I have read people here mentioning that they are able to accumulate points to use for future travel through completing hotel shops. Which card(s) do you recommend?

The Uber card used to offer 4% back on dining and 3% on hotels, but they completely changed the terms. You can only use points for Uber service now.

I have only completed Hilton hotel shops so far.

It really depends on what hotels/rewards you are focusing on. Some cards will give you a leg up on qualifying for better status...but then some shops will simply give you that status....and the points benefit for using a card on a hotel assignment is generally going be cancelled out if the charges are reversed.

For the majority of my reimbursed shops, I'm using airline cards. I can get plenty of hotel points from performing the shops, but the one thing I never have enough of is air miles, since travel reimbursement is so limited most of the time.

You can also trade air miles for hotel stays, but it's hard to push points the other way...

*cracks knuckles* You are singing my song here. Don't get a hotel or airline co-branded card unless you are chasing sign-up bonuses and have exhausted better cards first. The best all-purpose, entry-level, points earning card is Chase Sapphire Preferred. Chase has a sign-up bonus of 60k points which you can easily transfer for at least 2 RT domestic flights or one round-trip international flight. With Chase you get 2x points on hotels, dining, and transportation. Chase has the most transfer partners closely followed by AMEX. On the Amex side, the Everyday Preferred is a great card too. Delta is king here in the SE so I use Amex a lot more since the two companies have a close relationship. Another factor with Amex is they have excellent offers that oftentimes allow you to double-dip on MS jobs. For example, a $60 statement credit or XXXX points for a stay at Hilton. I've even seen points offers for 5 Guys. If you decide to sign up for either of those let me know and I will send you a referral link.


Now, if you want to do some hard-core points earning there is a whole method that is too much to go into on this post. If you are interested I can point you towards some excellent resources. I churned cards for a year and got enough points for 2 biz class tickets to Europe and 11 hotel nights. I'm working on points for a trip to Asia now.

I don't churn cards, so this would only be for a single card. I might be looking at a large mortgage soon for an investment property, so my credit needs to stay relatively close to where it is. This would be only for hotels, since we drive everywhere.

In that case, I'd definitely stick with a general Chase or Amex card. You can transfer those points to a lot of different hotels instead of being married to one chain group. The only reason I would get a hotel card would be for status but they only give you gold status which doesn't really give you much.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2020 06:19PM by callinectes.

There a lots of factors involved... For me, nearly all hotel, rental car and air travel are placed on my PenFed Pathfinder.

Pathfinder has 4% back on travel expenses, free pre-TSA/Global Entry Credit every 4 years, a free $100 in-flight credit annually (that I typically just cash out to a Walmart gift card), etc.

I also have the AMEX Hilton Surpass, that’s I plan to product change to the annual fee free card when the annual fee hits.

I have the IHG Rewards card from Chase ($65 Annual Fee), but found it worth keeping, as my $65 Annual Fee is basically the cost of the card’s Free hotel night a year.

That’s just my specific philosophies on credit card rewards: minimal annual fees, optimum rewards/cash back accrual.

As for all other non-hotel, non-car rental and non-air travel purchases, I wiggle my way through cashing out on a minimum 5% back.

@Niner wrote:

I don't churn cards, so this would only be for a single card. I might be looking at a large mortgage soon for an investment property, so my credit needs to stay relatively close to where it is. This would be only for hotels, since we drive everywhere.

Pro-tip from someone who’s gone through that process AND has 30+ credit lines open and active, you really just have to chill on the hard inquiries for about 6 or so months, to ensure your credit score they pull to be >740.

Another tip is the business card credit line doesn’t show up on your personal credit.

Hilton, Marriott, Choice

For hotels, I only use Hilton Honors American Express. At any given time, I have around 1,000,000 points.

For airlines, I have Jet Blue and Southwest. I have never paid to fly my kids anywhere. I always use points. They each take around 10 flights a year.

I am not a credit card churner. My credit score is around 840, depending on which place you are checking.

Which Hilton American Express do you recommend? There seems to be a few

I have the basic Hilton Honors Amex Card. With the Marriott card, I pay an annual fee, but that also gets me a one night stay that is worth more than the fee AND boosts the rewards per dollar spent. Interesting that the Choice Rewards program actually has the best payoff in rewards points and it is easy to stay at their suites hotels on points. Comfortable way to support MS routes. Some of the really crazy road warrior MSers swear by the Choice rewards program. They run stay 2 nights get one free specials quite often, so you can really move up quickly.

@Tarantado wrote:

That’s just my specific philosophies on credit card rewards: minimal annual fees, optimum rewards/cash back accrual.

I have to disagree on the minimal annual fees. For instance take the Hilton Amex Cards. The base card at $0 fee gives you 7x on Hilton stays. The Surpass gives you like 12x?. Sure it has a $95 annual fee but you get a free night that's worth that. So basically by paying for a night up front (in the form of the annual fee) you earn almost 2x the points on your actual stays. Or you could move up to the Aspire for 14x and a $450 annual fee. Sure that sounds like a lot but you get a $250 credit for certain Hilton properties, a $250 airline incidental credit, and a free night. So basically you prepay at a discount and earn even more points on your stays. Low annual fee isn't always what it's cracked up to be. Plus you would have to pry my $550 Amex Platinum card out of my cold dead fingers.

