$40k spend at Crowne Plaza - Which card to use?

[eliteflyer]

Ask the hotel whether they accept IHG/Crowne Plaza gift cards for the catering. I saved my parents a boatload for a wedding they did at a Marriott a few years ago. Check the various cashback portals (we used Topcashback.com, which at the time was offering 15% back on Marriott purchases (including gift cards) and Marriott had a nice promo going on for gift cards that stacked). Ended up being a total of about 23% cash back off of their negotiated rate at the hotel, plus 2 points per dollar using the CSP at Marriott.com.

[shmuelb]

Ask the hotel whether they accept IHG/Crowne Plaza gift cards for the catering. I saved my parents a boatload for a wedding they did at a Marriott a few years ago. Check the various cashback portals (we used Topcashback.com, which at the time was offering 15% back on Marriott purchases (including gift cards) and Marriott had a nice promo going on for gift cards that stacked). Ended up being a total of about 23% cash back off of their negotiated rate at the hotel, plus 2 points per dollar using the CSP at Marriott.com.

Sounds like a great idea!

CSP = you mean the Chase SP, right? But you paid with GCs, no?

[tzifanya54]

Sounds like a great idea!

CSP = you mean the Chase SP, right? But you paid with GCs, no?

He brought them with the sp credit card.

[SearchGuy]

Sorry guys! My mistake, I am just using Citi for all these stuff... And use to use CSP, thought that this the only one that gives 2x on hotels... Forgive me...

[Palm5]

Why not sign up for multiple Cards, this way you'll make much more in signup bonuses because you will have no problem meeting the thresholds.

[eliteflyer]

He brought them with the sp credit card.

Actually just went through my emails from then.

• Chase Freedom was offering 5% back on hotel purchases that quarter, so our family maxed that out across several cards.
• Marriott offered $100 bonus gift card on each $1,000 purchase of gift cards
• Topcashback offered 5% cashback on Marriott gift cards purchased form Marriott
• I also status matched my parents to Marriott Platinum status prior to the wedding to improve the bonus points earned on the block of rooms they paid for (though don't recall the precise metrics)

Do total rebate was about 20% (assuming a 1 cent valuation per UR point).

Why not sign up for multiple Cards, this way you'll make much more in signup bonuses because you will have no problem meeting the thresholds.

By all means, but it's worth weighing what you're foregoing in category/portal spend vs. the sign-up bonus. Can always mix and match.

[David Smith]

By all means, but it's worth weighing what you're foregoing in category/portal spend vs. the sign-up bonus. Can always mix and match.

Portal spend is the same. Category spend will almost always yield a lower return per dollar spent than threshold spend.

[tzifanya54]

Portal spend is the same. Category spend will almost always yield a lower return per dollar spent than threshold spend.

+1
Unless op has maxed out his signup bonuses. If not any decent signup bonus will put you way ahead of category spend.