@AyaMai wrote:Your thoughts on Choice Privilages Select Mastercard with the current SUB. I do stay at Choice & Radisson Hotels on my road trips besides Hilton, IHG and Marrriott since I have co branded cards with them. I use American Express Green Card for payments. Is it worth it to apply for it or just keeping using the Green Card.
When it comes to any type of travel cards/points, I believe it's easy to over-diversify @AyaMai, but ultimately you'd need to do your own calculations and planning about how each card is providing benefit. Compared to cash back cards, it often takes more time/spending to reach points worth a meaningful redemption value, so dilution of spend is a major risk factor. It sounds like this would be your 4th hotel-specific card alongside the general purpose Green card. If you're just signing up for the SUB and/or paying the AF for the free night, it may not be very harmful to add more but there is a cost for the long-term. The way I see it, every additional card has the potential to water down the rewards/benefits I'm getting on other cards, so beyond the SUB/year one, I need to consider the impact. "Pre-paying" those free nights via the AF, for example, takes spend away from rewards on other cards or paid-night's-stay credit towards elite status with another hotel program. Similar to adding more and more cash-back cards where there is a diminishing return as more spending categories are covered, the same can be said with overdoing travel cards.
It also depends on if you will/can use the card to accelerate points accumulation for future stays. Some hotel cards work better in this way than others. The Choice Privileges Select card seem flexible, earning 5x on gas, grocery, home improvement, and cell phone plans. If earning points outside the hotel is something you normally value, does this tip the scales for you? How does that earning structure compare to your other hotel cards?
Probably the most important question is at which chain do you find that you stay the most often or get the most value? I'd make that chain my #1 priority, and then maintain the Green Card for general travel purposes. Beyond that, I'd carefully consider which (if any) of the other cards I wanted to target/keep.
@Aim_High wrote:
@AyaMai wrote:Your thoughts on Choice Privilages Select Mastercard with the current SUB. I do stay at Choice & Radisson Hotels on my road trips besides Hilton, IHG and Marrriott since I have co branded cards with them. I use American Express Green Card for payments. Is it worth it to apply for it or just keeping using the Green Card.
When it comes to any type of travel cards/points, I believe it's easy to over-diversify @AyaMai, but ultimately you'd need to do your own calculations and planning about how each card is providing benefit. Compared to cash back cards, it often takes more time/spending to reach points worth a meaningful value, so dilution of spend is a major risk factor. It sounds like this would be your 4th hotel-specific card alongside the general purpose Green card. If you're just signing up for the SUB and/or paying the AF for the free night, it may not be very harmful to add more but there is a cost for the long-term. The way I see it, every additional card has the potential to water down the rewards/benefits I'm getting on other cards, so beyond the SUB/year one, I need to consider the impact. "Pre-paying" those free nights via the AF, for example, takes spend away from rewards on other cards or paid-night's-stay credit towards elite status with another hotel program. Similar to adding more and more cash-back cards where there is a diminishing return as more spending categories are covered, the same can be said with overdoing travel cards.
It also depends on if you will/can use the card to accelerate points accumulation for future stays. Some hotel cards work better in this way than others. The Choice Privileges Select card seem flexible, earning 5x on gas, grocery, home improvement, and cell phone plans. If earning points outside the hotel is something you normally value, does this tip the scales for you? How does that earning structure compare to your other hotel cards?
Probably the most important question is at which chain do you find that you stay the most often or get the most value? I'd make that chain my #1 priority, and then maintain the Green Card for general travel purposes. Beyond that, I'd carefully consider which (if any) of the other cards I wanted to target/keep.
@Aim_High is so complete and detailed with answer's to questions.
I do not have that skill 
My short version.
You need to do the math for you, and use real numbers...
Don't forget to move new card spend from old card's to see the net gain/loss.
Math does not lie but bad numbers in give bad numbers out. 
@AyaMai wrote:
@Aim_High wrote:
@AyaMai wrote:Your thoughts on Choice Privilages Select Mastercard with the current SUB. I do stay at Choice & Radisson Hotels on my road trips besides Hilton, IHG and Marrriott since I have co branded cards with them. I use American Express Green Card for payments. Is it worth it to apply for it or,just keeping using the Green Card.
When it comes to any type of travel cards/points, I believe it's easy to over-diversify @AyaMai, but ultimately you'd need to do your own calculations and planning about how each card is providing benefit. Compared to cash back cards, it often takes more time/spending to reach points worth a meaningful redemption value, so dilution of spend is a major risk factor. It sounds like this would be your 4th hotel-specific card alongside the general purpose Green card. If you're just signing up for the SUB and/or paying the AF for the free night, it may not be very harmful to add more but there is a cost for the long-term. The way I see it, every additional card has the potential to water down the rewards/benefits I'm getting on other cards, so beyond the SUB/year one, I need to consider the impact. "Pre-paying" those free nights via the AF, for example, takes spend away from rewards on other cards or paid-night's-stay credit towards elite status with another hotel program. Similar to adding more and more cash-back cards where there is a diminishing return as more spending categories are covered, the same can be said with overdoing travel cards.
