Hotel Rewards points
 

Dumb question -

Since hotels are pre booked, can you still benefit from hotel reward programs when overnighting?

Most places will not just give you the points for staying. However if you have the rewards program you can often put your number on file and then if you charge any incidentals to the room you can get points for that. Just don't forget to take care of your bill.... Also sometimes you can get the benefits of a certain status. I usually can get free breakfast for being Hilton Gold. Sometimes they will give you the credit for the night, which doesn't give points but will help achieve higher status... I always ask though, never know...

I gave up on Marriott and SPG. All I got were lots of emails asking me to rate my stay and no points. I have a Hilton credit card and charge stuff to the room at Hiltons and sometimes, though extremely rare, they will give you a stay or some points.

About ten years ago, there were more chains that actually gave points.

In the last few years, I have gotten actual points from best western and Embassy suites (and even those are dependent on the individual franchisee.)

I do ask often.

What I can't figure out is how come the fractional guys get points? They don't pay for their rooms out of pocket any more than we do.

Really depends on what contract the airline has with the hotel.

I was denied any of the platinum privileges and though I had my card in my hand. Clerk showed me it was in their contract that if the airline rate was in use, I received none of the privileges.

At one Holiday Inn, it was like pulling teeth to get my number added so I could charge my dining bill to my account.

Marriott properties have been very good at extending Gold and Platinum type privileges when on the companies dime. A few even offer a nights stay if you spend a $1+.

As a ACMI cargo guy I had a company credit card to pay for rooms when I checked out. Points were always awarded, never a problem. When we became a scheduled cargo carrier our rooms were direct booked and points were never awarded.

I imagine the fractional guys benefit from the same setup.

I worked on the hotel committee for a while and was told HHonors is a separate company from Hilton. The hotels pay a fee to HHonors for each stay. It usually amounts to $2-3 per night. It was a cost the company did not see any value in if they could get the rate reduced.

Gold or better at Marriott is a very good deal and is available for crew layovers. Because the company negotiates a low rack rate and buys blocks of crew rooms, pilots on layovers won't get credit for stays or points for the room.

That said, you can accrue a decent amount of points on layovers by using hotel services like reimbursable cleaning, meals, etc. Most of the 747 guys carry the Ritz card which provides Gold Status at Marriott. Annual fee is $395 with $300 in statement credits. At $95/yr. it's the least expensive way to buy in.

Details: https://creditcards.chase.com/credit...ton-card.aspx?

For those with lots of current Marriott points but not enough qualifying 2015 stays to maintain status, you can buy Gold for 25,000 points through April of 2016. UA stays at many premier Marriott international properties, having access to the clubs is a very nice perk.

Like all "points" cards, don't carry a balance, these cards have usury interest rates.

I despise most Holiday Inns.

Usually the hotels are OK, but they are run by the biggest bunch of cheap ass idiot franchisees ever.

We stayed at one for two months which had 5 floors and 3 ice machines. Never fixed any of them.

(IMHO, if you can afford a 3 million dollar hotel, your cheap ass can spend $325 for the dude to come and fix your freaking ice machines!)

Hotel Rewards points
 

I always thought with airlines since they have so many pilots/FAs staying, thy negotiate a low rate for the contract they have at a hotel, and with paying less they don't give points. With corporate/etc they don't have a contract for so many rooms every night so they pay more (full price) and then get points as if a regular guest.