When American Express implemented a new policy to stop issuing points on gift card purchases (mainly at Simon and possibly GiftCardMall), a lot of people tossed out their Marriott Bonvoy cards. Thee new Marriott Bonvoy program has had its issues, leading once-loyal members to coin the term Bonvoyed. These two issues together have made the American Express Bonvoy cards undesirable. Reader Stuart recently reached out with a question that I’m sure many other people have as well:
With the elimination of points from Amex on gift card purchases, I am ready to cancel my Amex Starwood/Marriott card. My confusion is what card should I switch to? I like accumulating points to redeem at a hotel during vacations Is Chase Hyatt my best option? Any thoughts and advise is appreciated.
If you’re in the market for a new hotel loyalty program, there are several options: Hilton Hyatt, IHG, Radisson Rewards (ok, not really), Wyndham and None of The Above.
That’s right, you can very well choose not to be loyal to any rewards program, get yourself a 2% cash back card and get some elite-type benefits through the Visa Signature or the World MasterCard luxury travel program.
But if you want to keep earning hotel points through manufactured spending, you should consider the following alternatives:
A Chase Ultimate Rewards-earning card
There’s not really a need for a Marriott credit card, unless you do a great deal of regular spending and can milk the benefits that come with the higher annual fee cards. Otherwise, if you really need them, you can transfer Ultimate Rewards points to Chase. Or use your points to book Marriott hotels directly through the Ultimate Rewards Travel portal, because with the implementation of off-peak pricing, it will probably work out cheaper in most cases.
But which Ultimate Rewards-earning credit card should you get? Ideally, one with decent category bonuses. The Chase Ink Business Preferred not only has an impressive 80,000 point sign-up bonus, but it also earns 3 points per $1 spent on the first $150,000 in the following categories:
- Travel
- Shipping purchases
- Internet, cable and phone services
- Advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines
If you can make this work MS-wise, it can be a good way to generate Marriott points. The Chase Freedom Unlimited is a good supplement. You can transfer your 1.5% cash back rewards 1:1 to Ultimate Rewards points.
Transferring Ultimate Rewards points to Marriott is not my first choice or recommendation. But if you need to top off your account for an award, it’s better than trying to manufacture spend on a non-compliant Marriott card. Nine times out of ten, you’ll get better value by using those UR points for Marriott hotel bookings through the Ultimate Rewards Travel Portal.
IHG Rewards Club Premier Credit Card
The IHG Rewards Club Premier Credit Card is the one to beat right now when it comes to earning maximum rewards. For a limited time, cardholders earn 4x points per $1 spent on everything during the first 12 months of account opening. This is a change from the previous 2x bonus on gas, groceries and dining.
Staying at an IHG hotel? Charge the bill to the IHG Rewards Club Premier Credit Card card and you’ll earn a total of 40 points per $1 spent:
- 25 points per $1 cardholder bonus.
- 10 base points per $1 spent through IHG.
- 5 points per $1 elite bonus, since the card earns Platinum elite status.
If you’re buying $1,000 Visa gift cards at Simon Mall for $3.95 each, then earning enough points for a free night at a top-tier hotel would require just $17,500 worth of spending or roughly $84.97 out of pocket. Below is a breakdown:
70,000 points requires $17,500 in spending at 4 points per $1
- 17,500/$1,000 Visa gift cards = 17.5
- 17.5 x $3.95 fee = $69.13
- 17.5 x $0.88 money order fee = $15.4
- Total cost: $69.13 + 15.4 = $84.53
Try to do that with a Marriott card.
Of course, manufacturing spend with a Chase card makes some people nervous, but the 4x bonus points on all spending can still make these top-tier awards more attainable. Plus, IHG has over 5,600 hotels worldwide, making them fairly competitive with Marriott’s 7,000+…
Hilton Honors Aspire
The Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express us the only premium credit card I plan on keeping long term. I know: This is still an American Express card, which means manufactured spending activities are severely limited. But you can still earn a lot of points from daily spending and get rewarded with a free weekend night every year. Plus another one, if you manage $60,000 of spending before December (I know, I’m pushing it).
