In my household, I manage lots of cards that offer annual free night certificates. This includes seven Marriott cards, four IHG cards, three Hyatt cards, two Hilton cards, and a partridge in a pear tree. At the same time, I’m being inundated with hotel discount and rebate opportunities due to my Platinum cards, Sapphire Reserve card, Delta cards, and Strata Elite card. It’s become too much! I can’t use all of these hotel nights, discounts, and rebates before they expire. Against the backdrop of premium cards offering more and more coupons to worry about, I’m eager to find ways to simplify. Plus, I’m increasingly interested in staying at unique independent hotels rather than big chain hotels. Here’s what I plan to do about it…
Marriott: Drop 6, Keep 1
Finding uses for seven Marriott free night certificates each year is a lot. Marriott makes it ridiculously hard to use their free night certificates for anyone but the account holder. While Marriott allows using points to book nights for other people, they don’t allow using free night certificates to do the same. In the past, when I’ve wanted to gift a free night certificate, I’ve booked it in my name and contacted the hotel before the stay to ask them to allow person XYZ to check in. That has always worked, and probably would continue to work, but I’ve been a bit spooked by reports that Marriott has been cracking down on this sort of thing (see: Marriott may be cracking down on “additional guest” reservations).
Here are the cards I currently have:
- Chase
- Bonvoy Boundless ($95 annual fee): 35K annual free night
- Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business ($99 annual fee): 35K annual free night
- Ritz-Carlton ($450 annual fee): 85K annual free night
- Amex
- Bonvoy ($95 annual fee): 35K annual free night
- Bonvoy Business ($125 annual fee): 35K annual free night
- Bonvoy Business [wife’s card] ($125 annual fee): 35K annual free night
- Bonvoy Brilliant ($650 annual fee): 85K annual free night
My thought is to drastically simplify my Marriott card collection as follows:
- Cancel all Amex Marriott cards ($995 savings)
- Downgrade my Chase Bonvoy Boundless to the no-annual-fee Bonvoy Bold card ($95 savings)
- Cancel my Chase Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business card ($99 savings)
- Net savings: $1,189 per year
The reason I’ll keep my Ritz card is that it offers a great version of Priority Pass, which I’ve shared with several family members by adding them as authorized users. Long term, I could switch to a different solution for this (see this post for options), but it’s a keeper for now. And even though it has a $450 annual fee, I have no trouble using its $300 airline incident fee credits each year, so it really only costs me net $150 for Priority Pass plus an annual 85K free night.
I have lifetime Platinum elite status, so I’m not giving up Platinum elite status by giving up the Bonvoy Brilliant card. However, by giving up that card and all of my Marriott business cards, I will be giving up on choice benefits. Currently, I get 25 elite nights from the Brilliant card and 15 additional elite nights from having a Marriott business card. With those 40 elite nights, I’m virtually guaranteed to earn 50-night choice benefits each year. Without those cards, I’ll start each year with only 15 elite nights from my Ritz card, and certainly won’t earn choice benefits since I’m extremely unlikely to spend 35 nights at Marriott hotels. I can live with that.
IHG: Dump 2, Keep 2
In my household, we have the following IHG cards:
- IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card ($99 annual fee): 40K annual free night, allows unlimited top-offs
- IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card ($99 annual fee): 40K annual free night, allows unlimited top-offs
- IHG One Rewards Select ($49 annual fee): 40K annual free night, no top-off allowed
- IHG One Rewards Select [wife’s card] ($49 annual fee): 40K annual free night, no top-off allowed
I’m considering cutting my IHG collection in half. I’ll dump the consumer Premier card and my wife’s Select card. I want to keep the old $49 Select card that’s in my name since it offers a 10% award rebate, and I want to keep the Premier Business card for its 4th night free and the ability to spend towards Diamond status.
