Hotel Cards for a road trip.

[AyaMai]

Which 2 hotel cards are best to travel on a road trip across USA staying at a hotel such as Hampton Inn

[FicoMike0]

Hampton is hilton. Amex has three cards. I have the free card, 80,000 point sub, $2000'spend in 6 months. Might check the fee cards if you plan a lot of nights.

https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/?eep=28810&utm_cmpid=430098504&utm_adid=&utm_mcid=&u...

[FicoMike0]

If you want cash back, rather than nights, maybe a travel card. I have the usb connect, pays 5x points for hotels booked through them. Haven't tried it. The points can be redeemed for cents, to card balance or checking. I have done that, no problem. Offering 20000 points, $200, sub, $2000 spend in 4 months. They were giving away $500 when I applied, won't see that again.

as I've complained before, don't expect a cli from usb, I've been trying for over a year in two cards.

[redpat]

Do your homework and believe it or not the best hotel card under the radar is actually an airline card, Citi AA Exec.

Has a current SUB of 100K.

Most, if not all hotel points have been severely been devalued.

This card will broaden your travel options, that's if you want any.....

[Varsity_Lu]

I second the Hilton AmEx card. Like Mike, I have the free one. Personally, I really like Hilton hotels. Hampton Inn is a great value, especially if you have multiple people in one room. I took my kids on a little 3 night trip last weekend and the breakfast alone almost pays for the room when you have teenage boys eating. We ate breakfast at like 7:30, went to the pool for a while, and then came back and ate again just before 10:00. We didn't even have to eat lunch that day, so I saved a ton of money right there. The room was only like $115 a night and I got over 2,000 points for the stay. It was awesome. (I realize that 2,000 points is only like 1/25th of a stay, but still)

[FicoMike0]

Wow, the aa exec card does offer 10x for hotels! It's a little pricey at $595, though. Seems like it would take a lot of travel to get that back. What is the value of the points? The 100,000 point sub sounds nice, until you see it requires $10,000 spend on 3 months to qualify. I wouldn't get the fee back from the sub either, since I wouldn't qualify!

[redpat]

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@FicoMike0 wrote:

Wow, the aa exec card does offer 10x for hotels! It's a little pricey at $595, though. Seems like it would take a lot of travel to get that back. What is the value of the points? The 100,000 point sub sounds nice, until you see it requires $10,000 spend on 3 months to qualify. I wouldn't get the fee back from the sub either, since I wouldn't qualify!

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@FicoMike0  Way more than 10x, more homework needed.....Lol!

[FicoMike0]

The $595 makes it pass/ fail for me.

[SouthJamaica]

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@AyaMai wrote:

Which 2 hotel cards are best to travel on a road trip across USA staying at a hotel such as Hampton Inn

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I've had good experiences with the Amex Hilton cards. Hampton Inn is among the Hilton family of hotels. Another one I happen to like is Homewood Suites.

Of the 3 cards offered, the one that I have found delivers the most bang for the buck is the Surpass card, which does have an annual fee.

It's easy to earn Hilton points, but unfortunately they're not worth that much. I have found them to be worth about four tenths of a cent.

The only other hotel card with which I've had recent experience is the Chase World of Hyatt Visa card. That too IMHO is quite worth having.

It's harder to earn points but the points are worth much much more than the Hilton cards.  In a test I ran last year the Hyatt points were worth 8x the value of the Hilton points. https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Hyatt-points-worth-8x-Hilton-points/m-p/6772197?search...

The only problem with the Hyatt cards is that there seem to be fewer hotels available.

From what I hear, the IHG cards and Marriott cards appear to offer good value, and lots of additional hotels to choose from.

[Varsity_Lu]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

It's easy to earn Hilton points, but unfortunately they're not worth that much. I have found them to be worth about four tenths of a cent.

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0.4 CPP is my calculation, too.  My thinking with the Hilton Card was this: 1. I got the no AF card with a SP approval so I'm not out anything, 2. They gave me a 100,000 point SUB which is like $400 toward hotel stays, and 3. I already like Hilton hotels anyway. Since I am already using them, I might as well get more point by using the free card. It's a win win win and I didn't have to wear shirt with baby's playing saxaphones!