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When we think of hotel status, we think of checking in and finding out we have a free upgrade. Most hotel status programs require staying a lot of nights to earn status. Credit cards come into play here because you can "buy" status at different hotel properties.
For the top tier status, you still need to accumulate nights or spend a lot of money with the respective credit card.
Today, we're going to look at the four main hotel programs:
With Hilton, IHG, and Hyatt, you can earn status by accumulating points throughout the year. The big benefit of having status is you can earn more points when you stay at the hotel.
FREE HOTEL STATUS VIA CREDIT CARDS
For all of the brands, except for IHG and Hyatt, you get the 5th night free when you book a 5-night consecutive stay.
Moving onto the interesting part, you will not receive free upgrades at Hilton, even if you have Diamond status. With the other brands, free upgrades are specifically listed as a benefit for top tier status.
IHG offers upgrades, Hyatt Discoverist offers upgrades to preferred rooms, and Hyatt Explorist offers upgrades, but it excludes suites/clubs.
If you frequent Las Vegas often, Hyatt gives you status at MGM properties. If you have Discoverist, you get Pearl status, and Explorist will give you Gold status.
At Marriott, you receive upgrades at the Gold and Platinum levels. Ritz-Carlton offers free upgrades to Gold and Platinum members; Platinum includes suites.
HOW TO GET HOTEL STATUS
The Amex Hilton Surpass and the Amex Platinum cards will grant you Hilton Gold status in the first year. When you spend $40,000 in a calendar year with the Hilton Surpass, you can earn Hilton Diamond status.
By having the Chase IHG card, you automatically get IHG Platinum status.
By having the Chase Hyatt card, you automatically earn Discoverist status. After spending $50,000 in a calendar year with the card, you earn Explorist status.
If you want Marriott Silver status, you can achieve that just by having the Chase Marriott card. If you spend $105,000 in a calendar year, you can earn Gold status and Platinum status with $180,000 in spending.
With the Chase Marriott Business card, you can earn Gold Status after spending $50,000 per the calendar year.
If you have the Amex Platinum card, you automatically earn Gold status.
An important note is that if you have status at one Marriott property, you automatically get status matched at all the other brands like SPG and Ritz-Carlton.
By having the Ritz-Carlton card, you automatically earn Ritz-Carlton Gold status. If you want Platinum status, you'll have to spend at least $75,000 per the calendar year on the card.
Whenever you signup for credit cards, they typically ask you for a hotel membership rewards number to link to your account. This means you can get elite status at a hotel, even though you don't have the hotel chain's specific credit card or stayed nights there.
With all of the hotel membership reward numbers and logins, I use LastPass to keep track of all my logins.
View the current public hotel card offers by clicking the hotel banner in the top right sidebar.
When you’re excited about a hobby or topic, you might naturally want to share it with friends and spread the word. However, before you talk to friends about credit cards, be sure that they’re 100% financially responsible first. The last thing you want to do is help someone get into more debt.
For people who aren’t financially responsible (carry high balances on credit cards, only pay the minimum each month, high utilization, etc.), tempting them to open a new credit card is like offering an alcoholic more alcohol.
People who’ve been burnt by credit cards from irresponsible behavior will probably have a strong disdain for cards. It’s not worth wasting your energy by arguing with people who don’t like credit cards, especially family members.
They might think you’re insane for opening cards, and that you must be in debt from all the travel. The best approach is to reassure them that you’re not in debt and that you’re financially responsible (you better be!!).
If you can’t do basic math, you probably shouldn’t be using credit cards. Ideally, you should be getting positive expected value with the cards you have and the services you use.
One example is people who use Plastiq (2.5% fee) with a cash back credit card like the Citi Double Cash (2% — 1% at purChase plus 1% upon payment). There’s not a reason to use a service unless you’re getting positive expected value like hitting a minimum spend requirement or using a card that earns more than 2.5% on the specific category.
I recommend using Plastiq for hitting minimum spend requirements on new credit cards by paying bills like rent, tuition, or car payments.
To be successful in the credit card hobby, it’s essential to be organized. It doesn’t mean that you need a spreadsheet for everything, but at a minimum, you should have calendar reminders of due dates or minimum spend deadlines.
