Which credit card offers the best free night certificates?

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I’m pretty excited about IHG’s revamped Premier card and its new business card twin.  Each comes with an annual 40K free night certificate upon renewal.  A single person could sign up for both cards and enjoy a free cheap weekend getaway each year.  A couple can stretch this out into an annual four night vacation.  With the new ability to add points to these free night certificates, it will be easier than ever before to use them to stay in great hotels year after year.  I was already pretty happy that IHG offers Kimpton hotels in their portfolio, but I’m even more enthused about the ability to book many Mr & Mrs Smith hotels with IHG points and certificates.

a man holding up a group of tickets

Before we get too carried away with trumpeting IHG Premier free nights, its worth stepping back to look at other options.  Free nights from Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott each have their own merits and one can argue that any one of them is the best.  Let’s compare them side by side:

Hilton Hyatt IHG Marriott 35K Marriott 50K
Credit card options Aspire $450
Surpass $95
Business $95
World of Hyatt $95 Premier $99
Business $99
Boundless $95
Amex $95
Prem. Plus Biz $99
Biz Amex $125
Brilliant $450
Ritz $450
Spend required for annual free night upon renewal $0 Aspire
$15K Surpass
$15K Business
$0 $0 $0 $0
Spend required for 2nd annual free night $60K Aspire
$60K Business
$15K
$60K Business $60K Biz Amex N/A
Certificate max point value No Cap
(Limited to weekend nights1)
18K
(Category 4 Peak)
40K 35K 50K
Ability to add points to exceed cap? Not needed
✅✅✅
No Yes
✅✅
Up to 15K
Up to 15K
Equally usable when hotel is peak priced? Yes
Yes
No
(Requires topping off with more points)
No
(Requires topping off with more points)
No
(Requires topping off with more points)
Waives resort or destination fees on free night stays? Yes
Yes
No No No
Book multiple nights on single reservation? Yes
Yes

(Via Pay My Way)
No Yes
Yes
Allows gifting free night to others? Yes
Yes
No No No
Works with 4th or 5th night free awards? No Not Applicable No No No
Can use upgrade certificates with free night certificates? Not Applicable No Not Applicable Yes
Yes
Bookable online? No
(Must Call)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

✅ = Notably good feature
1) Hilton free night certificates issued before the end of 2022 can be used any day of the week.

Hilton Free Nights

One could easily argue that Hilton free night certificates are the best.  They have no cap.  As a result, they can be used at the most expensive Hilton properties worldwide.  That’s awesome.

On the other hand, certs issued after this year will go back to being useable only on weekends.  Plus, there seem to be relatively few ultra-luxe properties compared to those available through the other programs listed here.  And the few that do exist seem to rarely have standard room award availability (which is required to use a free night certificate), especially on weekends.  When these factors are all taken together, Hilton’s advantage over the other programs (uncapped free nights) becomes much less important.  Typical travelers may find fantastic uses for these certs occasionally, but I bet the certs are most often used for high end but not ultra-luxe properties.

Summary: Getting great value from Hilton free nights can be a challenge.

Hyatt Free Nights

The free category 1-4 free night certificates that come with the World of Hyatt card are remarkable in that they can be used even when a hotel is peak priced.  You may find that a category 3 or 4 hotel is usually priced under $300 per night, but soars to at least twice that amount during some peak dates.  With Hyatt, as long as standard rooms are available during those peak dates, you should be able to use your certificate.

On the other hand, many desirable Hyatt and SLH hotels are category 5 or higher.  Hyatt doesn’t provide any way to use your category 1-4 certificates at these hotels.  In fact, even though there are plenty of Hyatts in Manhattan, not a single one is category 4 or lower (Incidentally, I happen to be writing this post from the now category 8 Park Hyatt in Manhattan — luckily I booked it while it was category 7).

Summary: Hyatt category 1-4 free nights are great, but only if there’s a great category 1-4 Hyatt where you want to go.  In expensive destinations you’re unlikely to find anything worthwhile.

IHG Free Nights

I think that the free nights that come with the IHG Premier and Premier Business cards are the most versatile of all the options listed here.  They can be used for truly free nights when your target hotel is priced at 40,000 points or less.  Or, you can add any number of points to the free night certificate to book the room.

There is a limit to how “great” these certificates are: The fact that IHG often sells points for as low as half a cent each indirectly limits the top value of these certificates to $200 each (since you can sometimes buy 40,000 points for $200).  On the other hand, if you want to use your free night certificates for nights that cost more than 40,000 points, the occasional ability to buy points for half a cent each during point sales can be a great way to get the points to top-off your free night awards.

Summary: While these certificates don’t have the highest theoretical value, they are probably the easiest to use at places where you really want to go.

Marriott Free Nights

Marriott has one huge edge over the competition: footprint.  In my experience, there are almost always highly rated Marriott hotels in places I want to go (at least when chain hotels are available at all).  Plus, they have the advantage of allowing Platinum elite members to use their Suite Night Awards on stays booked with free night certificates (Hyatt does not allow the same).

While its too early to know how Marriott will price desirable hotels now that they’ve eliminated award charts, prior award pricing has made me optimistic about both the 35K and 50K free night certificates once Marriott adds the ability to top-off certificates with up to 15K points per night (expected “late April 2022”).  Previously I’ve often found that hotels that I wanted to stay at were priced at 40,000 points or 60,000 points: out of range of 35K and 50K certificates.  If pricing increases at most of these hotels by no more than 5,000 points per night, then we’ll be able to book those hotels with a mix of free night certificates and points.  For 2022 Marriott is capping the award price of most of their hotels to the previous peak award pricing (when categories still existed) and so we won’t know until 2023 whether or not the 35K and 50K free night certificates will still be as broadly usable.

One annoying quirk of Marriott’s program is that when hotels list award prices for upgraded rooms, you can’t use a free night certificate.  You can’t even use a 50K free night certificate for an upgraded room that costs 40K per night.  The other programs don’t allow this either, but the way Marriott displays award prices for upgraded rooms makes it look like you should be able to do so.

The biggest disappointment to me with the latest Marriott changes is that the ability to top off free nights is limited to 15,000 points per night.  This means that it will continue to be impossible to use those certificates at ultra-luxe properties.

Summary: We won’t know how bad dynamic pricing is until 2023, but for now the Marriott free night certificates are arguably the best options for staying in desirable hotels in places you want to go, as long as you’re willing to forgo top of the line luxury.

Bottom Line

All of the free night certificates described above have pluses and minuses.  If you want to stay at top of the line luxury hotels, only Hilton and IHG certs offer options.  With Hilton, you have to find standard room award availability and only on weekends (beginning with certs issued next year).  And with IHG, you may have to top off your certs with a huge number of points.  Since IHG dynamically prices most of their hotels, the top-off amount can easily dwarf the 40K cert contribution.  All of the certificates can be effectively used at mid to high tier hotels.

Ultimately, the best free night certs are whichever ones you would dependably use every year.  For each person and each circumstance, the chain that meets that requirement will vary… a lot.

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