Which Reward CCard Would You Choose, HHonors or ?

[Dwhey]

Quick question for TUGers. I am trying to decide which rewards card will maximize value. I have a CITI card that provides RT Air with no blackout dates for 25,000 points in the US or 35,000 to Hawaii. I like the idea of having airfare to use with my HGVC points. On the other hand, I am wondering whether I would get better value by accumulating HHonors points for future vacations and paying market for airfare. Below I have taken a stab at some stats and hypothetical projections (expenditures simplified but not to far off from current). Those who use HHonors can feel free to let me know if I have erroneous assumptions, and everyone can feel free to opine as to the most advantageous way to go.


Citi Cards
25,000 points equals RT flight in the US, no blackout dates, 14 days advance purchase (appx value: $500)
35,000 equals flight to Hawaii (appx. value $900)
Earns:
3 pts per dollar for Restaurants
5 pts per dollar Grocery Stores, Gas, Drug Stores


Amex HHonors
175,000 points equals 6 nights in Cat 6 hotel (appx. 29,000pts/night) (appx. value: $250/night?)
125,000 points equals 4 nights in Cat 6 hotel (appx. 31,000pts/night) (appx. value: $250/night?)
40,000 points equals 1 night in Cat 6 hotel

Earns: 5 points per dollar for Restaurants, Groceries, Gas, Drug Stores


Illustration of Hypothetical Year
8,000 Groceries/Gas
12,000 restaurants/bars

Points Would equal:
Citi: 76,000 appx value = $1500 (3 rt tix in US x $500)
Amex: 100,000 appx value = $900 (appx 3.5 nights x 250)

Which would you choose?

(In case anyone asks, I don't want both because (a) I want fewer, not more, cards, and (b) I would prefer to maximize points in one program or the other, rather than spreading them around and never getting to the reward threshold for either card.)

Many thanks!

 

[Bxian]

I have the Hilton AMEx and am not a T/S owner as of yet. In addition to normal credit card purchases, you can also add recurring monthly items such as your cell and landline phone bills, your fitness center bill and your cable bill. If you have any kids in college or are continuing your own education, some schools will let you put the tuition on the card (although you should do this only if you can pay off the balance when the bill comes-otherwise, at 18% interest, it is not worth it for the points). In the last 3 years, we have had : two one night reward (free) stays at the NY Hilton, 2 rooms for 6 nights each for free using points on the Big Island of Hawaii and in Los Cabos , and 6 nights for free in two different Hiltons in Paris-with points to spare. If you can figure out how to maximize your points earnings as we have, you will find the Hilton card very useful.

 

[myip]

Quick question for TUGers. I am trying to decide which rewards card will maximize value. I have a CITI card that provides RT Air with no blackout dates for 25,000 points in the US or 35,000 to Hawaii. I like the idea of having airfare to use with my HGVC points. On the other hand, I am wondering whether I would get better value by accumulating HHonors points for future vacations and paying market for airfare. Below I have taken a stab at some stats and hypothetical projections (expenditures simplified but not to far off from current). Those who use HHonors can feel free to let me know if I have erroneous assumptions, and everyone can feel free to opine as to the most advantageous way to go.


Citi Cards
25,000 points equals RT flight in the US, no blackout dates, 14 days advance purchase (appx value: $500)
35,000 equals flight to Hawaii (appx. value $900)
Earns:
3 pts per dollar for Restaurants
5 pts per dollar Grocery Stores, Gas, Drug Stores


Amex HHonors
175,000 points equals 6 nights in Cat 6 hotel (appx. 29,000pts/night) (appx. value: $250/night?)
125,000 points equals 4 nights in Cat 6 hotel (appx. 31,000pts/night) (appx. value: $250/night?)
40,000 points equals 1 night in Cat 6 hotel

Earns: 5 points per dollar for Restaurants, Groceries, Gas, Drug Stores


Illustration of Hypothetical Year
8,000 Groceries/Gas
12,000 restaurants/bars

Points Would equal:
Citi: 76,000 appx value = $1500 (3 rt tix in US x $500)
Amex: 100,000 appx value = $900 (appx 3.5 nights x 250)

Which would you choose?

(In case anyone asks, I don't want both because (a) I want fewer, not more, cards, and (b) I would prefer to maximize points in one program or the other, rather than spreading them around and never getting to the reward threshold for either card.)

Many thanks!

Your calculation is too confusing. YOu may just want to see how many points do you earn if you only use AMEX HH or Citicard. Afterward, you look at what you can get at award. I am not sure how 76000 CITI equal to 100,000 AMEX

 

[Dwhey]

Not meant to confuse. Ignore the details of the calculation I guess. The bottom line is that, given the various points earning rates, the hypothetical example of spending $20,000 in a year would result in

EITHER

76,000 CITI points with a rough estimated value of $1500

OR

100,000 HHonors pts, for which I roughly, and perhaps incorrectly, estimated a value of $900.

