topic Hilton Honors vs Marriott Bonvoy Cards in Credit Cards

Hilton Honors vs Marriott Bonvoy Cards

Anonymous — Sat, 30 Mar 2019 20:46:08 GMT

I have been looking to overhaul my entire credit card portfolio as I only have a Discover it Chrome and a Bank of America Visa card (no rewards). I have been I recently applied for a Chase Sapphire Preferred and got approved. I am now looking now at applying for a hotel card. I'm trying to choose between the Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors cards. I would preferably go for the approximately $100 versions, but I can be swayed for the $450 versions. I like the fact that Hilton Honors offer better statuses, but the Marriott card is only for a limited time, whereas the Hilton card offers have been around for a little while.

Re: Hilton Honors vs Marriott Bonvoy Cards

SouthJamaica — Sat, 30 Mar 2019 21:05:12 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I have been looking to overhaul my entire credit card portfolio as I only have a Discover it Chrome and a Bank of America Visa card (no rewards). I have been I recently applied for a Chase Sapphire Preferred and got approved. I am now looking now at applying for a hotel card. I'm trying to choose between the Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors cards. I would preferably go for the approximately $100 versions, but I can be swayed for the $450 versions. I like the fact that Hilton Honors offer better statuses, but the Marriott card is only for a limited time, whereas the Hilton card offers have been around for a little while.

Personally I think you'd be better off just using the CSP for your travel needs. If you want to diversify, maybe get the Citi Premier card, which I like.

I have a Bonvoy card and a couple of Hilton cards. I prefer Hilton but neither seems very valuable to me. The Hilton points wind up being worth about 4/10 of a cent to me, the Bonvoy points about a third of a cent. It seems that I always get breakfast included with Hilton.

I was recently "offered" an "upgrade" to the expensive Hilton card -- the one with a $450 AF. After looking it over I concluded that it would be worth it for someone who travels A LOT using Hilton hotels with the card, otherwise not.

Re: Hilton Honors vs Marriott Bonvoy Cards

jdbkiang — Sun, 31 Mar 2019 11:11:39 GMT

I think, overall, the Hilton Aspire ($450 AF) is probably the best hotel card out there. The credits amount to $500/year and Diamond status is fantastic. It can also be leveraged to status match with some other programs, making it even more valuable.

Re: Hilton Honors vs Marriott Bonvoy Cards

mongstradamus — Sun, 31 Mar 2019 14:43:33 GMT

I have also been contemplating which hotel card to pick up. I wanted to pick up hotel card for my trip to Japan and thailand next year. It makes me sad how bad the value for hotel cards are . For somebody who doesn’t travel and use hotels all that much maybe few times a year, I can’t figure out what would be best for my needs.

Re: Hilton Honors vs Marriott Bonvoy Cards

Shadowfactor — Sun, 31 Mar 2019 14:49:34 GMT

Hotel cards are more for the brand loyalists then the average joe IMO.
If you get a cobranded Hilton Card but everywhere you want to go is better served by Marriott. You may pay more for the room or take a subpar property because you feel trapped by the need to use the credits.

I would start off by looking at each hotel and it’s brands before even considering the credit card.

Re: Hilton Honors vs Marriott Bonvoy Cards

coldfusion — Sun, 31 Mar 2019 16:04:16 GMT

@mongstradamus wrote:
I have also been contemplating which hotel card to pick up. I wanted to pick up hotel card for my trip to Japan and thailand next year. It makes me sad how bad the value for hotel cards are . For somebody who doesn’t travel and use hotels all that much maybe few times a year, I can’t figure out what would be best for my needs.

If you have no particular brand loyalty take a look at the Uber Visa as they offer 3% back on hotels and airfare with 4% on dining with no FTF, and that includes both domestic and international charges.

Re: Hilton Honors vs Marriott Bonvoy Cards

Billharrell — Sun, 31 Mar 2019 16:30:59 GMT

I have both the Hilton Ascend and standard Bonvoy, which converted from the Amex SPG ($95 cards).

In general, the Hilton earns faster than the Bonvoy with its 6x at gas, restaurants, and groceries. 6x at $.06 valuation makes it a surprisingly good 3.6% category card. Almost good enough to be a daily driver. It also gives priority Pass membership, which is a major plus for a $95 card. For those two reasons I keep the card.

