I changed jobs recently and now travel a lot. One of the perks my coworkers talk about is that we get to keep our hotel points when we use our company credit cards for lodging. I’ve been giving my points to whomever is on the road with me because I have a kinda / sorta principled stand against most rewards systems. But maybe I’m wrong…
It’s always been my experience that rewards programs are more trouble than they’re worth, and more importantly, mostly a method for companies to keep track of people and their habits. So I’ve never signed up for airline miles, hotel points, the preferred shopper thing at the grocery store or other rewards programs. The few exceptions have been at local restaurants where they give you a card for a free sandwich or whatever on your tenth purchase. I feel OK about that because it’s a face-to-face transaction with people I know, and I pay cash. So I’m not being tracked in the same manner as these other programs. Then again, when paying with a credit card at a hotel or airline, they are tracking you anyway.
Friends and coworkers talk about getting free hotel rooms or flights. But first, I’m not interested in going to a lot of effort to get free stuff. And second, I hear them talk about all the limitations and rules and tracking their points… it just sounds like a lot of effort I’d rather not expend.
Am I missing out here? Or is this stuff mostly more trouble than it’s worth, and a slightly creepy way for companies to keep tabs on us by appealing to our collective desire to get something for nothing?
In my experience hotel points are near worthless. I travel by plane 50,000 miles per year (at least) but have never earned a free night in a hotel. I even get 5+ free car rental days during my travels as well. The variants on each hotel brand and the constant restructuring make it not worthwhile. That being said, if you are traveling to the same city repeatedly and can stay at the same hotel, it might be worth investigating more.
I’ve found the Starwood loyalty program to be pretty good. Last year I got three free nights at a W Hotel in London. Very fancy joint. This worked for me since I was able to arrange most of my business travel through Sheraton/Westin hotels, combined with using a SPG AmEx card which amplifies the points.
I have Hilton hotel points and they are worth it if you research. For popular resort-type destinations you’ll get less than 10% return on your cash, but for out of the way places that don’t feel like so much of a “reward” you can get a free stay almost 1 in 6 times, which to me is definitely worth it.
I have Marriott points that are connected to my credit card. I’ve redeemed them for hotel stays a couple of times, including five nights in Chicago to see our daughter.
We also got a free night in a hotel because we charged a lot one month (no points involved).
I doubt the hotel points are tracking anything other than where you are staying, which is information they already have.
I got dozens of free nights for personal use when I used to travel a lot for work. Also additional perks like free upgrades when I did stay for business I also felt like they did treat me better wen I reached a certain level of points.
But it depends on how it is structured; such as I was never able to make out on airline miles due to having to go with the cheapest fare, thus different airlines.
Yeah, you’re crazy. It takes five minutes to sign up and start earning airline and hotel points. They build up really fast if you travel a lot. The only information they are gathering is where you stay/travel to. Like others have said, they already have that without you joining up.
Sometimes just being a member gets you perks like express check in and free WiFi. Get enough miles in a year (not that many) gets you seated in the more spacious seats near the front of the plane (On big airlines) without costing you any points.
I traveled to a funeral in Minneapolis a while ago for a few miles and $30. Short term fares would have been well over $500.
Sign up for everything. If they hammer you with emails, there is a way to stop that.
A while back, I was traveling for work, doing the same route and hotel. Six times I’d stay six nights at the same place.
Think I “earned” a free bottle of water so some similarly meaningless thing. OTOH, the trips got me enough air miles for a free upgrade from cattle to first on the last trip.
I also travel a lot for work. When my wife and I go somewhere for fun, we often get nice rooms at good hotels for free. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. But two or three free nights in a nice hotel room really makes for a nice experience. I don’t join every chain, just a two or three of the big ones (Hilton, for example). It’s not difficult and I really don’t think about it until one day we figure out we’re going somewhere and I’ll check and see if we can stay for free.
It all depends if you stay at one chain often enough to make it worth it, but mostly signing up is free and it can’t hurt. I stayed two weeks at a Stouffer’s for a class, and got some nice free nights as a result. In the good old days airline points were worth something even if you didn’t travel every week. We got free round trip first class seats to Hawaii on United in the 1980s.
As for supermarket loyalty programs, if you are going to shop in a place which gives them, you’re wasting money if you don’t sign up. Besides the normal discount Safeway gives us really good discounts on some stuff we actually buy all the time. But if you want to subsidize me, go ahead.
