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How hotel rewards compare to airline reward tickets, there are a lot of differences.
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38 comments
Awesome Ben ! Another great review thank you for sharing 🔥👌🏽
Jose P
That dive tho 😂😂😂
No love for the IHG card? Granted, earning rate isn't great, but the annual free night can be used at ANY of their properties which is a pretty nice perk.
If you like Marriott wouldn't it be better to get the SPG card anyway since it includes Marriott and gives you many more options?
Hey credit shifu, Can you make a video about the new Bank of America premium rewards card, I haven't seen that much info about that card
for a couple of these cards have foreign transaction fees the Hilton cards do and the Marriott not the black card but the down graded the card with the 45.00 annual fee 3 x at Marriott's if you go to a Foreign country and using the Hilton at a Hilton and a Marriott at a Marriott do you have to pay foreign transaction fees?
I think the difference is that when I'm flying, there's nothing else I can do besides be on the airplane, so it's worth it to fly in better luxury during the necessary travel time. When I'm at the destination, instead of staying in the hotel, I can go out and experience the local culture, food, etc.!! Regardless of the luxury, I'm not planning on spending much time at the hotel/AirBnB, etc. So the luxury is more negligible.
Baby Credit Shifu for the win!
Starwood card gets 5x at Starwood properties, 2x at Marriott, 1x everywhere else, not just 1x everywhere.
also SPG gives you Starwood gold status, and you can status match to Marriott / Ritz-Carlton to maintian gold status with them as well.
We finally got to meeting Mrs. Credit Shifu after so many references! I started to think it was like Lt. Columbo's mythical wife!
can anyone recommend a Hotel credit card for me please? I don't mind staying in a cheaper hotel because when I travel I just go to the hotel to sleep and take shower anyways. So which is the best hotel credit card in my case? Thank you.
What type of credit do you need to get these cards and where do you apply?
My main card is the Amex Hilton Surpass card. I think one of the things that makes the card extremely useful is where you are in life also. As a suburban dad getting the 6x on gas stations and grocery stores is great. Also there is a ease of use factor with hotels. I used points for a couple days for a hotel to go to Carowinds. Not great conversion but worth it.
Maybe not as common as airlines, but Hotels definitely do have blackout dates. I ran into problems booking in Jerusalem on the last week of September next year. Depending on where you're going you'll want to be aware of major holidays and festivals for that country and make sure the'll let you book an award stay.
Can you just get the sign up bonus(after 3/6/12 months of course) and then cancel the card without affecting your credit score?
I suspect that with a 'Chase Quadfecta' utilizing the Sapphire Preferred and the Ink Cash that you probably would be able to get a free flight each year, and of those 4 cards the only one with an annual fee is the $95 Sapphire Preferred.
I am thinking of getting the IHG Master Card. I saw one reviewer mention the Accelerate portal for this card. Basically each quarter there are several opportunities to earn extra points when using your card, and it generally looks pretty easy. In Q1 2017 there was potential to earn up to 41,000 bonus points: "3000 points book and stay once. 5600 points when you stay at 2 holiday inn hotels. 12,500 *when you complete 6 of the 7 offers (bonus points for your bonus points?)*" So yeah, basically using the card as you would gets you bonus points.
Here's the review: /watch?v=Ml1nBfznCL8 he talks about the Accelerate portal at 1:53.
I'll probably get the Amex Hilton Honors card first since it's free and I'm mostly focusing on cash back. I was actually expecting the Sapphire Preferred to be my only card with a fee, but the IHG card makes a lot of sense to me and I don't know how unrealistic the fear of them closing new membership to the card is. Besides, with the cost of the IHG card I could upgrade the CSP to the CSR, but I don't know if that's worth it. With my various non-Chase cash back cards and the Freedom, I get quite a few different 5% categories – for example in Q1 2018 I will have at least 6 different categories, not including Freedom's unannounced schedule.
You should do a video about what hotel anniversary nights you can stack and if you can use your two free nights with the anniversary night
So what's better, a chase sapphire card or a hotel one?
How can you give global entry credit to someone else?
Are you still using your Wyndham Credit card? Is it worth getting? I just got status match with total rewards (diamond status) and wanted to try and take advantage of it.
Hi We are looking at getting hotel credit cards (currently don't have any) and I was wondering which one you would recommend getting first. SPG, HILTON, MARRIOTT, ect? Do you have favorite or best valued cards among hotel credit cards? Thank you.
"Baby Credit Shifu," so cute 😊
I appreciate the info. SPG is hard to beat on air fair and hotel room redemption. Hopeful Marriott will not make drastic changes program this coming year.
Baby credit shifu is adorable
Very nice…
Great , can you make one for this year? I am looking for the right hotel credit card, thank you 😊
They can give the best value because hotels have much higher margins than airlines. If the hotel isnt full they only need to cover the cost of materials and labour. More importantly the hotel does actually get paid in USD for these stays in the back end of things. In a chain I worked for, Every time you stay with a membership attached to your booking to collect points 3% of the rate was paid by the hotel into the loyalty programme. When a guest redeems their points the hotel accepting the booking gets paid from the pool of money. For credit card points I’d imagine it’s a similar situation. A portion of the transaction fees would go to the loyalty programme and be given to the hotel where the points are redeemed. Where the hotel was not full, we were paid quite a low rate (60usd). When we were 95%+ occupancy we would earn the average rate for the day from the points stay.
It all balances out I guess for internal loyalty points being redeemed and awarded but in the case of credit cards this means the hotel is actually making money from you. Some of your transaction fees from amazon starbucks etc get xfered to the loyalty programme -> hotel earns cash (or at the very least breaks even) from an external business
What about the IHG (Intercontinental/Holiday Inn) card? Is that worth a look?
So many great points. I literally almost always redeem my Chase and SPG points for hotel stays instead of airlines. First of all, it’s way simpler and more straight forward. With airlines you have to think about what airline group each airline belongs to, if there are fuel surcharges, etc etc. It gets so confusing. On top of that I almost always will get a far better value redeeming for hotel stays (sometimes as high as 4cents/point). Hotel redemptions win hands down.
Browsing through your channel and I was wondering if you can do some travel hacking videos re: traveling with infants. Which hotel brand is most suitable for families with kids or 2 adults with plus ones since I hear Europe is strict with occupancy.
5x – 7x for gas/grocery/restaurants is great! The only other car that have 5 x is the Ducks Unlimited card, or maybe that was 5%. I'm not sure if those correlate, that is are we comparing apples to Apples when we talk about rewards points versus percentage of $1?
I personally would rather a flight to a designation I haven't been to then a Single night five star hotel
I have to say I'm a little confused because of watched another YouTube video where they were saying hotel points were practically useless and that Hilton was the worst kind of points you could get
I'm actually thinking of getting this card as a non-category everyday card, for the 15K 2nd free night. Looking at the points structures and benefits, this beats the Bonvoy Brilliant with projected spend.
You ever think about redoing some of these old videos? Because the information here is REALLY good, but at the same time a lot of the cards and stuff are not applicable anymore.
Recently I picked up the Hilton Honors w/no annual fee. If I bought Honors point would I earn the 3x bonus?
Mrs. Credit Shifu and Baby Shifu… lol 😂 I Love It 🥰!