The Bonvoy gives a free night at every anniversary, reason enough for me to keep the card despite its crappy rewards structure. It also give free boingo membership, my only card that does so.

If I were only to carry one card, it would probably be the Bonvoy, simply because the annual free night more than covers the annual fee. If I were you, I'd get both! Happy hunting!

Re: Hilton Honors vs Marriott Bonvoy Cards

Billharrell — Sun, 31 Mar 2019 18:10:43 GMT

Re: Hilton Honors vs Marriott Bonvoy Cards

red259 — Sun, 31 Mar 2019 21:21:40 GMT

@jdbkiang wrote:
I think, overall, the Hilton Aspire ($450 AF) is probably the best hotel card out there. The credits amount to $500/year and Diamond status is fantastic. It can also be leveraged to status match with some other programs, making it even more valuable.

What chain can you status match to with diamond?

Re: Hilton Honors vs Marriott Bonvoy Cards

jdbkiang — Mon, 01 Apr 2019 04:06:05 GMT

@red259 wrote:
@jdbkiang wrote:
I think, overall, the Hilton Aspire ($450 AF) is probably the best hotel card out there. The credits amount to $500/year and Diamond status is fantastic. It can also be leveraged to status match with some other programs, making it even more valuable.
What chain can you status match to with diamond?

Wyndham will give you Diamond status for a few months and allow you to keep it after a certain amount of stays. However, you can also match Wyndham Diamond to TR Diamond and kind of go back and forth with those 2. I also got National Executive Elite with Hilton Diamond, and used NEE to match to Hertz PC.

Re: Hilton Honors vs Marriott Bonvoy Cards

jwa77 — Mon, 01 Apr 2019 15:44:58 GMT

I picked the Bonvoy Brilliant becuase of the ridiculously good sign-up bonus. However, I basically switched all my work travel starting in Feb to this card. (Something my company allows.) I had 4 hotel stays in a 2 month period (all @ Marriotts) and hit the spend in the second statement period for the 100k points. I was given 10 or 15 elite nights for free as a card benefit (not sure if this is just for year1 or what) Also, Marriott frequently has double "elite night" promotions in which your stay nights get counted as double so you end up making platinum nearly right away. As of today, I have another stay coming up for a tradeshow next week and should hit Platinum on my own just from the nights. The equivalent to Diamond @ Hilton is Marriot's "Titanium Elite" but honestly Platinum is all you need with Mariott since there aren't much tangible benefits beyond that. As far as the 450 fee---each year, they give you a 300.00 statement credit if you spend at least 300 with a Mariott property during any part of the year--so the fee is ESSENTIALLY 150.00--which isn't much more than the baseline card.

My situation might be unique in that I travel a fair bit for work and we have flexibility to use personal cards. I'd love to get the Hilton one too--but right now i'm at 6/24--which two cards dropping off around xmas of this year and I REALLY want a CSP or CSR.

Re: Hilton Honors vs Marriott Bonvoy Cards

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 18:37:53 GMT

I went with the Bonvoy Brilliant ($450 AF). Like someone else pointed out this card comes with a $300 credit annually for Marriot spend which includes room rates. Combine that with the 1 free night a year and you are looking at no less than 3 nights but potentially more depending on where you stay. Marriott points are also more valuable than Hilton points (which is why they give a 150k bonus compared to Marriotts current 100k). Not that you should but you could even transfer your Marriott points to Southwest.

If you stay in hotels at least 3 nights a year the AF is effectively $150 vs the $95 lower tier cards. This comes with Gold Elite Status (something the AMEX Platinum also provides), the boingo membership (something the platinum just lost), Priority Pass Membership, and Global Entry/TSA Pre Check reimbursement. If you already have one of the other premium cards then some of these features may not be useful for you but for a hotel branded card I think it's the best on the block.

Re: Hilton Honors vs Marriott Bonvoy Cards

FinStar — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 21:13:01 GMT

@Anonymous, some prior discussions on this topic referenced in the links below:

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Best-Hotel-Cards-SPG-Marriott-vs-Hilton-Keeper-Card-and-Keeper/m-p/5409283

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Approvals/SPG-AMEX-VS-HILTON-AMEX-Update-Approved/m-p/5368740