In any event, I suppose I've answered my own questions, and it is one of those situations of six of one/half dozen of the other, and I just need to decide whether I like airfare or Hotel points. Thanks.

 

[Lewis]

Hilton HHonors AMEX Great Card

We have tried different points cards over the years, and the Hilton AMEX has been the best!! I would highly recommend it.

On the earnings side, points seems to accumulate rapidly. Purchases earn 3 to 5 points per $1. If you stay at Hilton, there is an AMEX online booking bonus (I believe 500 points per stay). Charges over $20,000 per year generate an automatic HHonors gold level. This means free room upgrades, breakfast, bottled waters, bonus points, and special redemption awards.

On the rewards side, we have never had a problem redeeming points, and have enjoyed free stays in Hawaii and Arizona at Hilton properties.

Finally, no annual fee.

Overall, a great card.

 

[Henry M.]

I have the Starwood AMEX and I like that you can use the points for hotel stays or you can transfer them to airline miles with a 24% bonus (transfer 20,000 Starpoints and get 25,000 airline miles). It also givew you some flexibility on your choice of airline.

As far as hotel stays, you need about 10,000/night to stay in a $250/night hotel. This it is difficult to compare the extra points you get for some items because each point is not worth the same for Hilton and Starwood.

 

[PigsDad]

Personally, I think you are overvaluing the airline miles a bit, and undervaluing the HHonors points a bit.

$500 for a domestic ticket seems a bit high. In the past 10 years, I have probably only paid more than that once of twice for domestic travel. I usually value my FF tickets at $250 -- but that is a more restrictive ticket, so I can see maybe $400 for a no-blackout ticket. (But in reality, are there really no restrictions with the Citi card? I don't know.)

A cat 6 Hilton hotel can easily run $500/night, but I would probably use a figure more like $300 for award calculations.

The numbers you used for purchasing only included the "bonus" categories: gas, groceries, dining, etc. The HHonors card will earn 3 points per $ for everything outside of those categories, whereas I believe the Citi card will only earn 1 point per $. You might want to estimate all of the expenses that you would be running through your card in a given year, not just the bonus categories. Then run the nubers again and see what works out best for you.

And don't forget (as Lewis mentioned) if you charge over $20,000 in a year, you get HHonors gold level. That is definitely worth something.

Kurt

 

[PClapham]

What are the advantages of gold level?
Thanks
Anita

 

[jehb2]

I have had both the Hilton Honors AMEX and American Airlines CITICARD since 1999. The AA CITICARD is the only credit card I use. I use it to pay most household bills automatically, gas for car, etc. My husband and I haven't had to pay for airfare to Hawaii since 1999. Right now we have enough for 6 RT tickets to Hawaii. (although some of that is from travel.) I also like that when I purchase my tickets I get both the miles for purchase and for flying.

I ended up not using the AMEX mainly because it seemed slow going trying to rack up enough points for hotel stays, and with the timeshares we don't do hotels that often. Several years ago you only needed 100,000 point for a VIP award which would give you 6 nights at Hilton Hawaiian Village. Now you need 170,000.

 

[SallyMagoo]

What are the advantages of gold level?
Thanks
Anita

I can't give information about all the hotels, but we recently stayed 6 nights in the London Conrad Hilton on a VIP award. Because we are golds, we got continental breakfast for 2 free all six nights The cost would have been 18 pounds (about $36 each! (per day)). Since our 15 yr. old daughter was with us, we found it cheaper to have a breakfast item sent up from room service for her.

You can go online at the Hilton site and read about the rewards for golds at each category of hotel. I'm not sure whether you have to be logged in to an Honors account. We also got 2 for 1 on admission to the Las Vegas Hilton Star Trek experience for being golds.

I have several mileage cards as well as the AMEX. I switch between using the various cards, depending on which one needs miles to gain an award, etc. We've applied to get miles during promotions; e.g., I got the United card recently to get 21,000 miles. With my existing miles, I now have enough miles for a domestic ticket, and I only made one purchase.

We use the Frontier frequent flyer Mastercard most frequently. You only need 15,000 miles for a domestic award, and 25,000 to Mexico. If you live near a city served by Frontier, I highly recommend it. There aren't that many special promotions to get extra miles, but it takes so much fewer miles for an award. You get some miles for signing up, I believe. Any Frontier tickets purchased with the card get double miles.

 

[jtridle]

Citibank Premier Elite Card

Look into this card. You can go to the citibank website and choose to look at their many cards. This is the card that is being heavily advertised on tv commercials with the thick accented German guy. I have never tried to redeem yet, as I have not been in the program very long. When I read about it online from those who were in it, it seemed almost too good to be true but thought I would try it, while still holding on to my citibank mastercard and a gold american express (just in case I end up not liking the new card). One advantage is that you can supposedly redeem on any airline.

