Most of the major hotel chains have co-branded credit cards that earn their program’s points with the major issuers. Chase offers Marriott, Hyatt, and IHG cards. Amex has Hilton and Marriott cards. Amex has 4 Hilton credit cards (3 personal, 1 business) that offer SUBs in the 100-150k Hilton Honors points range. If you got them all, that’s a lot of points (but those 3 personal cards would also add to your */24.) But Hilton doesn’t have a fixed awards chart so the points pricing could go up or down. I think
@Haley R might’ve only gotten two Hilton cards for points toward her Hilton Tokyo Bay stay.
Jumping into Amex cards for Hilton could affect your longer term strategy with other Amex cards. You might’ve seen mention of Amex’s 100k Membership Rewards (“MR”) points offer on their Platinum card, which is highly targeted and tends to be easier to get if you don’t have any other Amex cards (basically, you’re a new customer they want to woo with a big, sweet offer). (But even if you get other Amex cards first, and don’t find yourself targeted for a 100k MR offer on the Platinum, that’s not so bad because the next best offer is 75k MR points.)
But more importantly, Amex is happy to approve you for new cards with SUBs attached, but only if you stay on their good side by continuing to spend on their cards even after meeting MSR. Or else, at some point you’ll receive a pop up warning when applying for a new card that, based on your history with Amex, you won’t get a SUB on the new card even if you’re approved. So this may lead to sub-optimal behavior in that you’re continuing to put spend on Hilton cards that may not have the best bonus categories to keep Amex happy; money that you could be spending on cards with better bonus categories and new cards with MSRs.
The Hilton Tokyo Bay (and the next door Sheraton) should be bookable on the Chase travel portal with UR points acting as cash. But again, you should compare the UR points you’d need to book the hotel on the Chase portal vs. how many Hilton Honors points you’d need to book directly with Hilton and whether those Hilton points are something you’d feel comfortable going after with Amex’s cards.
<--- I think that needs to be your emoji!
Southwest still works, I did the whole $200 at once. I think Delta still works, but maybe only $50 at once and only on desktop? I haven't kept up with that. Flyertalk has a dedicated thread, so I'd check that right before you buy. Although even that is no guarantee. I bought an AA gift card right before it stopped crediting, before it had a chance to be reported. Lucky me, lol. It's a loophole, so nothing to do but suck it up.