It also depends on if you will/can use the card to accelerate points accumulation for future stays. Some hotel cards work better in this way than others. The Choice Privileges Select card seem flexible, earning 5x on gas, grocery, home improvement, and cell phone plans. If earning points outside the hotel is something you normally value, does this tip the scales for you? How does that earning structure compare to your other hotel cards?
Probably the most important question is at which chain do you find that you stay the most often or get the most value? I'd make that chain my #1 priority, and then maintain the Green Card for general travel purposes. Beyond that, I'd carefully consider which (if any) of the other cards I wanted to target/keep.
Thank you for the detailed response, you made me to be aware of the negative impact adding another hotel card. Yes I have American Express Hilton Honors No AF hoping to get upgrade offers to Surpass or Aspire, American Express Marriot Bonvoy Brilliant, those are my only personal hotel cards, as for IHG One Rewards Premier Card just an AU on my wife account. I do stay at certain Choice Comfort Suites & Radisson Hotels in the beginning and end of my cross country road trips from Portland to new different destinations beyond Mississippi River since they are clean and have breakfast to start the next day road trip. My average stay at hotels are 62 nights a year.
Since you're going to make significant use of their hotels, I don't see how you could go wrong.
@AyaMai wrote:Thank you for the detailed response, you made me to be aware of the negative impact adding another hotel card. Yes I have American Express Hilton Honors No AF hoping to get upgrade offers to Surpass or Aspire, American Express Marriot Bonvoy Brilliant, those are my only personal hotel cards, as for IHG One Rewards Premier Card just an AU on my wife account. I do stay at certain Choice Comfort Suites & Radisson Hotels in the beginning and end of my cross country road trips from Portland to new different destinations beyond Mississippi River since they are clean and have breakfast to start the next day road trip. My average stay at hotels are 62 nights a year.
You're welcome, @AyaMai. In your case, it sounds like the Choice Privileges Select might fit you better (or as well) than some of the other cards you've got. It does offer enough points for a free annual night and 20 elite night credits which gets you automatic Platinum status. If at least 20 of those 62 nights is at a Choice property, you just reached top-tier status of Diamond. 
My main point was to pick cards which worked naturally for you, and this one sounds like it will. The 90K SUB is a good deal right now also.
For me, this card comes down to a simple question: Would I buy 30k Choice points once per year for $95? Personally speaking, this is a very, very easy "yes."
30k Choice points recently got me a night in NYC that would have been ~$340 paid, with the closest comparable (though not nearly as well-rated) booking being ~$280. Effectively paying $95 instead? Yes please!
Your other cards - Hilton, IHG, Marriott - (likely) offer annual night certificates that are use 'em or lose 'em. But with Choice you can bank the 30k anniversary points until you have a solid redemption.
I am a big fan of hotel cards and this might be the easiest of them all to recoup the annual fee - a solid Choice redemption even every few years can be enough to come out ahead holding the card.
APR 
P2 Chopping Block 
@okurosetta wrote:I am a big fan of hotel cards and this might be the easiest of them all to recoup the annual fee
This is what got me to pull the trigger. $95/yr for 30K points is a no brainer. Points are worth ~0.03, so 5X is effectively ~3% on gas, grocery, home improvement and phone - maybe more if you get more value from their points. Easy choice, this one.
@AlanGJP wrote:
@okurosetta wrote:I am a big fan of hotel cards and this might be the easiest of them all to recoup the annual fee
This is what got me to pull the trigger. $95/yr for 30K points is a no brainer. Points are worth ~0.03, so 5X is effectively ~3% on gas, grocery, home improvement and phone - maybe more if you get more value from their points. Easy choice, this one.
I agree that in comparison to a lot of other travel cards, hotel cards can be very easy to love, @okurosetta and @AlanGJP. Especially for those cards with free annual nights or point equivalents that more than offset any AF, it's easy to come out at least even but more often ahead. On the other hand, there can be negatives and complicating factors that I believe should always be considered in the cost-benefit analysis, as the cost may be higher than merely refunding the AF. For some examples;
- Is this a card I'm going to use regularly enough to bother with taking up valuable wallet space to carry it?
- Is this a hotel chain where I already stay often ... without the encouragement of carrying the card?
- Am I motivated to use the card routinely outside of the hotel to further accelerate accumulation of hotel points?
- What is the time cost for monitoring another card for due dates, fraudulent usage, etc?
- Is the card with a lender where I log in regularly to check other deposit/credit accounts, making managing the card less of a chore?
- What is the excess rewards value of that free night that I'm getting (beyond simply refunding the AF) over my other travel cards?
- Based on my usage of this hotel brand, how much additional value from perks/elevated status did I gain in the last year, using the last 12 months as an indicator of the likely future benefit.
So yes, if the benefits are high and the trade-offs outlined above are neglible for each hotel card, add as many as you like. For most of us, though, at some point, they may start to detract from the value of other hotel brand cards depending on circumstances. Even a frequent traveler only spends so many days a year in hotels.