Hilton? IHG? Starwood? There are a ton. Which one do you use and why? What are the positives and negatives? There's a lot of articles about this, but I want to hear it straight from people who use these programs.

I've heard Starwood. At the very least between Hilton and Starwood, Starwood wins.

Starwood. Make sure to sign up for all of the promotions.

Where will your travel be? I've been a Marriott guy for a long time as more options than Starwood. Nice now you can transfer points between Marriott and Starwood and status match.

Travel will mostly be in DFW and Houston. I'd like have a rewards programs I can use for business travel, but also use for vacations. Can you expand on the points transfer between Starwood and Marriott?

They're the same company now. Haven't completely merged programs but you can connect them.

Agree with OR....Been platinum at mariott for the last few years due to work travel and enjoy the flexability

Starwood

Starwood had the best points per dollar ratio according to TPG

Marriotts will recognize your Starwood status and vice versa. So use Starwood to gain the status because I'm pretty sure their rewards are slightly better currently (could change after the merger is fully implemented) but stay at a Marriott if you need to and your loyalty will still be recognized.

Thanks for the input everyone. Starwood/Marriott appears to be the consensus. Are there any major restrictions with Starwood regarding when I can use the points? Will they expire after a certain amount of time?

hillcoag16 said:

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Thanks for the input everyone. Starwood/Marriott appears to be the consensus. Are there any major restrictions with Starwood regarding when I can use the points? Will they expire after a certain amount of time?

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Few restrictions. During peaks times at certain places, the amount of points required will go up. There may be blackouts if there is a major event. Some hotels will only allow a certain number of rooms to be booked with points per day.

They'll only expire if the account goes inactive for a certain amount of time. I think Starwood/Marriott is 24 months.

Starwood to Marriott is 1x3 transfer.

Marriott's night and flight packages are one of the best value redemptions.

It's worth noting that you can purchase your way to diamond status with the Hilton Honors Amex card at a comparatively low annual spend.

I'm AMEX Platinum and it's actually not worth it. You can change your points to Air Canada and book United flights which is much, much better than Hilton.

Starwood is great, and the SPG Amex is a quick way to 25k points. If you're traveling to big cities where there are good Westins, W or Aloft those are always great.

I prefer Hilton to Marriott because the Hilton midrange hotels (Hilton garden Inn and Hampton) are typically more consistent, more updated and cleaner than Courtyards. I travel to many places where there aren't SPG hotels and it's between a HGI and Courtyards.

I also feel it's quicker to obtain status and free hotel nights require fewer points with Hilton. That's just my personal experience with the 2 chains

Hold out for the 30 or 35k Amex SPG offers.

Amex is once in a lifetime for their cards. Wait for the best offer and grab both personal and business SPGs.

ColinAggie said:

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I'm AMEX Platinum and it's actually not worth it. You can change your points to Air Canada and book United flights which is much, much better than Hilton.

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For me, I have a hard time using airline points, since most of my travel is during peak travel times, but the free breakfast and upgraded rooms at business class hotels is great, but not something I'd pay for. I don't stick to one airline nearly enough to get near any status.

Understand entirely. I'm an "executive" for a company, but we're still an economical company. Basically we're told to treat our expenses like it's our own money and they leave us be as long as it's not something stupid. I honestly don't even fly business class unless I'm going across the Pacific. If it's the Atlantic, I will go economy plus. But the AMEX Platinum points pays huge for me because of the 5x.