These aren’t all the pluses and minuses of each, but they’re the major drivers of value for a traveler who shares similar perspectives with me — an elite member who wants to use their points at the best and best value properties when vacationing on my own account. I’ve ordered them from best to worst according to my own subjective scale. Small but important items like 4pm late checkout likely feed into that scale, but don’t warrant bullets on their own. Hyatt Gold Passport The Good: Confirmed suite upgrades. This to me is the killer app, the feature that makes the Gold Passport program tops of any major hotel chain. Four times a year, Diamond members can reserve suites (for up to 7 nights at a time) from the lowest rate, confirmed at booking. No…
Hilton HHonors American Express
Search Results for "Hilton HHonors American Express".
Starwood Award Stays Likely to Count Towards Elite Status
It’s been the subject of speculation over on Milepoint, and I’ve just had two different people confirm it for me: expect an announcement on October 1 that award stays and nights (including cash and points awards) will count towards elite status in the Starwood Preferred Guest program. We’ll wait until October to see whether this actually goes into effect, but there’s strong indication that it will. Since January 1, 2003 this has been the case with Hilton HHonors but the other major chains didn’t follow suit. It looks likely that Starwood will be the second. Last October, Starwood began awarding both two stays and five nights to American Express cardholder accounts (no spend threshold required). Folks who have both the personal and small business card get four stays and ten nights. Now heavy spending American…
Why I Was Unfair to Starwood Preferred Guest
Yesterday I outlined what I think is wrong with Starwood Preferred Guest: they overpromise and underdeliver on elite benefits (a Platinum without an upgrade at a hotel without club lounge basically gets nothing for their stay) and there aren’t really exceptional points values for redemption at Starwood’s many truly top properties. I believe these criticisms are fair. And I also find that Hyatt Gold Passport has become more rewarding than Starwood Preferred Guest, though I’m frustrated by Gold Passport’s withdrawal of property-specific “G bonuses” which meant several thousand extra points per stay. Supposedly the removal of these bonuses was due to the manual process to post them and how often members were frustrated in following up to get them. But just eliminating the bonuses doesn’t satisfy members more, Hyatt has said that something will be…
How to Score the Best Hotel Room Upgrades
I was riffing yesterday morning over at Milepoint on different ways to get upgraded at hotels and thought I’d share the advice here as well and maybe blow it out a bit. Back in 2005 I offered up some recommendations, the upshot of which was to find a way to just ask (without being a jerk). I think I’m a bit more experienced now than I was then, and can offer some additional insight, hopefully some of it is new or will spark some idea about how to go about it. The crux of the advice from back in 2005 remains, though. There are a lot of guests in a hotel, man of which have some sort of status, and some get the upgrade and some don’t, some get the ‘special’ suites while others get…
Conrad Miami One-Bedroom Bay View Residence
Last weekend I stayed at the Conrad Miami. Hilton isn’t especially known for their Diamond treatment. Diamonds get full breakfast, access to a lounge when not on the executive floor, and promised upgrades aren’t meaningful (i.e. they don’t offer suite upgrades as part of the rules of the program). Then again, do I really count as a real Diamond? I made my status with a quick $40,000 churned through a Hilton Surpass American Express. In other words, it was earned quickly with a bit of credit card spend, not through loyalty to the chain. So I’ll take what I can get! And at the Conrad, I got more than I was paying for (a $220 rate, I believe): a one-bedroom bay view residence. Valet parking on arrival was excellent, a staff member read my luggage…
The End of the Northwest Visa, and Some Basics on Proprietary Bank Points-Based Rewards Programs
With the Northwest/Delta merger (Delta acquisition of Northwest), the surviving credit card partner is American Express. The US Bank-issued Visa will be going away later in the year. American Express, with its higher interchange fees, is likley in a position to be offering more for miles, and American Express has played an integral role in the financial viability of Delta over time — prepurchasing as much as a half a billion dollars worth of miles at a time and extending a $100 million line of credit. Naturally this is a blow to US Bank, as their Northwest partnership is big business for them. Word is that they are going to try to keep customers in a new proprietary points program, offering their own points where 20,000 points buys a domestic ticket on any airline. Most…
Use Amex Points on OneWorld Carriers
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2005
One of the great frustrations of the American Express Membership Rewards program is that American Airlines does not participate as a transfer partner. What’s more, it’s nearly* impossible to use American Express points to claim an award seat on any oneWorld carrier (American, British, Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, LanChile, Finnair, Aer Lingus). I say nearly because there are ways of working partnerships to get some seats, such as transferring points to Continental or USAirways to claim award seats on Qantas. But there aren’t any oneWorld partners in the Membership Rewards program. Right now there’s a brief window of opportunity, however, created by a confluence of two separate conversion bonuses. As I noted yesterday, transfers from American Express to Starwood earn a 50% bonus through March 31. And until January 31, transfers from hotel program into…
Best Mileage Earning Credit Cards
It’s been almost a year since I’ve updated this advice, so I thought I’d start from scratch. How to Decide on the Best Card Let me say up front that there isn’t one card that is best for everyone (although I’ll suggest below that a card can come pretty close). The truth is that the best card for you depends on what your award goals are. After all, different airlines fly to different places and offer awards at different point levels. Want to go from the United States to Australia, for instance? United awards are generally less expensive. But if you happen to live in Mexico your options for redeeming United miles are pretty limited. Another thing to consider is whether you pay your card off each month. Many of the mileage earning cards have…
Meeting planner programs
The major hotel chains offer perks and points to meeting planners. In my experience, these points are generally ‘left on the table’ — that is, meeting planners don’t know about them. In most cases these offers don’t drive up the cost of a meeting. They’re really just a marketing expense that the hotel chains incur and the points can be had by those in the know. So if you plan meetings for a living or occasionally, be sure to take note: Marriott, Starwood, Hilton, and Hyatt all offer formal rewards programs for meeting planners. Priority Club offers American Express Gift Cheques for paying for meetings with an Amex. If you’re aware of other programs in this category, please let me know.
Best Mileage Earning Credit Cards
Most airline cards come with an annual fee. But they also usually come with signup bonuses worth more than the annual fee — and the difference in earnings between no-fee cards and fee cards is usually enough to justify the fee. (Many airlines offer no fee cards that only earn 1 mile for every 2 dollars for instance). So the cheapest card isn’t always the best — it just depends on how much you use the card and how you value miles versus money. One no-fee airline card exception is the Lufthansa Visa (which also offers a 6000 mile signup bonus). Right now, Northwest is offering a 15,000 mile signup bonus and fee waived the first year but this offer expires August 31. Call (800) 360-2900, extension 2677. Delta offers fee waivers on it’s Amex…