@Niner wrote:

Which Hilton American Express do you recommend? There seems to be a few

For you, I would go with the Surpass if you wanted an Amex card. I think referrals have 125,000 sign up bonus right now. You couldn't go wrong with the recommended Chase Sapphire Preferred either though.

@callinectes wrote:

In that case, I'd definitely stick with a general Chase or Amex card. You can transfer those points to a lot of different hotels instead of being married to one chain group. The only reason I would get a hotel card would be for status but they only give you gold status which doesn't really give you much.

For hotels only I would recommend Chase over Amex. Transferring from Amex to a hotel partner is generally a poor value. The same is true for Chase except in the case of Hyatt, which can yield about twice as much in value.

@walesmaven wrote:

Some of the really crazy road warrior MSers swear by the Choice rewards program. They run stay 2 nights get one free specials quite often, so you can really move up quickly.

And others stay away lol. I've found Choice properties to vary way too much in quality to bother staying there.

We're looking at the free Global Entry (for partner) cards right now. Will have to check out PenFed Pathfinder. Thanks. Considering United branded as well because of the free bags. Just for a year. Usually we fly Southwest, but have some plans later this year that will require a different airline.

I have IHG as well since it bumps you to Platinum and you get a free room every year. I think mine is $95, though. Unfortunately, they've gone and changed the terms to limit the rooms to a 40k one, and they've devalued the points so all of the previously tied auto-payments are going to be switched soon. No more mattress runs for Accelerate bonuses.

@Niner wrote:

Which Hilton American Express do you recommend? There seems to be a few

Mine is a basic Hilton Honors American Express, no annual fee. I've had it since 1996.

If you spend $20,000 a year, you get upgraded to Hilton Gold Status for the next year with no minimum stay required. (This year I had enough hotel stays, that I started to charge everything on Southwest and Jet Blue).

Some hotels in big cities have huge check-in lines, I get to skip the line, which I love.

Earn 7X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for each dollar of eligible purchases charged on your Card directly with a hotel or resort within the Hilton portfolio.

Earn 5X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for each dollar of eligible purchases on your Card:
at U.S. restaurants
at U.S. supermarkets
at U.S. gas stations

Earn 3X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for all other eligible purchases on your Card.

They keep offering me the Surpass ($95) and the Aspire ($450), but I am ok with this one, at least until I retire in 3-5 years.

@iShop123 wrote:

I have IHG as well since it bumps you to Platinum and you get a free room every year. I think mine is $95, though. Unfortunately, they've gone and changed the terms to limit the rooms to a 40k one, and they've devalued the points so all of the previously tied auto-payments are going to be switched soon. No more mattress runs for Accelerate bonuses.

Your IHG card has Global Entry Credit. Also why no more Accelerate bonuses? New one should be released next week. And I haven't seen a point devaluation unless you're strictly attempting to redeem at the top levels. I find MUCH better value in the lower levels. Most sites value IHG points at $.005 per point and consistently get twice that. Your credit card gives you a 4th night free on redemptions, which bumps that even further.

@callinectes wrote:

*cracks knuckles* You are singing my song here. Don't get a hotel or airline co-branded card unless you are chasing sign-up bonuses and have exhausted better cards first. The best all-purpose, entry-level, points earning card is Chase Sapphire Preferred. Chase has a sign-up bonus of 60k points which you can easily transfer for at least 2 RT domestic flights or one round-trip international flight. With Chase you get 2x points on hotels, dining, and transportation. Chase has the most transfer partners closely followed by AMEX. On the Amex side, the Everyday Preferred is a great card too. Delta is king here in the SE so I use Amex a lot more since the two companies have a close relationship. Another factor with Amex is they have excellent offers that oftentimes allow you to double-dip on MS jobs. For example, a $60 statement credit or XXXX points for a stay at Hilton. I've even seen points offers for 5 Guys. If you decide to sign up for either of those let me know and I will send you a referral link.


Now, if you want to do some hard-core points earning there is a whole method that is too much to go into on this post. If you are interested I can point you towards some excellent resources. I churned cards for a year and got enough points for 2 biz class tickets to Europe and 11 hotel nights. I'm working on points for a trip to Asia now.

You are officially my new inspiration

True enough but AMEX has transfer bonuses pretty often - though at the moment I can't remember if they do bonuses on hotel transfers. BTW, I agree with you on the Amex Plat. It is well worth the fee.

@bgriffin wrote:

@callinectes wrote:

In that case, I'd definitely stick with a general Chase or Amex card. You can transfer those points to a lot of different hotels instead of being married to one chain group. The only reason I would get a hotel card would be for status but they only give you gold status which doesn't really give you much.

For hotels only I would recommend Chase over Amex. Transferring from Amex to a hotel partner is generally a poor value. The same is true for Chase except in the case of Hyatt, which can yield about twice as much in value.

Another important note to state. For those with premium hotel status with any of the major hotel chains, you can “status match” which leaves the benefits of certain chains’ credit card’s status upgrade benefits.