I don’t travel for business and we only stay in hotels a few nights a year but I enrolled in Hilton’s rewards program and it has been very good for us. I earn most of my points through the credit cards they offer. There are big bonuses for signing up. The cards also put you in a higher tier automatically without having to meet minimum stay requirements, which gets you benefits that normally only go to frequent guests. As an example of how we have benefited, we were on Oahu and needed a room for a night. I was able to get a room at the Embassy Suites Waikiki with points and when we arrived they upgraded us to a two-bedroom suite. It’s a $700 room and we got it for free. If I could do that not being a frequent hotel guest I imagine that you’re missing out on a lot by foregoing the rewards.
I don’t bother because I travel so little that it’s not worth it to keep up with the card.
My dad, on the other hand, traveled for work more often than not, and racked up so many hotel points that we never paid for a hotel on any of our vacations growing up.
I’m also anti-rewards programs, but I do about 45 nights a year on my company’s dime and finally realized I was being stupid by not collecting them. Combined with my own out-of-pocket stays, I get 2-4 free nights per year, and the perks aren’t bad. I also get rental car points and generally get a free week of rentals every year.
I think if you’re paying for all that travel out of pocket, you’d be better off getting the lowest priced options every time and not worrying about the free stuff, but once your company starts paying for things, it’s better to pay a little extra and get the points that you can use later. The system seems geared towards business travelers. Hilton even has “double points” rooms, which is basically where you pay a bit extra for the exact same room but collect double the points. I ran the numbers once and the only way that ever made sense was if you weren’t actually footing the bill for the room. And then I kicked myself for not always booking that option.
The hotel chain already knows where you’re going, where you stayed and what you ate and watched on TV. I really don’t see why you’d care about the information they’re gathering at that point.
I don’t go out of my way to use rewards points, and my overnight work travel is infrequent, but I’ve benefited from the Hilton Honors program (especially since you earn points for eating in various restaurants that have no obvious connection to Hilton, like Graffiti Junktion, Ludo).
I admit my experience is not common - I am a travelling consultant and basically fly every week and live in hotel rooms. So, take my opinion for what it’s worth.
I really don’t understand the anti-rewards stance when it comes to airlines and hotels. It really is a miniscule effort to sign up. And if you stay a couple times at the same hotel brand, you get a free room, a couple more times, another free room - it can add up pretty easily. Admittedly, airline have come up with extremely complicated formulas, based on status level, miles, dollars spent, and they are notorious for how difficult it is to get a free flight using the miles banks.
But, BUT, you don’t have to put any effort into tracking the miles or hotel points yourself - I certainly don’t - they show up online on your account. And even if you are not travelling frequently, so what? Sign up, get whatever points you can, and off you go!
Regarding the OPs concern about being tracked? HA HA HA HA HA HA! {wheeze} HA HA HA HA! Really?!?
As someone who works in a hotel, I can tell you on our end it’s a lot better if you sign up. You can set your room preferences so you don’t get the crap room between the elevator and ice machine, making a reservation is a lot easier, and you get the member perks like being able to pick your own room, free wi-fi, airline miles, that sort of thing.
I don’t travel enough to have them myself, but my parents and Ms. Cups are Marriott holders and constantly talk about getting rooms “with points” and have chosen vacation destinations and done weekenders simply because they have the points to burn.
If you already travel a lot for a living I don’t see why you WOULDN’T sign up for them.
If you’re flying corporate now and charging rooms & incidentals to the company, you’d be a goof not to get into every reward program relevant to your travels. And if possible, steer towards one brand for all your stays.
At my airline they pay directly for the rooms so we don’t get any frequent stayer points. I can register my frequent stayer number when I check in, and get points for meals charged to the room, but that’s piddly stuff that never adds up to much. If the airline’s deal with the hotels had included nights’ stay points for us that’d have been incredibly sweet.
I have one branded credit card through a hotel rewards system. And I use that card for 100% of my on-the-road expenses. And other than driver $1 tips I never spend cash on the road for anything, not even chewing gum; it all goes on that card. At tax time, every single charge all year long on that card goes on my 2106; very simple. And between non-rev for travel and free hotel rooms from the money I was spending anyway through that card, vacation time is real cheap.
I agree I’d be happier if all transactions with all people and all businesses were always 100% anonymous. But we’re not there and haven’t been since I was a child. You’re just choosing to pay 5-10% extra for the fun of it.