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Big Spenders: Spend Your Way to Hotel Elite Status

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    Don’t Expect Elite Status Benefits, Like Welcome Amenities or Upgrades, When You Book a Hotel Through an Online Travel Agency

    Update:   One or more card offers in this post are no longer available.  Check our Hot Deals for the latest offers.  BIG SPENDER SERIES:

    Hotel Elite Status via Credit Card Spending

    The following cards give you extra hotel elite points once you cross a certain amount of spending on the card.

    In my opinion, the best deal is spending $40,000 within a calendar year on the Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve Card or the American Express Hilton Surpass card and earning top-tier Hilton Diamond status which gets you room upgrades, free breakfast and internet, and other perks of being a top-tier elite member.

    You will also get 120,000 Hilton redeemable points for spending $40,000 on both cards.  However, you will get 1 free night for spending more than $10,000 on the Citi Reserve card.

    If you spend the $40,000 on the American Express Hilton card you will get access to the AXON awards where you only need 145,000 Hilton points (instead of 200,000 points) to book 4 nights at a top category 7 Hilton using an AXON award.

    Spending $30,000 for Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) Gold status seems like a waste to me, especially since you can get SPG Gold status for free with the American Express Platinum card.

    I also wouldn’t spend $20,000 on the American Express Surpass card just to get Hilton Gold status, when I can get it for just a $95 annual fee with the Citi Hilton Reserve card.

    I also wouldn’t spend $180,000 within a calendar year just to get Platinum status with Marriott because their top tier elite status isn’t particularly attractive, but your goals (and spending ability) could be very different from mine!

    Definitions:

    Top Tier Hotel Elite Status

    You can earn top-tier:

    Mid Tier Hotel Elite Status

    You can earn mid-tier:

    You can also get a1-tier elite status upgrade with Best Western after spending $6,000 within a calendar year on the Barclays Best Western card.

    Spend Your Way to Hotel Elite Status – The Details

    1.   Best Western

    Link:  Barclays Best Western MasterCard (Personal)

    2.   Hilton

    Both the Citi Hilton Reserve and the American Express Surpass card let you earn Hilton Diamond status by spending $40,000 within 1 year.

    However, the Citi Hilton card does not have a foreign transaction fee, and gets you 1 free weekend night for spending $10,000 within a year.  You also earn 10  points at Hilton hotels with the Citi Hilton Reserve compared to 9 points with the American Express reserve card.

    But having the American Express  Hilton card, gets you access to discounted AXON awards, so the best option could be spending $40,000 on the Citi Hilton Reserve, but keeping a fee-free version of the American Express Hilton card to get access to the discounted AXON awards.

    Citi Hilton Reserve

    Link:   Citi Hilton Reserve (Personal)

    American Express Hilton Surpass

    Link:   American Express Hilton Surpass (Personal)

    3.   Marriott

    Link:   Chase Marriott Premier (Personal)

    Link:   Chase Marriott Premier (Business)

    You need 50 nights for Gold status and 75 nights for Platinum status, but you get 15 nights credit just by having the Chase Marriott cards.

    So you need only 35 nights (50 nights – 15 nights credit) for Gold elite status or $105,000 (35 nights X $3,000 per night)

    And 60 nights (75 nights – 15 nights credit) for Platinum status or $180,000 (60 nights X $3,000 per night)

     

    4.   Ritz-Carlton

    Link:   Chase Ritz Carlton Rewards (Personal)

    5.   Starwood

    Link:  American Express SPG card (Personal)

    Link:  American Express SPG card (Business)

    Starwood Gold elite status via American Express Platinum card  
    Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)