by Howie

Back on the road this week and I’ve got a bit of mixed emotions. Heck, I enjoyed being home. And while I was there, I did a bunch of trip planning for this week and other upcoming trips and I got to thinking about the “total cost” of a hotel room, flight, rental car, and cruise (yes, I’ve been looking at cruises). As an elite member of the my primary hotel and airline program, I get freebies. When I fly I never pay to check a bag, I drink all the free booze I want, I get a variety of snacks and, most of the time, I sit in a relatively comfy seat. At my hotels, I get free Internet, complimentary breakfasts, snacks throughout the day, and an upgraded room.

When my cousin travels, she gets an informed travel agent (me), but pretty much the basics on everything else (more on this in a bit). She’ll shell out $10-$15 per day for Internet access. For breakfast she’s smart and hits up a local coffee shop, keeping breakfast under $7. As far as her room goes, she gets what they’ve got. She is smart and always checks to see if a hotel has a free shuttle and where it will take her other than to / from the airport.

All of this was true until we spent some time together and looked at her travel for last year. She had 26 nights across Hilton and Sheraton for seven trips. I knew we could do better for her. Working in marketing / promotions (self-employed), she’s able to expense some things and get reimbursed for them, but nothing like the “big dogs” who expense $50,000+. For her to get a bump in status to Gold with Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG), she’d need to spend $30,000 on an SPG American Express Card. For Hilton she’d need $40,000 in annual spend on the Hilton Surpass card. But it would get her Diamond!

Figuring she can generate about $25,000 a year in expenses and another $35,000 on her own in credit card spend, we had a plan. Top tier beats mid-tier any day, so she’s working her way up to $40,000 in spend on her Hilton Surpass card, and on to Diamond Status. For her stays at Sheraton, I’ve convinced her to hop between two properties to work her way up to Gold, but at the same time get the SPG Personal Amex and Business Amex cards. Each card will give her two stay credits and five night credits toward her status. She only needs six stays, or 15 nights, to qualify. And if her travel or amount she can spend on credit cards goes up, she’ll be able to make it easily.

As a Hilton Diamond, she’ll get room upgrades, free breakfast, and free Internet. Remember  – this is all coming out of her own pocket. As an SPG Gold, the benefits aren’t nearly as substantial, but she’ll get an upgraded room and possibly free breakfast.

She’ll be saving herself up to $500 a year just by getting a little creative and at the same time racking up points 50 percent faster!

Another thing to remember (particularly with SPG, I’ve found) is to always check AAA rates on their site. Three times in the past month the AAA rate has been the same or better than the best rate offered by the property, and the AAA rate was not prepaid.

As for me this week, I’ll be hopping each night (foregoing the double / triple bonus points promotion, thanks to a great AAA rate) to requalify for Platinum as soon as possible. The faster I get there, the sooner I can seriously consider status in another program.