Best card for hotels

[wacdenney]

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@MT936 wrote:

you get a free nights stay in a category 1-4 marriots hotel and 40,000 marriot points for signup. Every year on your account opening anniversery, you get a free night stay in a category 1-5 hotel and every year you get points towards elite status. There are a lot more benefits to the card you can find out on the website. The CSP is tied to the chase ultimate rewards program which is a very good cash back program. I don't believe the chase marriots is tied to this so the CSP would be better if you wanted cash back. The marriots premier rewards would be better if you stay at hotels often

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I have not stayed at hotels often in the past, but may more frequently in the future.  For now I am basically looking for my best plan of action for next summer.  The Marriot at Myrtle Beach I am looking at appears to be category 8.

[mongstradamus]

have you looked at spg hotels for hilton head there has to be at least one or two there. Spg card is pretty nice if you are staying domestically, and they have an ton of transfer airline partners as well. 

[PointLager]

have a look at the Barclays Arrival+ card.   You get 2.2% effective cash back to use for travel spend. For every dollar of purchases.  Plus, Barclays has a fantastic portal, which you can use with non-barclays cards too and you still get points to your barclays account

[wacdenney]

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@PointLager wrote:

have a look at the Barclays Arrival+ card.   You get 2.2% effective cash back to use for travel spend. For every dollar of purchases.  Plus, Barclays has a fantastic portal, which you can use with non-barclays cards too and you still get points to your barclays account

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Does travel spend on this card mean hotels or airline miles?

[mongstradamus]

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@wacdenney wrote:

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@PointLager wrote:

have a look at the Barclays Arrival+ card.   You get 2.2% effective cash back to use for travel spend. For every dollar of purchases.  Plus, Barclays has a fantastic portal, which you can use with non-barclays cards too and you still get points to your barclays account

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Does travel spend on this card mean hotels or airline miles?

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hotels and airfare, there is no miles with barclays arrival . 

[destine2grow]

I also second the amex spg. It's a cc I have on my list to app for next year.

[nachoslibres]

If you will be staying at a Marriott and plan on using Marriotts in the future then the Marriott card would be your best bet.  The SPG card is great as well - but I personally would only use either of those cards only to make purchases at those respective hotels.  Their points and their bonus structure to me aren't worth using those cards for anything else but hotel purchases (again IMO compared to what I get as a return on my other cards).

[longtimelurker]

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@MT936 wrote:

you get a free nights stay in a category 1-4 marriots hotel and 40,000 marriot points for signup. Every year on your account opening anniversery, you get a free night stay in a category 1-5 hotel and every year you get points towards elite status. There are a lot more benefits to the card you can find out on the website. The CSP is tied to the chase ultimate rewards program which is a very good cash back program. I don't believe the chase marriots is tied to this so the CSP would be better if you wanted cash back. The marriots premier rewards would be better if you stay at hotels often

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I really wouldn't categorize Ultimate Rewards as Cash Back!  Perhaps the major selling point is that those with transfer cards (CSP, Ink etc) can transfer UR points to frequent flier and hotel loyalty programs.   THe Chase Marriott is not an Ultimate Rewards card, but with the CSP etc, points can be transferred to Marriott (although this is considered a poor-value redemption)

[bigblue7722]

I love the marriott in myrtle beach. I used to go to school down there but when my parents came down thats where they always stayed. I would reccomend the marroitt chase card. Also, if you like sports bars go to oscars and overtime in north myrtle beach. Two great bars. 

[wacdenney]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@MT936 wrote:

you get a free nights stay in a category 1-4 marriots hotel and 40,000 marriot points for signup. Every year on your account opening anniversery, you get a free night stay in a category 1-5 hotel and every year you get points towards elite status. There are a lot more benefits to the card you can find out on the website. The CSP is tied to the chase ultimate rewards program which is a very good cash back program. I don't believe the chase marriots is tied to this so the CSP would be better if you wanted cash back. The marriots premier rewards would be better if you stay at hotels often

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I really wouldn't categorize Ultimate Rewards as Cash Back!  Perhaps the major selling point is that those with transfer cards (CSP, Ink etc) can transfer UR points to frequent flier and hotel loyalty programs.   THe Chase Marriott is not an Ultimate Rewards card, but with the CSP etc, points can be transferred to Marriott (although this is considered a poor-value redemption)

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I'm not married to the idea of staying at a Marriot.  I have been researching "travel" cards and CSP always comes up.  It just seemed to make sense because I already have Freedom and currently have 21,691 UR points.  This winter when it comes time to pay off my balance at school before graduation the bill will come close to the initial spend required to get the 40k signup bonus on the CSP if I apply at this time and then I believe adding an AU would get me another 5k UR points.  So not counting whatever I earn on Freedom throughout the year I would have at least 66,691+ UR points.

This feels like my best option, but I just wanted to make sure and I am unclear on exactly how it works.  In order to trasnfer the UR points to a hotel loyalty program would I need to "join" a hotel loyalty program?  If Marriott is considered a poor-value redemption, can you suggest which hotel chain would be a better choice?