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DW and I will be taking two weeks during the Summer with our kids and going to California for a vacation. We are looking for a hotel card with a good current promotion for free stays, but we're wondering which offers we should take advantage of. We generally stay at La Quinta because of our corporate discount, book through the Chase UR site, and collect points for our stay and 3X points for booking through UR. All in all, we usually pay approximately $100/night after taxes and fees on average. We have been loyal to La Quinta for the past 3-4 years, but we're not interested in getting the FNB of Omaha La Quinta Visa. We generally book 10-15 hotel nights per year.
We saw the promo for AMEX SPG, which is currently offering 25k points, which can net you between 6-8 free nights after lower level properties after $5,000 spend in 6 months. I also like the flexibility of different reward redemption rates for different level properties. We also looked at the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton cards through Chase. Marriot seems ok for the fee with the night and the free card anniversary night, but Ritz-Carlton seems to be a little much for our taste.
For rewards cards, she has CSP, Freedom, and AMEX BCE. I have AMEX PRG and EDP. We spend $2,500-$3,000/month on our credit cards and PIF on these cards. If we choose Marriott/Ritz, I will apply since I have no Chase cards. If we choose SPG, DW will apply since she only has BCE.
With all this being said and taking our spending/bookings per year into consideration, what card do you think might suit us best?
About the Ritz card... I've been doing some research and I can't say I'm 100% certain but, here goes: Apparently, if you use the 140k offer link and are approved (www.theritzcarltoncreditcard.com/140koffer), you can use those points towards marriott, and 140k points goes a very long way with Marriott as opposed to RC. They tier it out for you online, so you can look around and do the math. I think with the 140k points, you literally get almost 5 nights free at a Marriott- depending on tier.
That being said, there has been some speculation that the 140k offer is still around, but the points only convert to RC, and the most they'll give you is two free nights at RC properties up to tier 4.
Hope this helped.
I got 7 free nights on the Marriott card. I free night on approval and 6 free nights after $1k spend (50k bonus). You also get one free night per year which takes care of the annual fee associated with the card. You also receive instant lifetime Silver Elite status which comes with pretty good benefits.
If you apply for a CSP you get 45k UR for the bonus. That is 9 nights in a cat 1 hyatt if you have any near you.
After the first year the card has a fee but most people consider it worth it