travel: Hotel bonuses through portals and then offers

OK, it’s gotten complicated again to figure out how to book a hotel, there is no single low price anymore, but here is a guide. First select an area that you want to go to, then you have to compare the net prices taking into account both the portal bonus and the offers:

Chase: Portal is 10x Hotel, 5x Airfare and Chase Offers now

The first is Chase, they have a 10x bonus on certain hotels that you book through their portal with Chase Sapphire Reserve which is true for Personal Travel (and they have a similar scheme for their Business travel) so check the portal. They also have a 5x bonus on airfare, so it pays to check as that’s 10% off.

They have a Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection so if the price isn’t too bad, you get daily breakfast for 2, a room upgrade, $100 in hotel credits, and early check-in and checkout potentially, so that’s the best “stack”, so start looking there

Then you have to look at Chase Offers which differ by card, but as an example as of February 23, 2023, the offers were. It is hard to get to them, you need to log in to the Chase site to look at the Offers. But others have a nice list but make sure you go to the Chase.com site and click on the card and to the right, the offers are there and you click to activate

TownePlace Suites. 15% back to a maximum of $90.50 Maximum until 3/8/2023 payment is made directly to the merchant (so I’m not sure if Portal counts.
Homewood Suites by Hilton. 10% back to $45 Maximum. Good till 3/6/2023 looks like-portal the works
Westin Hotels. 15% back to $102 maximum until 3/8/2023 and this looks like it will work through the portal
Autograph Collection Hotels. 15% back to $94 max. Bill by 3/8/2023 and payment directly to the merchant
Fairfield by Marriot. Until 3/8/2023 with 15% off to $57 maximum. Payment directly to the merchant.

Also, note that is nearly always smart to book your Rental cars with Chase Sapphire Reserve as they have first-party car rental insurance, so you don’t have to get your insurance company involved

American Express 5x Bonus on Hotels and Airfare Plus Offers

Probably if things are equal, you should prefer the Chase portal as they have 5x points on their portal.

But do have a similar deal with their Fine Hotels+Resorts with daily breakfast for two, $100 experience credit, and 4 pm guaranteed checkout so that’s pretty good.

And they have their own offer system as well so a sampling here and they last longer and are easier to get, just use the card there:

Spend $500 or more get $100 at Vail, Breck, Whistler Blackcomb expires in 8 days
Lafayette 148 spend $500 get $100 back expires 9-April-23
Sonesta Hotels. Spend $300 get $60 back expires 30-April-23 US only
Line Hotels. Spend $300 get $60 back expires 30-Apr-23
Hyatt Canada. Spend $500 get $100 back expires 15-May-23
Homes & Villas by Marriot Bonvoy. Spend $1000 get $200 back expires 31-May-23
Zoom spend $149 and get $50 back. Expires 30-June-23 (OK that’s not a hotel but a note for me)
Lotte NY Palace. Spend $750 get $150 back expires 23-Jul-23

Bank of America Signature REewards

They don’t have a portal, but the card is pretty valuable and sometimes they have good Hotel offers that are called Amerideals. It has the same tempo as Chase and many of the same offers, so probably the same outsourced engine underneath:

Westin. 5% cashback to $50 maximum. Expires 8-Mar-23
Alaska Airlines. 5% cashback to $22.50 maximum expires 17-Mar-23 and has to be made directly to Alaska.
Homes and Villas by Bonvoy, 4 days left $60 cashback
AARP $8 Back when you spend $12 or more.
Lyft 10% cashback (but the current Chase offer of 10x points is hard to beat) until 5-Mar-23
Doordash 10% cashback until 10-March-2023
Grubhub for a year free by 20-April-23