I’ve written about the best hotel credit cards offering free nights, either as an annual benefit or as a reward for reaching certain spending thresholds. In many cases, these anniversary free night certificates can more than justify the annual fees on cards, given that they can be redeemed at some great hotels.
Continue reading: Best Credit Cards Offering Hotel Elite Status
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
“It’s pretty remarkable that nowadays you can earn valuable status with Hilton, Marriott, Sonesta, and Wyndham, just for having a credit card”
We have different definitions of the word ‘earn’…
There’s a longstanding concern around devaluing loyalty programs when you sell status for cash value. I don’t see credit cards being any different. I’m not spending with the hotel chain - I’m spending with a bank that is giving them money. Zero loyalty other than me indirectly paying them.
With that said, this industry is now so fractured that the incentives are really starting to show. Multiple Hyatt properties are engineering ways to make sure we can’t redeem benefits that are stated as available through the program. If you ever have a charge that doesn’t code correctly, neither the card company nor loyalty chain will put the work in to properly resolve. I have this sensation that in 10 years, everything is going to be like Delta’s program: loyalty in name only.
It makes me appreciate cash back or cash-value transaction programs more as benefits decrease.
I was with you until this statement: “ If you ever have a charge that doesn’t code correctly, neither the card company nor loyalty chain will put the work in to properly resolve.”
Can’t speak for Chase, but Amex does a great job fixing such issues.
And yet… even with all the status in the world, you still have to prompt front desk staff for the two free water bottles.
Honestly maybe a lot of this is geography dependent and Ben just has relatively good experiences. But here on the West coast, status seems quite irrelevant. Room upgrades rarely occur due to high occupancy rates. Free breakfast is nice but honestly so many hotels have daily rates that include breakfast for maybe $5 more than the advanced prepay rate that I’d hardly consider that a big perk. Faster points accumulation due to multipliers is the only perk that holds meaningful value imho.
Chase has fixed many purchase code errors for my Chase IHG CC. Never had any major issues with that. Always able to get it fixed by messaging Chase.
Why post about the most basic status (silver in most groups) when that entitles you to almost nothing.
Going off of one of the other comments, with them selling the status through credit card spend or paying a credit card annual fee this creates all kinds of other issues. Lower chance of upgrades, higher chance of overcrowding in lounges, longer lines for elite check in, etc. The hotels don't always do a good job at managing such things.