Maximizing hotel rewards during Covid? (Hyatt? IHG?)

Finance
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Hey all, long time no see :slight_smile:

I’m finally starting to get back into things after a long hiatus and mostly forgetting about this site (unfortunately) after FWF passed. Our family has recently been booking hotels at Hyatt properties with really nice pools for vacationing due to Covid and not being able to go on a plane and such. We usually drive out ~100 miles into a nice hotel on Friday night, hang out poolside Saturday/Sunday and drive back Sunday evening.

My BIL has always been booking hotels for us, and I realized he always booked Hyatt, under his name, and (honestly speaking) getting sick of subsidizing his rewards program. He’s been booking hotels through a Hyatt Privé agent who gets him free breakfast/parking and typically gets resort fees waived as he books it through points. He books stays for his own family along with either us or some of his friends, and has basically gotten the highest tier (Globalist) doing this. I guess it probably makes sense to continue booking through him as he does pass along the deals and isn’t inflating the prices; he just gives us the price he paid. But…this has rekindled my need to exploit a big bank.

Right now I’ve signed up for the Hyatt rewards program (free) and the Chase Sapphire Preferred (for the 80k bonus). I’m considering signing up for the Hyatt credit card as well, as there’s an annual 1 night free award for just keeping the card, and 50k sign up bonus. Chase UR can be transferred to Hyatt points, so I should have 130k points in the next couple of months (using my organic spend, I am not bold enough for MS…).

After my reading it seems like the best way to continue is to get an IHG card as they’re giving out a bunch of signup bonuses, but is there anything else I should do? I can’t get my wife on board to sign up for cards (and we want to take advantage of 0% financing on a new car at some point in the near future anyway), but wondering if I’m missing anything else. MS isn’t on the table and I spend roughly 20k/year without any funny business. We’re just looking to get as many free/subsidized nights as we can as we’re probably going to book 8 of the next 12 weekends at hotels.

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Sorry to hear about the wife, but I fail to see how it’s related to the new car financing.

There’s some risk (of devaluation, bankruptcy, properties changing owners, etc) in collecting hotel and airline points at this time more than before, but you should be fine if you spend all them points quickly.

All three cards mentioned are issued by Chase. Make sure you know Chase’s rules for approving new accounts.

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Also you’re possibly missing you won’t get Hyatt Globalist status from credit cards or leisure stays.

Hilton Diamond on the other hand… Amex will pay you to take it. (different potential benefits though, but free breakfasts at all of the hilton chains is included).

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Chase has a 5 nights for $95 fee offer.

https://creditcards.chase.com/a1/marriottbonvoydual/nonaep/5FN30K?CELL=6RRW&jp_cmp=cc/Marriott_Brand_Exact_Marriott_SEM_US_NA_Standard_NA/sea/p25773704751/Chase+-+Marriott&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=Cj0KCQjwwuD7BRDBARIsAK_5YhWYIy6Y8RWeRQA4sDULkLhitokqnfUvIa2I2Gs5Eccqm5HH3A2_RS0aAj9NEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

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