Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hyatt points and then Alila Ventana

Yeah generally the highest consistent transfer value is Hyatt.

But only if you wanted the $1k+ hotels in the first place.

No they have lots of good options especially in expensive cities like NYC, London, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hyatt points and then Alila Ventana

Yeah generally the highest consistent transfer value is Hyatt.

But only if you wanted the $1k+ hotels in the first place.

You can het lower priced Hyatts at amazing points deals, too. But for me, my goals are expensive hotels for nothing and business flights for free.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hyatt points and then Alila Ventana

Yeah generally the highest consistent transfer value is Hyatt.

But only if you wanted the $1k+ hotels in the first place.

Anonymous wrote:Hyatt points and then Alila Ventana

Yeah generally the highest consistent transfer value is Hyatt.

Of course there is a learning curve for intermediate/advanced use. If everyone knew how to do it, it wouldn’t work very well.

Hyatt points and then Alila Ventana

I use my chase sapphire points for united mileageplus business class tickets.

Basically I look at the cost of the ticket in both cash and miles and then figure out what the conversion rate is. If I am getting 1.7 cents per mile or better then usually I pay with miles.

Anonymous wrote:Since so many have the card, I’m sure Chase Sapphire card is great. That said if a card has a “learning curve” and require a tutorial, I’m not interested.

We have two travel cards- Hilton Honors American Express and United Airlines Chase Visa. Both have a small annual fee, but easily pay for themselves.

The Hilton card gets us a free night at any Hilton hotel in the world. We usually save this for a nicer Conrad or Waldorf Astoria property. It would make no sense to waste the free night on a Hampton Inn. The Hilton card also gets you automatic gold status, which gets you food credits at certain properties and free breakfast.

The United card gets us free checked bags and a couple lounge passes. These perks aren’t earth shattering, but the checked bags do pay for card’s annual fee.

For the most part, I use the AMEX Hilton card everyday. It seems like the points accumulate at a decent rate and I can easily get about 5-7 free nights in a hotel every year. Using points for hotels seems- at least with Hilton, is really easy and super flexible. I do accumulate United points too, but at a much slower rate.

Maybe I would get more with Chase Sapphire? From the outside, it sounds like work, which I guess is what keeps me away. Also, Reserve has an almost $600 annual fee, which is too much for me to pay.

I’m OP. I’ve had the card for 10 years and love it; there’s no learning curve to booking travel via portal and getting 1.5x value on your points. I’ve done it countless times and had never had an issue with flight changes; if anything, I’ve found the Chase travel agency to be easier to get ahold of and more pleasant to work with than airline customer service. And I love the flexibility of being able to use the points for any airline or hotel; I’m not a brand-loyalty person for travel, so the idea of always having to stay in a Hilton or whatever does not appeal to me.

The “work” comes if you want to get even more value via airline rewards programs. This thread suggests that it actually probably won’t be worth it for me to pursue that route. But for people who travel often alone and/or accumulate lots of points via certainly loyalty programs, it’s probably a great approach.

Grateful to DCUM for helping me answer my questions…and off to book some travel on the Chase portal.

We transferred Chase to Flying Blue for summer 2025. But to get the best award rates you have to do it right when your dates are released, or hope for last minute deals a month or two out. In between will be priced high. We paid 20k each way PP economy to France. I think their standard saver business fare is 50k each way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: That said if a card has a “learning curve” and require a tutorial, I’m not interested.

Also, Reserve has an almost $600 annual fee, which is too much for me to pay.

That's a totally reasonable perspective. It is work/learning to use them well, and I think many/most people don't have much interest in doing that. Those who do tend to be the type who "enjoy the hunt" or see it as a hobby/puzzle with a nice reward. That's why I usually tell people who don't seem interested in it to just get a 2% cash back card. If you put $30k/year on the card, which seems pretty normal for a family with kids through regular spending, that's a nice extra $600 a year, to do whatever you want with it. Great solution for most people.

Oh yeah the Reserve has a $300 annual credit against travel spend that is very broad, even includes things like metro/parking. So the net fee is really $250. Still too high for many, and I think the Sapphire Preferred is a better deal for probably 75% of people, especially in the US since the Reserve Priority Pass perk has very little value at most US airports, and that's the biggest perk difference to the Preferred.

Anonymous wrote: That said if a card has a “learning curve” and require a tutorial, I’m not interested.

Also, Reserve has an almost $600 annual fee, which is too much for me to pay.

That's a totally reasonable perspective. It is work/learning to use them well, and I think many/most people don't have much interest in doing that. Those who do tend to be the type who "enjoy the hunt" or see it as a hobby/puzzle with a nice reward. That's why I usually tell people who don't seem interested in it to just get a 2% cash back card. If you put $30k/year on the card, which seems pretty normal for a family with kids through regular spending, that's a nice extra $600 a year, to do whatever you want with it. Great solution for most people.

Since so many have the card, I’m sure Chase Sapphire card is great. That said if a card has a “learning curve” and require a tutorial, I’m not interested.

We have two travel cards- Hilton Honors American Express and United Airlines Chase Visa. Both have a small annual fee, but easily pay for themselves.

The Hilton card gets us a free night at any Hilton hotel in the world. We usually save this for a nicer Conrad or Waldorf Astoria property. It would make no sense to waste the free night on a Hampton Inn. The Hilton card also gets you automatic gold status, which gets you food credits at certain properties and free breakfast.

The United card gets us free checked bags and a couple lounge passes. These perks aren’t earth shattering, but the checked bags do pay for card’s annual fee.

For the most part, I use the AMEX Hilton card everyday. It seems like the points accumulate at a decent rate and I can easily get about 5-7 free nights in a hotel every year. Using points for hotels seems- at least with Hilton, is really easy and super flexible. I do accumulate United points too, but at a much slower rate.

Maybe I would get more with Chase Sapphire? From the outside, it sounds like work, which I guess is what keeps me away. Also, Reserve has an almost $600 annual fee, which is too much for me to pay.

Anonymous wrote: you do not accumulate any miles on your United mileage plus account using award tickets.

Yes this is something to consider in your calculations, but because of how the.earning side of flights has changed, you earn very little from actually flying now unless you pay a lot or have high status. For your say $1k ticket you would have earned around 4000 United miles, because it's 5x miles per dollar, and they don't count the taxes portion of your cost.

And remember you don't get the miles for your kids' tickets, those go into their accounts, which probably have small balances if anything, and thus not really worth bothering with (except United does now have points pooling, but it comes with some annoying rules/restrictions). So in truth let's say you would have earned 8000 miles between you and your spouse, so say max $150 worth of miles. Probably not enough to make a huge difference when you are talking about a purchase of say $4-5k total across a family.

But yes it's something to consider and make sure you account for when choosing a booking option.