Questions and Answers

Hello All

I’m an US citizen living in Shanghai and frequently fly to Tokyo, Hong Kong, and other cities in China such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing, and Urumuqi.

I’d like to earn points mostly to use for hotels instead of flights because domestics flights for China and to Japan aren’t crazy expensive.

Since I live overseas, I do not have US credit cards, so earning points via cards is impossible. That leaves me with buying points.

Questions:

1. Is buying points the only way to earn hotel points?
2. If buying points is the only way, which loyalty program(s) should I go with?
3. Does the program require the member to be an US citizen?

Thanks in advance!

[USER=1288]@AirMika[/USER] there are plenty of US residents who live overseas and have US credit cards so I wouldn’t rule that out as an option. As long as you have a reliable place to receive the cards and an ability to remit payments you should be able to make it work.

As to your questions:

1. You can also get them by staying or partner promotions that a chain might run.

2. The program that has a footprint in the locations that are interested in and offers reasonable point values for purchase and redemption.

3. Not usually although you’d have to check with your program of choice for specifics.

[QUOTE=”Gaurav[/QUOTE]

Thanks for your answer.

Yeah, I know it’s not impossible to get an US credit card, but remittance overseas is such a pain from China, that it’s not worth it. Anyone know the way around the 50K limit in China? If so, send me a private message!

Footprint matters, but in my case, the most important question becomes:

Which hotel loyalty program is the best for buying points?

I’d check Lucky’s valutions for hotel points (under the Start Here tab above) and then compare that to the price the various hotel chains are charging.

[USER=1288]@AirMika[/USER] I’d have to repeat what I said above. There is no “best” program, only what is best for you. What metric would you use? Cheapest per point? Easiest to redeem? Greatest choice? Frequency of sales? Transfer partners? Even if you picked one based on a random parameter, would it matter if they have no hotels at the locations you frequent? Good luck with the search :).