Another great status match is Marriott’s Titanium with United for Premier Silver.

@bgriffin wrote:

Your IHG card has Global Entry Credit. Also why no more Accelerate bonuses? New one should be released next week. And I haven't seen a point devaluation unless you're strictly attempting to redeem at the top levels. I find MUCH better value in the lower levels. Most sites value IHG points at $.005 per point and consistently get twice that. Your credit card gives you a 4th night free on redemptions, which bumps that even further.

I have Global Entry; my partner does not. I didn't see Accelerate for the last quarter, and my previous two were lousy. Hope you're right about it coming back, and hopefully will be better than the must-complete-all-offers-for-the-bonus ones I've been getting. The Points Breaks keep creeping up, and the hotel that I most frequent is now 50,000 points -- but it's less than $125 regular cash rate. Feels devalued to me. Even the HIE is 30,000 now (or 15k + $100). Will have to scour FlyerTalk and SlickDeals to see what's better..

@iShop123 wrote:

I have Global Entry; my partner does not. I didn't see Accelerate for the last quarter, and my previous two were lousy. Hope you're right about it coming back, and hopefully will be better than the must-complete-all-offers-for-the-bonus ones I've been getting. The Points Breaks keep creeping up, and the hotel that I most frequent is now 50,000 points -- but it's less than $125 regular cash rate. Feels devalued to me. Even the HIE is 30,000 now (or 15k + $100). Will have to scour FlyerTalk and SlickDeals to see what's better..

Are you saying you have already used your IHG credit for yourself? Because the card doesn't know or care who the credit is for. If you have not used the credit your partner can charge their fee to your IHG card and it will be refunded.

My last Accelerates were horrible too, it's been awhile since I had a really good one.

So you are basing your devaluation on a particular 50k property and a particular HIE? Because I've stayed at tons of HIE for 10-15k points. It sounds like the particular properties have devalued and not the program overall. I honestly have not see any overall devaluation.

I didn't even get an Accelerate last quarter, which is why I thought they'd disappeared. Not just the one property -- we used to get a fair number of 5k+$60 hotels. That saved us additional money because we didn't pay city taxes on the hotel. The same properties are now either much higher in the dollar amount and/or points. I suppose it could be because they're in a big city. I'm just not getting the value I was.

Wishing I had the spend level to qualify for AmEx black ;-)

When they first started Accelerate it was like Q1 and Q3 and they had other promotions for Q2/4. I think they are going back to that. I could be wrong but most of the travel rewards blogs I follow seem to think it will be back this week.

I might wish I had the spend level for a Centurion card, but I have no desire to actually have one. Especially since they just upped the fee AND you have to pay a huge initiation fee.

Double Post!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2020 09:54PM by bgriffin.

@bgriffin wrote:

@Tarantado wrote:

That’s just my specific philosophies on credit card rewards: minimal annual fees, optimum rewards/cash back accrual.

I have to disagree on the minimal annual fees. For instance take the Hilton Amex Cards. The base card at $0 fee gives you 7x on Hilton stays. The Surpass gives you like 12x?. Sure it has a $95 annual fee but you get a free night that's worth that. So basically by paying for a night up front (in the form of the annual fee) you earn almost 2x the points on your actual stays. Or you could move up to the Aspire for 14x and a $450 annual fee. Sure that sounds like a lot but you get a $250 credit for certain Hilton properties, a $250 airline incidental credit, and a free night. So basically you prepay at a discount and earn even more points on your stays. Low annual fee isn't always what it's cracked up to be. Plus you would have to pry my $550 Amex Platinum card out of my cold dead fingers.

I can agree to that, but it honestly only makes sense if your burn rate is high. My burn rate has been extremely low, even with mystery shopping, mainly due to working with a client that actually is OK with the project team not constantly traveling back and forth to the job site and/or their site... I'm OK with that.

When I was working with a client with my full-time job where I was traveling a lot, meaning travel expenses (flight, rental car, etc.) including per diem was covered by my company, then the ROI for investing in a high annual fee card totally makes sense. Personally, I'm more of a Chase Sapphire Reserve kind of guy, as opposed to AMEX Platinum.... But now that they raised the fee to match AMEX's for CSR, in exchange for benefits that's pretty useless to me (aka Dash Pass and a Lyft Premium status, bleh), I may turn over to Citi Prestige whenever a time is appropriate for me to jump back to a high annual fee card. But yes, I'm well-aware on "net annual fees" after accounting for any flight credits and Uber credits, etc. that you can churn, but it really makes sense if someone's burn rate meets that break even point. Unfortunately for me, it makes sense to cash out ~5-20% in rewards/cash back/statement credits at the moment, ESPECIALLY when my local airport (DIA) has 0 lounges falling into the Priority Pass list.

@iShop123 wrote:

The Points Breaks keep creeping up

Point Breaks won't be creeping up anymore, they're gone. :/
That is a serious damper.

They're not gone; they're just now 5k, 10k, 15k instead of all being 5k. Very few domestic 5ks. [www.ihg.com]

Are they stopping them after this quarter?

[loyaltylobby.com]