Aside from its lack of MS potential, the Hilton Aspire has a ton of worthwhile benefits. For starters, it offers top-tier Hilton Diamond status without requiring any spending, saving me from having to figure out how to charge $40,000 worth of something other than gift cards.
It also gets me Priority Pass Select, an annual free weekend night, $250 Hilton resort credit and $200 airline fee credit. Pretty much all of these benefits came in handy on my stay at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives. I saved $250 cash and earned lots of points.
Hilton Surpass Card from American Express
In terms of category bonuses, you might want to opt for the Hilton Surpass if you do gift card churning at grocery stores. That card earns 6 points per $1 spent at U.S. supermarkets.
I once ranked Hilton as one of the best rewards programs for earning free nights and that still stands. Between the base earnings, elite bonuses and frequent double point promotions, earning free nights is a lot easier than its non-existent award chart might let on. A top-tier free night might cost 95,000 points but you’ll get there a lot faster thanks to all of these bonus point opportunities.
Note: If you’re applying for Hilton Aspire Card, consider using my referral link. I’ll get 10,000 bonus points if you’re approved. Shoot me an email if you’re interested.
Final thoughts
If you’re looking to substitute your Amex Marriott Bonvoy credit card in order to continue manufactured spending, you’ve got lots of options. Marriott Bonvoy isn’t the end-all-be-all of hotel loyalty programs.
Between its insane peak pricing and inconsistent service, it’s probably a good idea to switch to another loyalty program for a while.
My vote goes to Hilton, which not only has one of the best rewards programs, but also the best hotel credits. Yes, you’re manufactured spending abilities are limited since the Aspire and Surpass cards are both issued by American Express.
As of now, grocery stores aren’t affected by Amex’s new rules against gift card churning, making the Surpass ripe for MS. And if the rules do go into effect, earning points for hotel nights through regular credit card spending is a lot easier with Hilton than with Marriott.
If you do ever need Marriott points, you can earn them through Chase. Skip past the Bonvoy Bold card and straight into your Ultimate Rewards balance. Chances are, redeeming those for direct travel bookings are going to be a better use of points than transferring to Marriott.
Are you looking to get rid of your Marriott Amex card? Which card are you looking to replace it with?
i’m confused. I checked my Amex account and I’m still being credited for the visa gift cards I bought from Giftcardmal.
How recently was this? Several people reported they’re not longer earning points at GCM.
I checked my statements in August- I was credited all points from GiftCardMall.com
Hi Ariana-
I want to report that I placed an order with GCM for 9500 using my business amex marriott on Oct 22, 2019 and not only did I get the points but I got DOUBLE points 19248!!! On Nov 6, 2019.
1% cashback with befrugal
I will continue to place my orders until I see no points on the amex marriott!
Happy Friday
Joe
That’s awesome!!! Thanks for sharing.
How do you plan to use the $200 airline fee credit on the aspire, now that they’ve gutted the airline gift card option? I don’t know if I can justify my aspire anymore since I may not use the $250 resort credit every year.
That actually won’t be an issue for me. I can use it for things like baggage fees. There are reports that physics gift cards still count if you buy them at club lounges. Plus some airfare gets covered too. And even if I miss out on the credit, I think the resort credit, free night and diamond status are worth the annual fee.
My Hilton Surpass statement just closed and unfortunately buying gift cards at my local grocery shop no longer awards any ooints.
*points
My statement closed Sept 15 and I received all points including bonus points for grocery spend on Surpass. Also, still counts for $15k spend toward free night. Meter keeps ticking up!
Which grocery store you use? I use Winn Dixie.
Which grocery chain quit paying the points on your Surpass card for gift card purchases?
What grocery store?
@Abbas, which grocery store chain and what state?
