Travel points/rewards strategies - hotels, flights, credit cards

[huskypantz]

I began traveling for work last year (basically 4-6 times per year for 5-8 days per trip) and along with that I've got Jet Blue, Marriott and Hilton accounts. My company has a corporate rate with Marriott so I used up my Hilton points and I've moved to just Marriott properties. I use Jet Blue because Boston is a JB hub so I can get almost anywhere I need to go nonstop. Between work trips and family vacations, I'm starting to rack up a reasonable amount of points. I am not using a travel credit card - I have a BOA cash back card, that's it. Hotel points are pretty easy to deal with but it seems that airline points are more complicated - I need to create accounts for my family members and link them to me (annoying creating an email account for a 5 year old). So I'm considering getting a travel-specific credit card - I looked at the bonvoy card (100,000 points with qualifiers) but the high annual fee is kind of annoying. JB has some decent card deals including 20k or 40k points depending on what you want to pay. So I'm wondering two things. One, what is your preference on getting a hotel points-based credit card versus an airline card? Second, for flights - do you find that it's better to use points on planned trips or wait for last minute "deals"?

 

[Deepster]

I have a southwest card and I get a good free trip a year out of it if you watch their specials.

I don’t use hotel points because I use VRBO and Homeaway a lot. I also use magellanvacations.com for major cities. They specialize in huge discounts on 4 and 5 star hotels. Like a suite at the Wynn in Vegas for 125 a night if you catch it right.

My one piece of travel advice from all my years of biz travel is signing up for every free rental car specialty program (like Fast Break for Budget). You don’t wait in any line to get your car and get nice upgrades over time. Last week I skipped a line with 150 people in it in Ft Lauderdale. When you land, you just want to be on your way. Not standing in an hour long line.

 

[Excalibur]

I'd stick with the generic cash back points credit card. Why limit yourself to using the points on travel? Linking your airline/hotel accounts with family members is a pain, but you only have to do it once.

If you are going to go with a travel-based card, do an airline card. Using your preferred airline will almost always be an option -- the hotel, not so much.

Can't really answer your question on planning vs. "deals". I have so many United miles that it doesn't really matter. I flew my entire family (including parents) to Bozeman last year and still had 400k miles left over. That was a trip that needed to be planned in advance.

Deep is 100% correct on getting into the priority clubs with rental cars.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I'm pretty well of with Hilton Honors. Used to be REALLY well off but took a new job and travel was cut to a 1/4 of what it was. I was amassing about 150 nights a year with Hilton and getting between 750K-1M points a year. I was cashing in at least 15 free nights in some pretty desirable locations throughout US.

Also got in pretty good with Delta.

Both Hilton and Delta were based on locations I had to travel regularly and lack of other hotels in the area. I could use the corporate travel system (Concur) to select Delta flights and exclude competitors. There were also some corporate/client requirements to use US based mainline carriers to work in my favor.

As for cashing in points, I tried to use hotels for predictable events and save about 150k for some "spontaneous, fun staycations or minivactions near our home".

 

[whaler11]

I began traveling for work last year (basically 4-6 times per year for 5-8 days per trip) and along with that I've got Jet Blue, Marriott and Hilton accounts. My company has a corporate rate with Marriott so I used up my Hilton points and I've moved to just Marriott properties. I use Jet Blue because Boston is a JB hub so I can get almost anywhere I need to go nonstop. Between work trips and family vacations, I'm starting to rack up a reasonable amount of points. I am not using a travel credit card - I have a BOA cash back card, that's it. Hotel points are pretty easy to deal with but it seems that airline points are more complicated - I need to create accounts for my family members and link them to me (annoying creating an email account for a 5 year old). So I'm considering getting a travel-specific credit card - I looked at the bonvoy card (100,000 points with qualifiers) but the high annual fee is kind of annoying. JB has some decent card deals including 20k or 40k points depending on what you want to pay. So I'm wondering two things. One, what is your preference on getting a hotel points-based credit card versus an airline card? Second, for flights - do you find that it's better to use points on planned trips or wait for last minute "deals"?

I got a Jet Blue CC to go with my Jet Blue travel. Comes out to about 8 free flights a year on just CC spending and work trips.

It’s the best airline to connect your usage to actual value so I just went all in with them. American, Marriot, Hilton, United - nothing ever happens. You get more out of an AMEX card than those reward programs.

Jet Blue is showing a lot of wear but the miles convert and it’s free booze when you get to Moziac.

I actually made a family Jet Blue account last week - literally took 5 minutes if you know the passwords.

 

[huskypantz]

Thanks, I created the budget fastpass account (which supposedly also contributes to TrueBlue miles and they suggested that it would be retroactive). I went with a Jet Blue card to replace my "backup" credit card that I don't use, which will get me 20k miles up front plus 3x/2x/1x when I use it. Also set up my family pool on Jet Blue. If I'm going to donate personal time to my company and add extra stress to my wife taking the kids solo due to travel, I want to maximize ancillary benefits. Thanks for all of the feedback.