HGVC and Hilton Honors

[brp]

Check out the Giants Clubjouse restaurant in SFO as they offer take out. We stop in the united clubs, then about 30 min before boarding stops, one of us will go and order our takeout meal. It only works if you are departing out of terminal three(united)and gate 80.

If there are no liquids in the meal, it could likely work for another terminal. Just have to re-clear security- we do this all the time (albeit wirhout food).

It would also work for the G side of the international terminal as they're connected airside.

Cheers.

 

[frank808]

The Amex value is minimal. We happen to frequent most of the airports with Centurion Lounges but even this is getting to be less valuable. I think about this one periodically.

We have only HGVC for hotel-based TS (also DVC, but no hotel chain affiliation). So other hotel stays are based on the quality of the hotels/hotel program. I liked SPG when they existed, but found Hyatt superior to the joint program. With recent changes, I now find it vastly superior. Both Hilton (and to a lesser extent Hyatt) were big winners with the recent Marriott/Bonvoy debacle. They lost a lot of good faith and customers. No good reason for us to look there since we don't have their TS.

Cheers.

This is a great reason for competing hotel chains as there is no one size fits all. What works for me, does not work for you.

I find some Centurions better than PP alternatives. Since we are in SFO, DFW, MIA frequently, LAS, SEA periodically, it has benefit.

The Platinum is $550, but one can get back $250 in airline credit. Then, if one does user Uber (or Uber eats) enough, the $200 credit can be handy. Still iffy.

Cheers.

My local airport is HNL. We fly west coast routes so LAX and SFO are our goto west coast cities. For east coast we goto FLL, MCO, IAD and IAH. We own at vgc and vgf so pretty much guarantees we will be visitord to DL and WDW. Although I have become a little disenchanted with DVC stays and use our MVC and HGVC TS a lot more I. WDW. Could be my son is now a teenager and he likes Universal, Buschgardens and Six Flags a lot more for the thrill rides. But he does notice the bathrooms and grounds are dirtier than Disney.

The AMEX SPG Bonvoy may have a leg up on the Chase Marriott because of AMEX offers. We've been able to recoup the annual fees with savings from several offers. For example, we use the Rover discount offers to care for our pets while traveling, plus significant hotel discounts. The Hilton AMEX cards also have these offers which adds to the value.

Chase introduced deals but so far most are meh and have too short a time window to use before they expire.

We've been tempted to get the AMEX platinum for the medical evacuation benefit since it has a higher limit than the CSR limit of $100k. However I keep hearing about the devaluations and we get lounge access with Priority Pass and United so no need for the Centurion lounges. However it does work with Escape Lounge which is the only lounge in our local airport. Still on the fence on this one. We can buy discounted escape lounge access via Groupon and that pays for a lot of visits before we hit the $550 AF to breakeven.

Just cant see me getting enough value out Chase Sapphire Ressrve card. I use the marriott and hotel branded cards to pay our annual maintenance fees and hotel charges. The united club card for airfare purchases (the only $450 card where we donot get a rebate to bring the AF down). Costco visa for cruises, gas and anything Costco. Then citi double cash 2% for anything else the other cards dont cover.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[CalGalTraveler]

The Sapphire works great for flexibility so you don't have to be locked into Marriott points.

You can also pay MF with it and get the $300 credit and 3x. You then have the flexibility to transfer points to United 1:1 or buy airfare for 1.5 cents. (works great when fares are low. Not so good when high.) But also allows for points and cash so you can decide how much of a discount you want.

When you buy airfare on United or other carrier then it is considered a paid ticket so no blackouts and you can then transfer reward points to upgrade to business class. You cannot upgrade a reward ticket on United. Also works great for Hyatt stays.

Sapphire also has $100k med evacuation travel insurance and primary car rental insurance which the Marriott does not. It's a keeper.

 

[Talent312]

Just can't see me getting enough value out Chase Sapphire Reserve card.

My Chase SR card has taken me to Alaska, Phoenix and soon, Montana (and back), plus a couple of nights at the Hyatt inside Orlando International. Next year: Europe. For that and other perks (Priority Pass), I'd say it's paid its weight, thus far.

.

 

[Sandy VDH]

I would have to second that for Chase SR. I have not paid cash for a flight in over 4 years now. I almost always use my points for airfare, if I was going to pay cash for a economy domestic ticket. I have used FF miles, either AA or UA for biz international.

The portal for booking domestic is great. When you use the portal for travel, you get a 50% bonus for your points. So for those math challenged I have 100,000 points. That is worth $1000 IF I used the Cash Back option that is available. BUT if I used it for travel in the portal, then I get $1500 worth of travel purchases. This basically gives you a 33% discount if you value the points for what you would have gotten in Cash Back Value.