My Amex Marriott Bonvoy Business (formerly SPG) card annual fee ($125) is due now. What about keeping the Marriott Amex Business Bonvoy for the annual free night benefit? Shouldn’t you be able to find a hotel priced higher than the annual fee in order to make it worthwhile?
Yes, if you can make use of the benefits on the card that offset the annual fee, keeping it makes sense.
how about just get chase marriott card with 2pt per dollar???
Dont do it!. 2x per $1 spend is horrible value (roughly 1.5cpp total). Far better off using a 2% cb card, or if you like Hilton (as I do), Surpass @ 6x grocery is even better (I value HH at 0.4cpp x 6x = 2.4% which is the best-earning hotel card out there). Do $15K spend and get one free weekend night cert (in addition to the annual free night cert for holding the card and paying the $95 fee) and earn top tier Diamond status after $40K spend (plus/240K HH).
No excuse to ever put spend on any Marriott card unless and until they offer 3x spend bonuses.
Hilton Surpass is indeed a good card. But we’re limited to spend at grocery stores to get the six times value.
I have two surpass cards which I will max out to get the two free nights at Hilton.
But my go to card is Hyatt. There is no restriction on where you spend. If you value Hyatt points at $0.018 it would appear to lag Surpass grocery spend, however, if you make the 60 stay Globalist level every incremental 10 nights earns either 10000 points or a suite upgrade. It takes $25k cc spend to get 10 nights on Hyatt card or in essence a 40% bonus. That brings Hyatt at $0.018 x 1.4 = $0.025 which beats the Hilton more restrictive grocery spend.
You also get a cat 4 hotel stay after $15k spend. This is not as valuable as an unrestricted Hilton night but it is easier to achieve.
Also, the point acquisition cost is less with Hyatt since you can use Simon Mall and GiftcardMall.com.
I want to stay at this hotel that takes 60000 Hilton points but for Chase UR’s it’s 28000 what is the value difference between Hilton and Chase? And which is the better deal?
I don’t put a value on points, so I’m no help there. But what I do in situations like this is add up how much MS I’d have to do on a Hilton vs. Chase card to earn the required points. I factor in fees and make my decision accordingly.
Easy one. Use the Hilton points.
Why?
You can get 2 cents from UR by transferring to Hyatt. So 28000 UR = $560 Hyatt dollars.
Hilton is usually 0.6 cents at best if doing 5 nights and 5th night free (occasionally can outsize at very redemption hotels).
So Hilton 60000 = $360 Hilton dollars.
Use Hilton and spend less.
Hello-
I haven’t been using my am@x cards for manufacturing in a while and I decided to place an order with the personal platinum card on sept30 for 9000 at giftcardm@ll, I was expecting to see zero points and to my surprise I see under rewards that the transaction is being process and showing the points; now just to be clear I would report back once my statement closes, I pay the balance and the points are in my possession.
I placed a 9000 order with gcm on Sept 30 and I used my personal plat from Am3ric@n, I just checked today my points rewards and I’m getting the points on the gcm transaction, my statement would be closing in a couple of days and I will update my comment then.. Good Luck
Data Point on MS (was infact my first MS)
Card: AmEx BCP
Bought a $500 reloadable Visa GC at Wegmans ($4.95 fee) along with <$10 grocery.
Usually, I see the 6% cashback on each shopping trip to grocery stores.
The charge posted, but don't see any cashback % against this spend.
Not using this to meet the minimum spend.
Didn't think a grocery store shared L3 data, wondering how did they figure out, had a GC purchase in the spend.
It was my first attempt at MS and got thrown with a curveball. Bummer!
Data Point on MS (was infact my first MS)
Card: AmEx BCP
Bought a $500 reloadable Visa GC at Wegmans ($4.95 fee) along with <$10 grocery.
Usually, I see the 6% cashback on each shopping trip to grocery stores.
The charge posted, but don't see any cashback % against this spend.
Not using this to meet the minimum spend.
Didn't think a grocery store shared L3 data, wondering how did they figure out, had a GC purchase in the spend.
It was my first attempt at MS and got thrown with a curveball. Bummer!