Savings: $148
Hyatt: Keep ’em
With Hyatt, we have four cards in our household: 3 consumer cards ($95 annual fee) and one business card ($199 annual fee). The business card doesn’t include a free night certificate, but I find it useful for spending my way to Globalist elite status. One of the reasons I’m inclined to keep all three consumer cards is that Hyatt makes it easy to gift the certificates to others. If a certificate is near expiry, I can gift it to someone who can put it to good use.
Hilton: Downgrade ’em
Until this morning, my wife and I each had a Hilton Surpass card ($150 annual fee), and we planned to each pick up a Hilton Aspire card as well. Hilton’s free night certificates can be insanely valuable, but since I’m in simplification mode, I’m not ready to pursue Hilton free nights at the moment. So, my immediate plan is to downgrade each of our Surpass cards to no-annual-fee Hilton cards. In fact, I did this for my wife this morning. With my Surpass card, I recently hit the $15,000 spend required for a free night, so I’ll wait for that to post before downgrading.
My long-term strategy here is to wait until I’m pretty sure that I can use the free night certificates for great value, and then do the following based on how many nights I think I’ll need:
- Two nights needed: I’ll apply for the Hilton Aspire card (which offers a free night every year, including the first year), then I’ll upgrade my existing Hilton card to a second Aspire card.
- Three nights needed: 1) Apply for the Aspire card; 2) Upgrade the Hilton card to the Surpass card; 3) Spend $15,000 on the Surpass card to earn a free night; and 4) Upgrade the Surpass card to the Aspire card.
- Four nights needed: Do all of the above, and then spend $15,000 more on the card that was upgraded to the Aspire card to reach $30K spend and another free night.
- More nights needed: I could do any of the above with my wife’s accounts, too.
Near-term savings for downgrading two Surpass cards: $300.
Summary
With the plans outlined above, I should be able to drop my annual free night certificate headache from 16 to 6, and I’ll save $1,637 ($1,189 + $148 + $300). Given my goal to simplify my hotel free night certificate situation, that sounds like a win.
Can you improve on my plans?
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After consolidating all of the Free night certs and credits coming to me in the next year – so that I could book 33 upcoming nights between now and June 2026 – I have determined that I don’t travel enough (!) and that in order to use them, I have to choose a sub-optimal hotel or use them at a less than optimal redemption. It’s a Maximizer’s nightmare!! Will definitely reconsider some of these cards!
Interesting! Dang, I have a hard time keeping up with my one free IHG night, and the rebates we get for using the hotel credits on our Delta, United, and CSP cards!
Me too!
I think the notion that 35K certs are just not a good deal deserves its own post. I just used a few in Belgium. Paid 35K + 15K top up. That’s a $125 annual fee plus another $105 (ballpark) of Marriott points. So I spent $230. I got a room that was worth 199 euros… These certs just don’t math anymore. You could say I should have held out for a better redemption… but I travel a lot and this was a median outcome. Waiting for a 90th percentile outcome on something that expires is not a good idea.
We always get good value from both our IHG and Marriott ANC.
For the 35K Marriott you can use in on NYE at the Sheraton Chicago Riverwalk for 37K points and a normal cost of $444.
The Aloft New Orleans Downtown for 50k versus $584.
The Courtyard at Kona Beach in Hawaii for Spring Break for 48k versus $434.
And for something way out of the ordinary, the Moxy in Boston on 7/4 for 50k versus $2032!!!
So in other words, he’s retiring from the game. It kind of feels like my girlfriend broke up with me. Sad.
Consolidating the number of programs versus the number of cards might be a better strategy.
If you are gifting Hyatt certificates that seems like a brand to cut.
And maybe one other one.
As for IHG, as someone else said the Select card is no longer available so keep it.
And the 40K certificate from the other card can be topped off with any amount so it is a great value.
I think I’ll keep my Surpass now that i use it for restaurant/bar credits if i don’t have a stay that quarter. I’ve used every q so far.
I got 3 fncs as part of subs this past year. 2 on no af Hilton cards with minimal spend requirement.
