Questions and Answers

Hello all, I wanted to get members input as to what is the best single hotel loyalty card to sign up too. One that I could apply points to air travel, hotel stays, as well as cruises.

I have had airline loyalty cards in the past but have not seen them in going on 30 years or so. Now that I’m nearing retirement, I’m thinking it would be a good idea to start building points to use in the near future.

Thank you for your time,
Greg

Welcome [USER=2381]@gzone[/USER] – the “best” loyalty card is very subjective. Many people really like Hyatt but they have a smaller footprint worldwide. Hiltons are everywhere but award rooms can be quite pricey – though they do allow redemptions for more than just basic rooms. The Marriott-SPG partnership offers over 30 hotel brands, worldwide coverage and two different credit cards through which you can earn points.

With the SPG Amex the points can be spent at SPG hotels, transferred to the Marriott program at a 1 SPG => 3 Marriott ratio for use there or SPG has the most airline transfer partners of any transferrable currency. The downside is that the SPG Amex has no bonus categories other than SPG hotels so $1 = 1 SPG point everywhere.

I’m not aware of a hotel card that allows you to use points for cruises except for cards issued by the cruise lines themselves. For spend on cruises or other travel expenses you may be better off using a cash-back card such as the Citi Double Cash which offers 1% on purchases and another 1% when you pay the bill. Just be sure to transfer the cash you’ve earned into your bank account instead of applying it to your balance. If you apply it to your card balance it doesn’t count for the 1% when you pay.

Lucky has links to these cards and they can be found under the Best Credit Cards tab at the top of this page.

Thank you [USER=184]@MidSouth Skier[/USER]…for such a informative reply.