Monday Triple

  • American Express Premier Rewards Gold is back to 50,000 points. If the link doesn’t work, try in an incognito browser.
  • Club Carlson decided to murder a great credit card. We’d been able to book points stays for 2 nights and pay for 1. After June, this is a deal of the past. To “ease the pain,” they’re offering 30,000 bonus points to cardholders who complete a paid stay before September. Blah.
  • To give you guys a glimpse at how great you are (and what some of my email debates look like)…here’s a conversation with reader Matt over the weekend. He was responding to my Friday diss of Hilton:

Matt:

“My two cents rant. Everyone bashes Hilton.  Aside from the card with 2 free weekend nights and one night a year (Hilton Reserve), everyone beats up on them like the geeky kid at school.

Ok, so Hilton has high redemption values… I get it… But man, I’ve done the math and for me, Hilton is actually the best of all the major players when earning through manufactured spending.  Aside the Hyatt card, I’ve had pretty much every hotel credit card from all the players (some twice or more).  If you stay in hotels on points quite a bit, all credit card churning opportunities dry up to a certain degree…so I have to rely on some manufactured spending (and will even more now with the stupid change to the US Bank Club Carlson last night free benefit).
For example.. in a few weeks I am staying in Chicago at a Hilton on Michigan Ave… retail is $250-300 a night (has fluctuated since I booked).  It’s 40k a night, so 120k for 3 nights.  Through manufactured spending, I can get that many points with the Surpass for $238 in spending.  Compare to Starwood where the properties are 12-15k a night in the same area.  I’d need to buy gift cards which would cost me $428.  Now, I do agree that Hilton status is not as good as Hyatt or Starwood.  But unless I am doing a lot of business travel (which I don’t anymore), once the signup bonuses dry up, Hilton is better than those two that everyone loves.  Not to mention, if I want to go on the cheap side in a smaller city, I can stay at a lower tiered Hilton for 15-20k points a night… most cheap Hyatts start around 8k and Starwood around 7k.  Before Starwoods devaluation there were quite a few for 3k or 4.5k, or better deals on cash + points.  Cash + points has slowly been going away (at least when I am booking) and I rarely see a Starwood for less 7k.  In fact, I am staying in OKC in a few weeks for a marathon.  I needed to stay downtown by the starting line and I had two choices that weren’t sold out when I booked:  Hilton for 40k or Starwood for 10k.  $83 worth of gift cards for a $250 Hilton property (So essentially paying 1/3 of retail price) or $119 worth of gift cards for a $150 Aloft room through Starwood.  It was a no brainer.
But now that internet is pretty much free, what is the point of status at hotels aside when you are paying cash and earn more points?  Sure, I might get an upgrade or free breakfast.  What if I didn’t plan to eat that breakfast anyways?  What is the point of a buffet breakfast when I am only hungry in the morning for something the size of an Egg McMuffin?  Or what if I want to try out the local restaurant around the corner?  And when I used to travel on biz it did me no good since I was going to expense it all anyways.”
Me:
“That was awesome! I get your point from your POV, but the value of Hilton signup bonuses are still pretty weak. Especially for nicer properties.”
Matt:
“Yeah, you are right on that account. But the way I look at it, I’ve had:

-Both Chase Marriott cards (slowly churnable, Marriott doesn’t have much value for the non-biz traveler anyways)
-2 Club Carlson cards
-2 Citi, 2 AMEX Hilton cards
-2 Starwood cards
-IHG card (churnable, but hard to cancel and wait to sign up again with the annual free night)
-3 Choice Cards (ugh, I know)
If I throw in the Hyatt which I haven’t signed up for and add all of those signup bonuses together, I could stretch it all for 20-30 nights (maybe more if I go with the cheapest properties).  The Amex Hilton and Starwood cards are one and done now.  I can get the Chase signups every 2 years, probably grab another Club Carlson every year or so, and can get both Citi Hilton cards annually.  So year two and beyond I can add another 15+ nights if I stretch it out, but probably close to 10.  If that is all I am traveling, that is fine…but I am not.  And there really isn’t a good hotel card for everyday spending aside from Starwood. But if you have an Ink, Sapphire, Arrival card, Premier Rewards card you are probably doing a lot of category spending and putting little on the Starwood these days. And I don’t like to transfer Ultimate Rewards or Membership Rewards to hotel programs (aside an occasional UR to Hyatt) because the better value is transferring to airlines.  So, all of that said, eventually if you want to take a lot of trips and you don’t like to pay for hotels…you have to manufacture spend.  I’ve been averaging over 30 nights a year for the past 3+ (had to slow down a for a year when daughter was born) and Hilton has saved me.”
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Hilton Wants Your Attention

I don’t think I’ve ever seen this kind of push from one hotel brand over a week. I mean…

  • Hilton just increased their American Express offer to 60,000 points.
  • The Amex Surpass card was upped to 80,000.
  • Their Citibank Visa jumped back to 60,000.

