topic Re: Earning better rewards "value" for hotels than the BCP? in Credit Cards

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

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 16:03:21 GMT

So, I'm looking around for good cards out there that give me most rewards value for the dollars spent on every day stuff, like Groceries, Gas, bills etc.....but I'd like to know the best rewards value received for hotel stays. I already have the AMEX BCP, and earn 6% "cash back" on groceries and 3% on gas, and I know that there's the AMEX EDP has MR points that could be used for flights and hotels, but I don't fly too often, so I'd rather have something more geared towards rewards for hotel stays than flying. I like road-tripping once in a while, so it'll be nice to have a card that earns me points over time, which then could be used for stays at hotels whenever I'm far away from home. Name of hotel isn't too much of a big deal, so it doesn't matter whether it's a dedicated card for a specific hotel chain, or more of a general hotel rewards card.

So, are there any cards out there that reward me at a better rate than compared to the cash back I'm already receiving with the BCP card? Or is the BCP in my situation, already giving me the best value for my expenses? I don't stay at hotels too often, nor do I fly too often, so preferably not a card that receives max rewards when using it for booking flights, or staying at hotels often, mostly for every day expenses. Some point systems are a bit confusing, and I'm not always completely sure if the reward value of those "points" are worth more or less than the cash back I'm already receiving with BCP.

Any advice or hints would be helpful!

EDIT: I probably should add that I also have a Discover it, Chase Freedom, as well as an Amazon Prime Visa Sig that give me cash back.

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

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 08:03:14 GMT

Well, firstly, you're pretty much looking at an annual fee to get the value you expect. A few cobranded hotel cards offer a free night every year, including the Hyatt card, IHG card, and Marriott card. You'll still earn points toward future stays by using the cards, but the most significant reward is the free night. Of course if you get one of those cards and use it at another hotel it won't be particularly useful.

The Citi Prestige offers a 4th free night if you stay at a place for 4 paid nights. Add to that some places give you the 5th night free, you could practically get 5 nights for the cost of 3. The Prestige also offers unlimited use of its free roadside assistance. If your road trip habit is to stay for like 1 night at a given hotel, you won't get to use the 4th night free perk, but if you drive to a destination and stay 4 or 5 nights, this card could be very lucrative.

Otherwise, generally a solid approach to free hotel nights is to get a Chase Sapphire Preferred (or Reserve), a Chase Freedom, and even a Freedom Unlimited to earn significant amounts of Ultimate Rewards points which can be used toward hotels.

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

Asmodai66 — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 08:44:45 GMT

The Marriott CC is great, you get triple points faster and you get free night certificates and you can use it pratically anywhere like a normal CC. I know, well because I offer it everyday

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

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 12:52:20 GMT

@Asmodai66wrote:
The Marriott CC is great, you get triple points faster and you get free night certificates and you can use it pratically anywhere like a normal CC. I know, well because I offer it everyday

Marriott card is not great. You get 2 points on some purchases and 1 point on other pruchases. If you get an SPG card you get 3 Marriott points on every purchase.

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

NRB525 — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 13:24:33 GMT

For domestic road trips there is not a hotel card that can help earn general hotel value.

Most hotel CC have an AF, and the points work onLy in that chain. Hyatt and SPG points are valuable, and if you stay at Hyatt those Card points can be valuable, but that are not in small towns.

The one card to red to consider is the Wyndham Rewards. The points earned on that card can be used in 3,000 point chunks to reduce the cost at Wyndham, which includes some of the lower budget hotels one finds on road trips.

Your BCP cash, if you bank that, is a good earning source, convert the statement credits to savings for later. A no-AF 2% Card like the new SDFCU Card is a good addition as well. By staying away from other AF cards, then you are not trying to earn your way out of the AF before realizing earnings. Save that AF cash for paying the next hotel.

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

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 13:31:34 GMT

@Anonymouswrote:
So, I'm looking around for good cards out there that give me most rewards value for the dollars spent on every day stuff, like Groceries, Gas, bills etc.....but I'd like to know the best rewards value received for hotel stays. I already have the AMEX BCP, and earn 6% "cash back" on groceries and 3% on gas, and I know that there's the AMEX EDP has MR points that could be used for flights and hotels, but I don't fly too often, so I'd rather have something more geared towards rewards for hotel stays than flying. I like road-tripping once in a while, so it'll be nice to have a card that earns me points over time, which then could be used for stays at hotels whenever I'm far away from home. Name of hotel isn't too much of a big deal, so it doesn't matter whether it's a dedicated card for a specific hotel chain, or more of a general hotel rewards card.

So, are there any cards out there that reward me at a better rate than compared to the cash back I'm already receiving with the BCP card? Or is the BCP in my situation, already giving me the best value for my expenses? I don't stay at hotels too often, nor do I fly too often, so preferably not a card that receives max rewards when using it for booking flights, or staying at hotels often, mostly for every day expenses. Some point systems are a bit confusing, and I'm not always completely sure if the reward value of those "points" are worth more or less than the cash back I'm already receiving with BCP.

Any advice or hints would be helpful!

Get a Citi Double Cash it will give you 2 percent back in cash on everything and there is no annual fee. An Uber credit card would give you 4 percent on dinning. Combine those two with what you have and you should be doing better than a Hotel Credit card if you don't travel much.

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

NRB525 — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 13:43:08 GMT

The Discover IT and US Bank Cash+ should be considered.

Discover rotating 5% and base earnings can be converted to gift cards, including things like a $75 Shell Card for $70 in rewards payment.

Cash+ categories are selectable, could do 2% on Dining out, 5% on fast food, and 5% on cell phone as example. If going to shop in a coming quarter, 5% department stores or 5% sporting goods ( REI ) are options.

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

wingennis — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 13:47:26 GMT

The Venture/Venture One might be good possibilities for your needs. They offer the 10x on hotels.com and aren't tied to one hotel chain. People can say what they want about Cap1 but their rewards are incredibly easy to redeem. The Venture One has no annual fee but still gets the 10x on hotels.com, fwiw.

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

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 14:22:36 GMT

Agreed with Hyatt, although I'll mention I can get about 3 cpp with them.

The Marriott card is a joke, but then again, so is their entire rewards system. SPG will be missed.

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

MrDisco99 — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 15:05:30 GMT

Cap1 VentureOne gets 10x back at hotels.com for no annual fee.

You might do well to figure out which hotel chain is most useful for the kind of travel you do and look at co-branded card options for that chain. Some of them can even be had for no annual fee if you’re concerned about that (Hilton, Wyndham) though the fee versions of those cards usually provide far better value.

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

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 09:36:26 GMT

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?

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

MrDisco99 — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 09:58:35 GMT

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.

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

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 20:28:33 GMT

@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.

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.

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

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 21:13:34 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@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.
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.

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

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

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 21:23:32 GMT

@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"?

@Anonymous

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

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 22:03:03 GMT

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.

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

Anonymous — Sat, 07 Apr 2018 01:03:11 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous
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"?
@Anonymous

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.

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

Anonymous — Sat, 07 Apr 2018 01:11:28 GMT

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

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.

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

Anonymous — Sat, 07 Apr 2018 01:36:47 GMT

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

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.