American Express Membership Rewards. This used to be the monster program that every business partic

There is no one be all, end all program that allows motley crue tour tickets to be obtained for any flight or hotel room. The only thing that truly allows that is cash. While some points earning programs allow you to effectively spend points as cash, there are some limitations and scope that cannot be covered. motley crue tour Airline Alliances and Hotel Brands/Programs are partnerships that exist within a single industry; but cross-industry partnerships allow for double/triple or in my case helped me get to a quintuple dip scenario where I get points across programs and reciprocal benefits. The two that have received much publicity are between Starwood motley crue tour and Delta; called Crossover Rewards  and Marriott and United s RewardsPlus .
If you are loyal to either program, the benefits offered within its partner program may entice you, if you re not currently overly loyal to another program, to switch and be a part of their alliance. For me, the match up with Delta and Starwood was nice because they happened to be my two primary programs and for a road warrior a benefit of mid-tier or low-tier elite status isn t all that enticing if I ve got benefits elsewhere.
That said, a case where it does pay off well is where someone has high status in one of the programs and doesn t particularly use the other services at all. Perhaps a meeting planner that books a lot of hotel rooms/conference facilities but rarely travels past their local area; or someone that takes a lot of day flights (shuttle between Boston and DC or San Francisco and Los Angeles) and doesn t spend many nights away from home. The added benefit might cause you to lean one way when looking for those few nights motley crue tour needed away from home or that occasional flight; it certainly would sway me *if* the price was right.
They re both trying to drive elites within their own programs to their partner programs, and that s where the gotchas are. Being an elite in any of the programs is where you start to get benefits. Delta and Starwood s offering is a little sweeter as you can earn Delta miles for SPG stays, and vice-versa, as an elite.
So yes, these partnerships are nice but they don t apply to the vast majority of us. Worry not, the real partnerships we care about are the ones where we can transfer hotel points to airline miles and transfer those valuable bank rewards points to airline, hotel and other loyalty programs. Below are some examples motley crue tour of transfer options out there and how I have used them personally. Look into the programs you either currently use or are looking to use and see what their options are from a transfer perspective.
Chase Ultimate Rewards.  In my opinion the best program for transfers. I say this because you can transfer to airlines, hotels and even trains (Amtrak), and I ve used all three of them. All points transfer at a 1:1 ratio and go through immediately (I ve heard of an occasional delay of a few hours/day by a friend but immediate transfer are the norm). I ve transferred plenty of miles to United and used them for myself and family to get to Europe and Hawaii, transferred to Hyatt for hotels for mom and dad, and even to Amtrak for a short hop from Boston to New York ( Rick and I took a trip on Amtrak too ). The reason I really like Ultimate motley crue tour Rewards is that it provides you access to not only a variety of programs, but it provides access motley crue tour to an airline in each of the major airline alliances (and Southwest!).  Talk about coverage/diversity. Oh and if you really want, you can transfer motley crue tour these points straight into a statement credit on your bill; while it wouldn t maximize the value out of the point, cash is king as always.
American Express Membership Rewards.  This used to be the monster motley crue tour program that every business participated in, and then Chase entered the game. I d still say that Amex leads here, and it is a solid program, but I like the transfer options better with Chase. My main reasons are Amex points don t always transfer instantly (some do, some don t) and I ve found no great value out of the hotel partner transfers. That said, I ve transferred to British Airways (to book flights with American Airlines and Cathay Pacific), ANA (flights on United and US Air), and Air France (to book a one-way flight with Delta, which Delta won t allow you to do directly in their program.  Check out Andy s comparison of Chase UR and Amex MR  for a head-to-head review of the two.
Starwood Preferred Guest Points.  I love SPG points and I earn a lot with all of my stays with Starwood. They are without a doubt the most flexible hotel point with 30 airline transfer partners  (when you transfer 20,000 points to most airlines, they give you a 5,000 point bonus) and the ability to redeem creative awards such as nights and flights  (5 nights + 50k airline miles). It gives you options and these flexible points belong in everyones travel bank.
Hotel points, airline miles and bank rewards have their limits and some are more flexible than others. Cards like the  Barclaycard Arrival motley crue tour World MasterCard  buck the traditional points/miles program. motley crue tour While they earn miles, the point program is effectively cash that can be used on any travel expense. You won t be transferring these to United motley crue tour or Delta, but you can book any revenue ticket with United motley crue tour or Delta and stay at any hotel worldwide.
Ink Plus is a great business card with generous benefits. Not only does this card currently have one of the highest sign-up bonuses motley crue tour on the market, but earning points motley crue tour is easy with generous 2x and 5x payouts in several daily spend categories.
Complimentary annual airport club lounge access makes up for the $95 annual fee, which is waived the first year. Overall, this is an excellent card that can help generate lots of Ultimate Rewards points, which can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio and easily redeemed with partners like United and Hyatt.
I think it s important to also note the number of points you can earn per dollar spent. One of the main reasons Chase is seen as better than Amex or SPG is because of all the different 5x bonus categories the Freedom and Ink cards let you earn points in. Otherwise, motley crue tour I would be wondering why you recommend a program like Chase s over MR or SPG, both of which have MANY more transfer motley crue tour partners than Chase UR.
Likewise, while SPG might be great for non-category spending, motley crue tour its sole bonus category is with Starwood hotels, so you ll be earning these much more slowly for every dollar you spend compared to UR and MR.
@Locke42:disqus I really like Ultimate Rewards because even though they have less partners the points generally transfer instantly and when used to book travel motley crue tour you get 1.25 cents/point. (not something I d do, but its an option and a pretty good one for someone that wanted to book a revenue hotel/flight that would in turn earn them miles/points)
In the end, for me it is diversity the signup bonuses offered make it lucrative to diversify and for everyday spend I keep my cards. Points in different pools which are easy to accumulate are where I like to focus. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! -Howie
@disqus_dFxKxPwicB:disqus motley crue tour I do it for the stay/nights credit (never know if I m going to end up a little short and the annual fee is worth the insurance). Otherwise I really should cancel the personal motley crue tour card except the fact that it is one of the older cards in my account. motley crue tour I d keep the business though because of the OPEN benefits and the fact that the balance isn t reported on my personal credit so I can run it up as needed throughout a month and not worry about a high balance showing on my credit report. -Howie
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Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuer. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuer, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuer. This site may be compensated through the credit card issuer Affiliate Program.
Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are author’s motley crue tour alone, not those of the bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. This site may be compensated through motley crue tour the credit card issuer Affiliate Program.