Earning points is pretty routine, you get 3X for meals and travel (and yes TS MFs count as travel if they are coded correctly by the vendor).

I would keep this card over all other card offers out there.

 

[frank808]

The Sapphire works great for flexibility so you don't have to be locked into Marriott points.

You can also pay MF with it and get the $300 credit and 3x. You then have the flexibility to transfer points to United or buy airfare for 1.5 cents. When you buy airfare on United or other carrier then it is considered a paid ticket so no blackouts and you can then use UAL points to upgrade to business class. You cannot upgrade a reward ticket on United. Also works great for Hyatt stays.

Sapphire also has $100k med evacuation insurance and primary car rental insurance which the Marriott does not.

I would rather have the 14x HH points and 6x Marriott points. In the past I have used the points to purchase 5 or 7 night travel packages with UAL points. I use the United club card for primary car rental insurance but I think med evac is only 100k.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Those Marriott Packages were great, but they have been recently devalued and many hotel categories have devalued too. We also had difficulty finding hotels domestically to use the 7 day packages because we usually spend long weekends in hotels and use larger timeshares for a week. Might work for international travel though.

 

[brp]

You can also pay MF with it and get the $300 credit and 3x..

Except that you no longer get the 3X on that refunded $300, but everything after...

Cheers.

 

[frank808]

I would have to second that for Chase SR. I have not paid cash for a flight in over 4 years now. I almost always use my points for airfare, if I was going to pay cash for a economy domestic ticket. I have used FF miles, either AA or UA for biz international.

The portal for booking domestic is great. When you use the portal for travel, you get a 50% bonus for your points. So for those math challenged I have 100,000 points. That is worth $1000 IF I used the Cash Back option that is available. BUT if I used it for travel in the portal, then I get $1500 worth of travel purchases. This basically gives you a 33% discount if you value the points for what you would have gotten in Cash Back Value.

Earning points is pretty routine, you get 3X for meals and travel (and yes TS MFs count as travel if they are coded correctly by the vendor).

I would keep this card over all other card offers out there.

So for every other non travel and non restaurant purchase, CSR would get me 1 CSR point that is worth 1.5 points in chase portal? I use citi double and get 2 cents per dollar spent.

Hilton, Marriott MF and travel would get me 3 points per dollar and then a 1.5 multiplier using chase portal? TPG values the CSR points at 2 cents each. But I dont know if the 2 cent value already takes into account booking through the chase portal? If it does then the value of CSR is 6 cents and if not it is worth 9 cents per dollar.

I am getting 14x HH points worth 8.4 cents and Marriott 6x points worth 5.4 cents for every dollar (using The Points Guy valuation)on TS and hotel spend. That is what I shoot for but have been able to get a little better redemption rate than what TPG states.

The only benefit for me would be the cruises that I use Costco for 3 cents and united club card getting me 2.1 cents for airfare and rental car spend. I have the united club card for lounge access and Costco citi does not charge an annual fee. The CSR would cost me $150 annually(after $300 travel credit) and would rebate me about $150 more through the chase portal for our cruise fares. So it would be a wash compared to using Costco citi card.

Just trying to get the best rebate for our annual spend.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[Talent312]

So for every other non travel purchase, CSR would get me 1 CSR point that is then worth 1.5 points in chase portal? I use citi double and get 2 cents per dollar spent...

What you meant: "So for every other non-travel and non-restaurant purchase..."
___ added
I agree that for non-qualified purchases, Citi-Double makes more sense...
So, we use CSR only for travel+restaurant purchases, and Citi-Double everything else.

 

[frank808]

What you meant: "So for every other non-travel and non-restaurant purchase..."
___ added
I agree that for non-qualified purchases, Citi-Double makes more sense...
so, we use CSR only for travel+restaurant purchases, and Citi-Double everything else.

Thanks, I went back and changed my post. We really dont eat out that much to make a difference overall.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[CalGalTraveler]

We only use CSR for the bonus spend. We use other cards for non-bonus. I thought we were comparing to the Marriott card?

 

[hurnik]

So for every other non travel and non restaurant purchase, CSR would get me 1 CSR point that is worth 1.5 points in chase portal? I use citi double and get 2 cents per dollar spent.

Hilton, Marriott MF and travel would get me 3 points per dollar and then a 1.5 multiplier using chase portal? TPG values the CSR points at 2 cents each. But I dont know if the 2 cent value already takes into account booking through the chase portal? If it does then the value of CSR is 6 cents and if not it is worth 9 cents per dollar.

I am getting 14x HH points worth 8.4 cents and Marriott 6x points worth 5.4 cents for every dollar (using The Points Guy valuation)on TS and hotel spend. That is what I shoot for but have been able to get a little better redemption rate than what TPG states.

