Hotel Points

Derg said:
I'm pretty perturbed that we don't get points.

Now if I stay at a Hilton, I don't get points, however if that Hilton employee was flying to Georgia for business,he would get miles. Wtf!?


Sent from my TRS-80
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Or the charter pilot flying the same equipment! Almost Hilton Gold this year, son! :)
 
Just an FYI...the quality of the property is usually determined by whether or not it's a franchisee or a corporate-owned, regardless of the brand.

I've been a loyal Marriott guy for years...have been carrying about 200K points until recently (cashing them in for various trips, etc) and I'm about to the point where I'll likely switch over to Hilton. I think the value on the Hilton properties is a little bit better, but they require more points for a stay depending on what Tier you stay in.

The key to adding up points is:

1) Stick with one brand whenever possible
2) Tie your rental car profiles to the hotel profiles
3) Affinity credit card
4) Do not do your bookings with pre-pay places like Hotels.com, Priceline or Kayak...those stays are not eligible for points, usually.
 
I recently flew with a guy that had over 5mill Marriott points, and he bogarted them like a crack fiend. He'll hit platinum level by March every year.
 
dasleben said:
Or the charter pilot flying the same equipment! Almost Hilton Gold this year, son! :)
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You can get gold with a credit card.
https://creditcards.citi.com/credit-cards/hilton-hhonors-reserve-card/

I travel very little but my miles and points totals are approaching 7 figures because of credit card sign-up bonuses and various other schemes. The key is never carrying a balance. I have multiple cards that were used to meet the minimum spend requirement ( sometimes as little as the "first purchase") and they then spend the rest of their -10 month(don't want to pay those yearly fees) existence in my wife's jewelry cabinet. It is my little way of getting back at the banksters, steal their points and miles without giving them any ROI. Amazing part is my credit scores have gone up because my utilization % has gone way down.


Awardwallet.com keeps track of all the various account balances, status and their expiration dates if applicable.

If anyone wants to try the upgraded version of that site I have 10 referrals for free ones, just PM me. Although the free version is great I used that for the longest time before I got a free upgrade offer from somewhere else.
 
mikecweb said:
Hilton Honors and Delta Skymiles for me. Now I just need some time off to use them.
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Note that if you travel with an American Express card the Membership Rewards points from that can be transferred to both Delta and Hilton. You cannot do this for Marriott, which is part of the reason I am likely going to dump them anyway. My company issues me an Amex for travel and the points are languishing at the moment.
 
You can tell i'm a corporate pilot:

Hilton Honors: Diamond
Priority Club: Platinum
Marriott Rewards: Gold
Choice Privileges: Platinum
LaQuinta Returns: Elite
Best Western Rewards: Platinum

(sigh)
 
ZapBrannigan said:
You can tell i'm a corporate pilot:

Hilton Honors: Diamond
Priority Club: Platinum
Marriott Rewards: Gold
Choice Privileges: Platinum
LaQuinta Returns: Elite
Best Western Rewards: Platinum

(sigh)
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We all know it's really a badge of shame.

Then again I did 10 nights up at Whistler, B.C. this summer, on points.
 
I'm pretty perturbed that we don't get points.

Now if I stay at a Hilton, I don't get points, however if that Hilton employee was flying to Georgia for business,he would get miles. Wtf!?
Click to expand...

I've made this arguement many times. Even if we get it at a "deeply discounted price" as a lot of the people at the front desk like to remind me then we should get an equal proportion of the points. Say we only pay 40% of a full fair, then we should get 40% of the points.

As far as picking a brand and sticking with it, I can't do that unfortunately. Being in the airlines the company picks for us. Also, live I mentioned before, more times than not I get told I don't get points. That's why I'm trying to figure out how to maximize the points. Since I can fly for free I don't really need to work my frequent flier points. I probably should get one of the credit cards to help boost my points for a hotel brand. (Probably Mariott or HHonors).
 
The key to adding up points is:

1) Stick with one brand whenever possible
2) Tie your rental car profiles to the hotel profiles
3) Affinity credit card
4) Do not do your bookings with pre-pay places like Hotels.com, Priceline or Kayak...those stays are not eligible for points, usually.
Click to expand...

So what you do is when you rent a car, you have their points program switch over to a particular hotel's points?
 
Unfortunately, the hotel chain of choice for where I work is La Quinta. I've got more LQ points that I know what to do with. Heck, in the 1st 2 months I was in the job I went from no status to Elite status.
 
Sisson2011 said:
So what you do is when you rent a car, you have their points program switch over to a particular hotel's points?
Click to expand...

Take Hertz for example. They give you two options on how to earn points. You can rent and have your points go back to their own program or you can rent and have them go to another program like Southwest Airlines. All of my Hertz rentals are tied to my Southwest account.
 
Sisson2011 said:
I've made this arguement many times. Even if we get it at a "deeply discounted price" as a lot of the people at the front desk like to remind me then we should get an equal proportion of the points. Say we only pay 40% of a full fair, then we should get 40% of the points.

As far as picking a brand and sticking with it, I can't do that unfortunately. Being in the airlines the company picks for us. Also, live I mentioned before, more times than not I get told I don't get points. That's why I'm trying to figure out how to maximize the points. Since I can fly for free I don't really need to work my frequent flier points. I probably should get one of the credit cards to help boost my points for a hotel brand. (Probably Mariott or HHonors).
Click to expand...

Consider it a 45% discount to the airline. The points making up the other 5%.
 
I've been Hilton Diamond for years. I'm also currently Priority Club Platinum and Marriott Silver. I'm also a President's Circle member of Hertz #1 Gold. I'm looking forward to losing all of that status, except Marriott, at the end of this year. I spent way too many nights on the road in my past life and way too many nights in OKC the first year of my current life.

As for gaining status, if you're a corporate/charter pilot, if you've got a trip with several nights in one place, you can bounce from hotel to hotel to get your stay count up and get the elite status quicker. Also, keep an eye out for promotions like stay X nights, get a free night. Last year, I did a 4 or 5 night stay in Orlando and got my base points, 4x bonus points (the promotion at the time), plus some extra points based on how my earnings profile was set up with Hilton and I got over 20K points in that one trip. I've also given my dad my Hilton number when he has gone on business trips (he doesn't go often, so he doesn't do the rewards programs) and I've gotten a bunch of points that way (and he's gotten the Hilton Diamond benefits).

I did a weekend trip to NYC with a stay at the Waldorf Astoria and round trip airfare paid for with points I've also done a weekend trip to Napa and had the whole trip (airline, rent car, and hotel) paid for with points, plus numerous nights here and there at random events.
 
I got excited about this a few years ago and signed up for a few of the major rewards programs. Then the junk mail and credit card offers started to pour in. Made me regret it. As a regional pilot, I'm denied the ability to accrue points most of the time anyway.
 
After reading all of the talk in this thread I think I am going to have to get myself a Hilton Honors card. I don't spend a whole lot of money on credit cards but it would add up over the years and I could possibly use it one day.
 
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