A few other items worth tracking:
There have been a few times where readers reach out with simple questions that could easily be answered with a Google search. Questions like,“is United Airlines a Chase transfer partner?” or “what is Chase 5/24?” can be Googled.
A lot of people seem to ask questions first before trying to solve or research the problem themselves. Spend at least 5 minutes trying to find the answer yourself, and then reach out for help.
Having a basic grasp of financial literacy is essential for credit card success. Understanding the difference between statement close dates and payment due dates, how to set up auto pay, or how to add a bank account to pay your credit card are basic functions you should know.
If you don’t understand the basics of how to use a credit card and how to avoid fees, you are set up for failure.
The most highly effective credit card users have a financial goal in mind to work towards. The goals are usually geared towards travel or cash back. The two goals have different optimal credit card setups, so you should pick one path to focus on.
If you’re switching between cash back and travel, it’s hard to get maximum value since most travel cards have lower points value when you redeem for statement credits. The value of travel cards is when you use transfer partners, and not cashing the points out.
I recommend taking the time to reflect on the path you want to take and focusing on cards that help you achieve that goal.
American Express cards earn Membership Rewards (MR) points, and Chase cards earn Ultimate Rewards (UR) points, which point system is best for you?
We're going to look at the best use cases for both of these programs, and also consider the long-term strategy at the end of this post.
Amex MR points are great for first-class and business-class products. You'll need to transfer the MR points to transfer partners to redeem the points.
Good for aspirational travel ("YOLO redemptions").
Examples:
One thing to be aware of is that first class flights require significantly more points. From the chart below, round-trip economy class tickets cost 60,000 miles, and round-trip business class tickets cost 120,000 miles.
For most people, especially if you're younger and just starting out on your credit journey, I recommend going for economy flights. Set up flight alerts and book discounted fares with points.
For deals I use:
When it comes to airline transfer partners, Amex has a better list than Chase for international flights.
American Express
Chase
In case you're curious, it's hard to get outsized value from transferring to Ritz-Carlton, as far as I know. Many properties are Tier 5 (70k Ritz = 70k UR points) that can be booked for $500 to $800 (33k to 53k UR points via travel portal w/ CSR).
With Chase UR points, the best hotel redemption is for Hyatt properties. Chase UR points transfer at a 1:1 rate for Hyatt points. You can use 5k UR points for $100-$200/night Hyatt Place (Category 1) or use 30k UR points for $700/night Park Hyatt (Category 7).
Transfer partners (hotels):
When I stayed at a Hyatt Place in Arizona, I was able to find a reward redemption for 5k points ($50).
Depending on the retail price of the hotel, you're getting at least 2-4 cents per point in value.
a) $100 / night = 2 cents per point
b) $200 / night = 4 cents per point
In my opinion, transferring UR points to Hyatt is the best redemption for hotels compared to other hotel groups.
By transferring the points out and paying with points, you'll be able to avoid taxes and resort fees.
Chase UR points have good redemption value when it comes to last-minute United flights or Polaris flights. You can also use UR points to book Southwest Airline deals or to get Companion Pass.
Transfer partners (airlines):
Important: Don't transfer your points out until you have a specific redemption in mind. You can always transfer UR points -> Airline, but you can't transfer the points back.
For flight deals, I recommend using the Chase Travel Portal via the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve, or the Ink Business Preferred Credit Card .
Chase travel portal (CSP/CSR/CIP):
Although American Express has better airline redemptions, I recommend going for Chase cards first because of the 5/24 rule. You will not be approved for the core selection of Chase credit cards if you have opened more than five cards from any credit issuer in the past 24 months.
You can always get Chase cards first, and then move on to Amex cards, but not the other way around (unless you wait 24 months).
For most people, I recommend getting the Chase Quadfecta first and then move on to Amex cards. If you want to talk strategy on what card to get next, feel free to fill out a free card consultation form.
One of the most commonly asked questions I get is how to get the most value from points. It took me awhile to realize this, but when people asked that question, they meant the number of flights and not cash value.
Normally, my answer would be transfer partners to get first class flights using points because most people would never pay the cash rate. Here's how to get more flights from the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Reserve.
There are three main ways to book flights:
Let's dive into the different flight scenarios and rank the cheapest to most expensive ways to book flights for each one.
Last minute flights are usually the most expensive to book. To save money, transfer UR points to transfer partners to redeem points up to 2 cents per point. The benefit of transfer partners is the price doesn't change based on timing. Reward flights are a set number depending on the route.
