depending on the hotel.

Re: What card do you use for hotel spend?

redpat — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 07:24:13 GMT

@happypill wrote:
@redpat wrote:
@happypill wrote:
Security Service FCU Power Travel Rewards WMC. Simply the best.
Not necessarily true. I booked a Hyatt for 12,000 points which cost $450, that's 3.75 cents per point. Your cost would have been 45,000 points.

CSP and Ink w/ 5x cat and 2x gas I may never pay for a hotel again.
45k spend on the SSFCU Power Travel Rewards card would be worth $1485 at the 3.3% rewards rate. The thing about that is, you're not locked into any particular hotel or any particular booking site. To redeem hotel points, even with an exchange partner, you'd have to book on their site. Often, the best deals (depending on where and when you're booking for) appear on sites like Kayak, Priceline, Hotwire, etc, which you'd be excluded from using if you're booking with points. So, if the cash value of a redemption is anywhere in the neighborhood of a point value redemption, I'd take the cash value 100% of the time becuase you have infinitely more flexibility in brand, time, location, etc.

So, are there one-off cases where if you stay at a particular hotel or fly a particular route where the point redemption value is more valuable? Of course. But if you use points you'll often need to book way in advance, limit yourself to certain brands or properties, be subject to blackout dates, be locked out of last minute deals, be locked out of additional earning (if you book on Orbitz, Hotels.com, Expedia and elsewhere with your cash rewards you get those rewards on top) and be subject to whatever restriction or devaluation they want to subject you to. So, for a given example, points might look great, but cash will always be cash and the Power Travel Rewards will always give you 3.3% instead of 3.75% in some unique instance.

You are way off from my example. Your points are only worth 1cent on redemption vs. 3.75 cent per point. Earning rewards vs. redemption rate are two different things.

Hyatt and SPG have the best reward redemption programs around based on point value. As for lock outs on redeeming my points, never had one. The points needed just adjust.

So let's use your card vs my ink+, if I spend $800 month on my business and cell phone $9,600 annually that is 48,000 points which will give me 4 stays at a $450 hotel cost for 12,000 points. I don't think you would even have one night with your 31,680 points earned.