I suggest you convert one of your Bonvoy cards into a second Ritz card. Then you get a second 85k night cert for $150.
Having two 85k certs means a free weekend at a luxury hotel for net $300.
I agree that card is valuable, but Greg doesn’t want the Aspire FNC either, so it’s a similar problem with the Ritz. The card is valuable but he’d be forcing a stay just to use it.
Downgrading to the Bold for now gives a potential back in to upgrade that card to a future Ritz. Of course they could discontinue product changes – but Chase could also just discontinue the Ritz card altogether (or nerf it).
The certificate headache is no joke. Also have to juggle all of the “milestone” certs! (Hyatt 30- and 60-night certs, Marriott 75-night, etc… although it looks like the Marriott might be a thing of the past for Greg!)
congrats on saving a lot of headache to use these before they expire which is priceless
Wow, with this number of cancellations and downgrades, it seems like this was a situation long in need of a scalpel, so now you are bringing out the machete. And seven Marriott certs?? Even though I never asked them to, I was mildly bummed when you reported on Marriott no longer extending the certs (in case I ever “needed” them to). In the end I decided “if I require them to extend a credit card cert, then I probably do not need the card.” But with 7 certs in your household, I now understand why you were needing the extensions!!
The Choice select card 30k anniversary bonus is much more valuable to me than FNC’s. The 30k points can be used to book 2 nights at very nice properties in Norway or 3 (damn near 4 at 8k per night) nights in Japan. I’ll take 2-4 nights for my $95 annual fee over a FNC any day.
I think a lot of people chasing points/miles end up with too many cards and may not be saving as much as they think.
Someone with a business can do well since they are buying and selling products and can end up with a huge number of points. I knew someone who had a couple of businesses over the years and had something like 20 million Amex Points but had no clue how to use them and would usually only buy tickets on southwest with them getting around a penny a point.
I try to track the AFs and what I’m getting in return. Right now I have a ton (for me) of Chase points but I find amex points more valuable.
Why would you want to dump the IHG select card as it’s 49.00 for 40,000 points free night ….i always get 200+ out of IHG free nights
doesn’t make sense to me and you get 10% back and a would pay 49.00 to stay in any IHG property as most are over 100
All good points I agree with, but I’ll go one further and say this is a keeper card as it’s no longer even available to get. Great value and no way to get it in the future, personally I’d keep it.
I agree. I would gladly pay $49 for the chance to save $125+ on a night at some point during the year, particularly given the card is no longer available. Greg LOVES legacy cards that are no longer available!!!
Would you buy 40,000 IHG points for $49? I think the answer is “yes”. Even if you value the certificate at only 30,000, I think you’d still buy 30,000 ihg points for $49. While these certs aren’t what they used to be, I still get great value out of them most years.
Wow, a “free night certificate headache“. That’s not something you hear on most points and miles blogs!
I struggle to use even two or three FNCs from Hyatt and IHG cards. I’m mostly in places with no chain hotels at all and when there are chain hotels, they’re not the places I want to stay in. I sometimes need a night in transit or near an airport, but struggle to find FNC availability for the two chains I have certs with.
I have the same problem with using FNCs. If I just need one night somewhere I probably don’t care very much where I stay and the IHG certs always get used for this. But if I am staying somewhere any length of time I get a lot pickier about where I stay and am less likely to pick chains.
This blog is always a breath of fresh air.
A DP regarding your Amex Hilton strategy. I got my FNC for $15K spend on my Surpass, then upgraded to Aspire on 8/1/25. I have NOT received an Aspire FNC yet (9/16/25). I’m not in a hurry and still working on the second $15K spend on the Aspire (for $30K spend FNC). I’d rather have both certs with similar expiration dates. But, if you hope to use your Aspire cert quickly after upgrading, it may not happen in your desired time frame.
When AMEX says it can take up to 8 weeks, they really should say “it will take 8 weeks”, as that seems to be somewhat common.