Rewards programs for airfare and hotels?

[lou7401]

Are there any good programs for getting airmiles, hotel points and so forth? My mom in Canada has this AIRMILES program that is linked up to just about every grocery store, gas station, even the liquor store! I haven't found anything like it here in Michigan. Any ideas?

 

[WendyisDarling]

I like my Hilton Honors American Express. I choose only points for hotel stays and have had several free nights, but you can get hotel and air points.
You get points for everything you use it for, some more than others.

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

We like DH's Diner's Club card, which is now a Mastercard. The nice thing about it is we can choose to either redeem for FF miles/points with a number of airlines or we can book the airfare using the card and then call member services when the bill arrives to have the points applied to the cost of the tickets.

DH uses it for his business expenses (self-employed) and he racks up a lot of points every month. It's a great way to get paid back for all his hard work during the year.

 

[lou7401]

Thanks for the ideas - I will look into them!

 

[SuzanneSLO]

We like the Starwood AMEX.

You earn 1 SPG point per $1 charged. The points can be converted to stays at Westins, Sheratons 4 Points, etc., starting at only 2000 per night (but most are 7,000-10,000 per night). You can also convert to most ff miles in airlines (other than United and Continental where 2 pts = 1 mile) at a conversion ratio of 1 pt to 1 mile and 5,000 bonus miles if you convert 20,000 pts.

They also have a Nights & Flights special that gets you 5 nights at the Swan/Dophin plus 50,000 ff miles (except UA or CO) for 70,000 spg points.

Best of luck -- Suzanne

 

[disneysteve]

Marriott fan here. I had a regular Marriott Visa and upgraded last year to the Marriott Premier Visa. We get 5 points/dollar spent at Marriott, 2 points/dollar spent on airlines, rental cars and restaurants and 1 point/dollar on everything else. The points earned with the card are added to the points earned by staying at Marriott properties. Plus, having the card elevates you to Silver reward status which gets you a 20% bonus on points earned from stays.

We are usually able to earn a free vacation every other year. This year, we are doing 10-days in New Hampshire and have 25,000 points still remaining in our account. We earn about 2,500 points/month with the credit card.