The second method is to book the last minute flight using the Chase travel portal. Redeem UR points at 1.25x or 1.5x with the Preferred and the Reserve, respectively. The travel portal will obviously be cheaper than buying tickets at the cash price.
Normal flights depend on the specific route, but transfer partners are usually the best bet. Each airline partner is different, so depending on if you're taking a domestic or international flight, transfer partners could potentially cost more than the travel portal. Be sure to research which route makes the most sense for you.
The reason why the travel portal is the best value for deal tickets is that the prices are discounted, and you're stacking the travel portal discount on top of it (25% or 50%). If you don't want to use UR points to book, then the cash rate would be the next best bet.
Transfer partners are rarely a good redemption when there's a deal because they have set rates. More likely than not, the deal will be cheaper than the transfer partner rate.
There are two ways to find deals:
Option 2 is a lot of work, so I recommend going with option 1, leveraging an existing community or deals newsletter. Be sure to find one that's focused on your city. For example, if you're based out of Houston, subscribe to Escape Houston.
My personal favorite is Scott's Cheap Flights because he sends out a newsletter every 1-3 days with cheap fares. The best deal I've seen from Scott was a $500 roundtrip ticket to Tokyo during the Cherry Blossom Festival.
Scott's Cheap Flights does have two tiers, a free version and a paid version. I think the free version is great, but if you want more frequent notifications and locations, then go for the paid version.
What's your favorite way to find flight deals? Let us know in the comments below!
A: Even though the cards are Chase cards, they do not earn UR points. The cards mentioned above earn points from their respective program.
The Chase cards below are sorted by their programs as outlined by the boxes. Only Chase core products will earn UR points. United cards will only earn United miles, and not UR points. Each card that isn't encompassed by a light blue box has their separate points program as well.
A: No. You can't transfer points to Ultimate Rewards, but you can transfer UR points to transfer partners.
For example, you can transfer UR points to United, but you can't transfer United points to UR points.
Also, only certain Chase cards will let you transfer points to another program:
Transferring points to a partner program can lead to increased points value. For example, if you want to fly first class from SF to Tokyo on United, you would need:
If you were to pay out of pocket for the airfare, it would average $500 for Economy, $2,000 for Business, and $4,000 for First Class.
A: Yes, you can combine UR points across Chase core cards. Here's how:
Watch the video below to learn more about the Chase Sapphire Reserve and how to transfer UR points to one account:
A: Yes, Chase lets you transfer points to members in the same household. Be careful and err on the safe side by making sure last names are the same, or you have lived in the same household for a relatively long time.
The reason for this is because Chase has shut accounts down for selling UR points. Some people also try to game the system by changing their address temporarily. It's not worth getting shut down by Chase.
A: Transfer partners are the best way to get the most out of UR points. Watch the video below to learn about the best (and worst) ways to use UR points:
A: No, UR points do not expire.
It can be a challenge for some people to keep up with more than three credit cards. Some credit card issuers have a policy where they can close your accounts after six or twelve months of inactivity. So, how often should you use your credit cards to keep them "alive"? The answer is that it depends on the credit card issuer.
I'm more conservative when it comes to timelines, so I usually make at least one transaction on each credit card every six months. Rules also vary by state. For example, in the state of California, banks are required to send you a notice before closing the account.
My recommendation is to use your credit card every three months to be on the safe side. Maybe I'm weird, but I think about the calendar year in quarters. The one upside about credit card spend is that there's not a minimum requirement to keep the card active. You can buy a cup of coffee and rotate the cards.
I usually add all of my cards to my Amazon account and buy 50 cent Amazon gift card reloads on them. If I have 30 credit cards (I don't), that comes out to $15 per quarter. Your number might be lower because most likely you'll have fewer credit cards that aren't active, and you might have a few cards you regularly use.
Having Amazon Prime and being on Slickdeals.net helps me find great deals. I typically don't buy things unless it's on sale or it's a necessity.
Even if you don't have Amazon Prime, there are similar solutions that you can use. Something my friend does is reload their bus pass in small increments each week with the minimum amount ($5).
If you're the opposite of me and you don't sit in front of a computer every day, you can get a credit card holder and rotate the cards in your wallet.
