Otherwise, use
hotel points for hotel award stays to get much more value out of them.
Many travelers focus on using airline miles and flexible reward points, and often struggle to understand the value
of hotel points as part of their travel strategy.
Beyond just being able to
use hotel points for experiences, they are often unique opportunities you can not pay for even if you wanted to.
«I just don't stay at enough nice hotels to earn status or to make keeping up
with hotel points worth the time,» is the usual response.
In some cases, you can
convert hotel points into airline miles, or you can use airline miles to book hotels or rental cars.
Ready to start earning
hotel points in multiples like we talked about a few days ago?
This is unusual because many hotels forbid earning stay credit or
hotel points when you book through an online travel agency.
Many travelers focus on using airline miles and flexible reward points, and often struggle to understand the value of
hotel points as part of their travel strategy.
There's been an amazing number of new credit card offers to help you earn big points in different
hotel points programs lately, but what if you don't usually stay at hotels?
Remember that Marriott Rewards points — like
many hotel points — are much easier to earn than airline miles for most people.
Most hotel points programs require their hotels to have standard rooms available on points as long as they are still for sale with cash.
Perhaps doing it your way will be in our cards in the future (once we accumulate
more hotel points...).
You should also know that
hotel points do not usually have as high a value as other points, so your earnings can be somewhat misleading.
Each person can buy only one of each offer, but in the case of some offers,
like hotel points, there may be multiple offers of different amounts.
You can earn extra airline miles or
hotel points just by signing up for their dining program and attached a credit card.
In contrast, frequent flyer miles and
hotel points invariably lose value over time as companies change their award charts.
In the meantime, banks who found themselves held hostage to ever increasing airline and
hotel point costs have invested heavily in their own proprietary reward programs.
Before you race to sign up for a hotel credit card, though, make sure you understand
how hotel points systems work: The offers might be less lucrative than they appear.
At this time, I am not aware of any program where earning
hotel points via credit card spend makes any sense if your goal is to redeem for upscale properties.
And if you are a budget traveler, you'll want to
avoid hotel points that can only be used at luxury resorts.
In some cases, you may
find hotel points to be more valuable than airline miles once you consider transfer and earning ratios.
While you can earn
hotel points through paid stays, you can also rack up points by signing up for hotel credit cards.
When it comes to
buying hotel points I'm generally more positive than I am when I'm discussing the purchase of airline miles... and there's a very good reason for that.
There's been an amazing number of new credit card offers to help you earn big points in
different hotel points programs lately, but what if you don't usually stay at hotels?
If you're looking to use credit cards to earn
hotel points then be sure to check out the ones I recommend below.
For example, one card might offer extra cash back on groceries or gas, while another may
provide hotel points or airline miles.
But again, I'm biased
against hotel points and I don't know your travel pattern well enough to say that with complete certainty.