For years, the conventional wisdom in the travel rewards world has been straightforward: To book hotels, transfer your credit card points to hotel loyalty programs whenever possible.
In many cases, that’s still excellent advice. Hotel transfer partners can unlock tremendous value, especially at luxury properties where cash rates are high and award pricing remains relatively reasonable. Some of my most memorable hotel stays have come from transferring flexible rewards points to hotel programs and redeeming them for properties that would have otherwise cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars per night.
But the landscape is changing.
Credit card issuers have invested heavily in their travel portals over the past few years, and now those are starting to challenge the long-held assumption that transferring points is always the best option. In some situations, booking through a credit card travel portal can deliver redemption values that rival or exceed what you’d receive by transferring points directly to a hotel loyalty program.
So should you transfer your points or book through your credit card’s travel portal instead? The answer depends on the hotel, the redemption value and the benefits attached to each booking.