And, of course, the Reserve card from Citibank is still around too.

So is it time to go nuts with Hilon Honors points?

Nah, not for most people.

Hyatt, Starwood, Club Carlson, and IHG’s cards are all better than anything on that bulleted list.  Bumped up offers are great…but unless you’re running out of cards, Hilton stays in the middle of the pack.


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Return Of Three

  • It’s back. The bonus on the Hilton Surpass card is up to 80,000 points again. Not bad, but Citi Hilton Reserve still has the best signup bonus for this (increasingly) average hotel chain.
  • Also back. The Enterprise $9.99 per day deal on weekend car rentals at neighborhood locations. Remember, this isn’t with unlimited miles.
  • Finally, the 25% bonus is back when you transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to Virgin Atlantic. Good but not great. For most of you, I’d wait for another promo.

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A Couple Reasons To Like Wyndham

Starting May 11th, Wyndham will charge a flat 15,000 points for their hotel nights. The problem is…Wyndham sucks. Their family of hotels is full of (mostly) dumps. There are a grand total of 2 exceptions in the United States that interest me – Kauai and Miami. These are normally 50,000 points per night, so the 15,000 would be a great deal. So yeah, it might be worth looking at their card for the first time (45,000 points). Just beware of the “not all hotels will participate” wording.

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The Art Of Complaining

“You screwed up.”

“I’M SERIOUSLY PISSED OFF!!!”

Those are two examples of how most people complain. They are also examples of what not to do.

Look, I’m not exceptional at many things in this world. But I’m a hell of a complainer. Here’s why I’ve earned tens of thousands of dollars worth of points, cash, credits, merchandise, rooms, flights, and on and on…

  1. I’m not scared – At least half of you avoid complaining because “it’s not nice.” Frankly, that’s a pretty messed up way of thinking. Nobody’s talking about lying and making up stuff to whine about. But when there are legitimate issues and you don’t speak up…it’s either weakness, fear, or laziness. It absolutely is not kindness. How can you get what you want if you don’t ask for it?
  2. I’m not a douchebag – This is the problem with many people who are comfortable enough to complain. It’s very simple. If you treat someone like shit, why would they ever do anything for you? In the past 3 months, I’ve gotten free breakfast, waived resort fees, late checkout, points, miles, entire nights credited, cash, and airline vouchers. I never had to use a disrespectful word.
  3. I appeal to people as a human being – There’s more to someone than their job title. Talk to human beings as human beings. A few years ago, I was in Chicago to watch Oprah’s final big show at the United Center. There had been a Capital One Venture promo and I had Ritz Carlton gift cards. I decided to live it up for a few days and burned them all. That first night, I heard a couple having some fun. But their headboard knocking into my wall woke me at 2:30 AM. When morning came, I called the front desk. I told the manager how excited we were to be there, how we loved the hotel, and that this was a very special weekend. There was a reason we weren’t staying at the Holiday Inn. By the time I got to the headboard part, she actually gasped. It mattered to her. In some small way, I mattered to her. She wanted to make sure my special weekend lived up to expectations. That morning, she moved us to a ridiculous suite. The only other people on that floor were the Miami Heat, who were in town for their playoff series against Chicago.
  4. I don’t cut my own legs off – I always think of speech class in junior high school. So many people walked up there…and immediately proceed to talk about how their speech wasn’t going to be good… how they had originally planned more.  Man, they really were their worst enemy. This week, when complaining about my Ink card losing its lounge benefit…I felt a little resistance. The rep said my annual fee wasn’t due and he wouldn’t be able to credit my account. This is where a lot of people hang up. But instead of crawling away, I suggested points. A couple minutes later, he added a few thousand to my Ultimate Rewards account.
  5. I know when to move on up – Sometimes, a person has no power to help. Or doesn’t care. Or is just a dud. Don’t waste your breath on the wrong person. If you need to speak with a manager, ask for one. If you need to reach out to a corporate office, so be it. I signed up for AT&T U-Verse a couple months ago. My internet was supposed to be incredibly fast. It was far from that. The rep didn’t see a problem. I made sure the manager understood the issue. I got a $200 credit on my $135 bill.

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