On this card, points that you earn from buying an airline ticket (as well as all your other purchases) actually goes into the same account as the miles you earned on that flight (you can combine your miles and purchases, a huge benefit if you ask me) and now for the thing that seems too good to be true -supposedly others on-line (and the credit card company confirmed that it "could" happen, but no guarantees) that when you purchase a flight for somebody else, they earn the miles in their frequent flyer program but you also earn their miles in this citibank premier program. You both get the points! I am anxious to try this to see if it ever works out this way, as I frequently buy airline tickets for our kids to join us on our travels. This is unheard of. You'll get bonus points for signing up, as do most programs. So far, I have certainly liked the way the points have racked up. Also, you get unlimited free companion tickets every year (of course there are restrictions on this, I can't remember at the current time what they are, I think you have to buy a paid ticket of a certain price, etc.).

I have a delta American Express card which sometimes really racks up miles fast when they run their double miles bonus promotion on all purchases, or sometimes they run a 20% bonus promotion. You always earn double miles on gas, groceries, wireless bill, home improvement stores, etc. So I think this is another good one except that AE is not accepted everywhere and the card costs, as I recall, $85, which is more than I pay for my other cards.

I figured up one time how many dollars in free tickets I got with the airline ff cards and I can't remember offhand but I'm thinking it was something like $17K dollars worth in the last 15 years and I've probably spent in those sameyears no more than about $2K for the card fees (that's because I've got more than one card every year). I've made out like a bandit. I charge everything I possibly can and pay the cards off every month. I try to encourage people who can do the same to take out such a credit card. Everytime they mention that they have to pay $50-$85 for the card, I say so what. You will get way more than that back on flights. Of course this is going to depend on your individual situation. But it sure works for me.

I've had the hotel credit cards but I just don't charge enough on them to ever get much value from them but maybe I would if I wasn't charging everything on my airline credit cards. For my situation, with owning timeshares, I don't find myself wanting to stay in hotels that much so I prefer earning the flights. Good luck.

 

[Bxian]

Getting back to Hilton Honors-being Gold or Diamond will sometimes get you free breakfast, free executive lounge access and free spa/fitness center access. Some of the Executive Lounges are really nice places to relax and have buffet breakfasts, afternoon cookies, and evening hors d'oevres. The Hiltons in Europe somethimes have free alcohol in the lounge as well. When we visited Paris, we would come back in the evening and have glass of free champagne (normally $12 per glass) and then would go back to our free room and gaze at the Eiffel Tower from our balcony. We have also gotten some really nice upgrades since I got Diamond status. Diamonds also can typically get an award reservation during times that are normally blacked out.
There are also various hotel chains (Embassy Suites, Doubletree, Hampton) that don't carry the Hilton name but are part of the Hilton family. If you stay at these, you also get Hilton points. I racked up a fair amount of points staying at Hamptons while I was college shopping with my 2 kids.

 

[rocky]

You should ask and research this question on flyertalk. Those guys are really the experts.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=390

 

[DTLE949]

Hi Dwhey,
Which Citi credit card that gives you 3 points on restaurant? I believe that the offer of 5 points for gas, grocery, and drug stores is only good for the
1st year (Per Citi website).
Hi Jtridle,
The Citi credit card that you mentioned (getting miles for buying the airline ticket and charging the cost to the credit card) is Premier. If you are willing to pay $75.00 annual fee, they will update you to Elite level. The miles that you earn for buying the airline ticket is referred to as "flight point". It has one condition though. In order to redeem the flight points, you have to earn "regular" points through purchases. For example, assume that you earn 5,000 flight points and you have only earned 1,000 regular points, you can only redeem 2,000 points. You won't be able to redeem the remaining 4,000 flight points unitil you earm additional 4,000 regular points. You can get on the citi website to find out the additional benefits that you'll get for the elite level.

 

[Avery]

Very unhappy with Citicard Elite

With no warning, they have increased the req't for a HI ticket to 40,000 miles. And though they advertise 'no blackout dates,' and no FF seats required, they refused to book the direct flight available, but rather would only give me a crappy scheduled flight with a stopover. :annoyed:

 

[Dwhey]

To answer the questions, I have two Citi MCs that I use depending on the transaction.

1. CITI Diamond Rewards -- 5 pts per dollar for groceries, drug stores, gas stations

2. CITI Professional -- 3 pts per dollar for restaurants, office supply stores.

There is a lot of confusion over whether the above bonus point amounts expire after one has the card(s) for 12 months. As the discussion indicates on Flyertalk, some cards do and some don't, and sometimes it depends on when you obtained the card. I personally called customer service to confirm that the bonus points do NOT stop after 12 months.

Rocky, thanks for the tip about the Flyertalk boards. Having reviewed those, the bottom line is that there are a ton of posts from folks who LOVE the HHonors card, and a ton of posts from folks who LOVE the CITI program for points and airfare (through the "thankyounetwork"). I think I'll stick with trying to get airfare to use with my TS points unless I end up having some bad experiences booking flights through the CITI program.

Thanks, all!