The only benefit for me would be the cruises that I use Costco for 3 cents and united club card getting me 2.1 cents for airfare and rental car spend. I have the united club card for lounge access and Costco citi does not charge an annual fee. The CSR would cost me $150 annually(after $300 travel credit) and would rebate me about $150 more through the chase portal for our cruise fares. So it would be a wash compared to using Costco citi card.

Just trying to get the best rebate for our annual spend.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

I find TPG and OMAT points values to be a bit suspect at times. They don't usually go into the details of how they arrived at such things. For the life of me I cannot figure out how they value Southwest RR points so high, given that on flyertalk and every where else I've seen, the RR points have a static value of 78 points/$1 on the base fare which would (if my math is correct) yield: $0.0128/point. But they have them at like 1.4 or higher.

Fortunately UR (ultimate rewards points) are fairly easy to figure out yourself, unless you want the hardcore value/calcuations taking into effect the mix of what your bonus points are for various charges.
If redeemed strictly for cash, UR is 1%. 1,000 points = $10
In which case, Citi Double is your friend.

I think OMAT (One Mile at a Time) did a good article on how the "holy trinity" or trifecta of Chase UR cards could maximize redemption. But then the point valuation gets all screwy. ie: Chase Sapphire Reserve, if redeemed for travel is like 1.5 points or something. But then if you were to accumulate UR points via say, 5% Chase Freedom bonus, then that adjusts the "redemption" value upwards to like 2.3% or something (I'm paraphrasing, not doing maths here). LOL.

For those that are really hard core, TPG *used* to have an app that would track your cards (it knew which cards had which bonuses on what categories) to help you maximize your purchases/points. But they've been "redoing" the app for almost 9 months now and it's still not out.

I, for example, don't value HH points other than 0.005/point. But it depends on what you're redeeming. If you can snag a holy grail like Conrad Rangali in the Maldives, then the points value goes way up (although by the time you pay the transfers and food/drink prices you were probably better off booking an AI stay at any of the 4 and even 5* resorts in the maldives as well). A "free" resort stay for 5 days that costs me an extra $4,000 in meal/drinks/transfer fees when I can get the same or better for less via simplymaldives doesn't make it a good return, IMO.

 

[frank808]

I find TPG and OMAT points values to be a bit suspect at times. They don't usually go into the details of how they arrived at such things. For the life of me I cannot figure out how they value Southwest RR points so high, given that on flyertalk and every where else I've seen, the RR points have a static value of 78 points/$1 on the base fare which would (if my math is correct) yield: $0.0128/point. But they have them at like 1.4 or higher.

Fortunately UR (ultimate rewards points) are fairly easy to figure out yourself, unless you want the hardcore value/calcuations taking into effect the mix of what your bonus points are for various charges.
If redeemed strictly for cash, UR is 1%. 1,000 points = $10
In which case, Citi Double is your friend.

I think OMAT (One Mile at a Time) did a good article on how the "holy trinity" or trifecta of Chase UR cards could maximize redemption. But then the point valuation gets all screwy. ie: Chase Sapphire Reserve, if redeemed for travel is like 1.5 points or something. But then if you were to accumulate UR points via say, 5% Chase Freedom bonus, then that adjusts the "redemption" value upwards to like 2.3% or something (I'm paraphrasing, not doing maths here). LOL.

For those that are really hard core, TPG *used* to have an app that would track your cards (it knew which cards had which bonuses on what categories) to help you maximize your purchases/points. But they've been "redoing" the app for almost 9 months now and it's still not out.

I, for example, don't value HH points other than 0.005/point. But it depends on what you're redeeming. If you can snag a holy grail like Conrad Rangali in the Maldives, then the points value goes way up (although by the time you pay the transfers and food/drink prices you were probably better off booking an AI stay at any of the 4 and even 5* resorts in the maldives as well). A "free" resort stay for 5 days that costs me an extra $4,000 in meal/drinks/transfer fees when I can get the same or better for less via simplymaldives doesn't make it a good return, IMO.

Thank you for the clarification. I just use the cash price of a hotel (which I would pay) divided by points and for hilton points with cash. I am usually able to get .006 to .007 for reward redemptions but it has been harder this past year.

I also have to see how the devaluations work with Marriott. Before this last fiasco I redeemed as many as our points for a bunch of travel packages. The only problem I have read is now they cannot be extended by upgrading them. I cannot use four 7 night hotel stays by this year as I am all booked up for 2019. First world problems.

If I see a big devaluation then I will be applying for the CSR for sure. Makes it a lot easier having just 3 cards or so. Although I dont use the Marriott or hilton unless paying for MF every dec or bring them when I have a hotel stay booked. The rest of the time they sit in a safe with my united cards. Just carry the Costco and citi double for every day spend.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk