I had the pleasure of staying at both the Andaz and the JW Marriott resorts in Guanacaste during my visit last week to Costa Rica. For those seeking a great resort to get away from it all using hotel points, these are both great options.

First, the Andaz Peninsula Papagayo. Hyatt’s main Costa Rica resort sits in the remote area of Papagayo, in a quiet bay formed by a Peninsula. The hotel is contemporary and built to blend in with the surrounding scenery. It sits at some elevation from the bay, although has a path down to the beach. You will certainly see monkeys and iguanas on this path, on the beaches and in the trees at other spots around the hotel.

There is a large iguana in the tree.

Guests are also treated to a remote beach a little further up the coast, accessible by a 15 minute free hotel operated speedboat ride. At either beach, you’ll have access to free kayaking, snorkelling and standup paddleboarding, although additional activities are extra.

In addition to the fantastic and remote location and neat exterior designs, all of the rooms are very contemporary with great views of the bay and neat showers leading to private balconies.

The food at the restaurants tasted good and is reasonably priced. Hyatt Globalists and their “guests of honor” get free breakfast that I found to be right up there with the best breakfasts that Hyatt offers (the new Hyatt Regency in Lisbon and the Park Hyatt in Paris, however, are still #1 and #2).

At 21,000 World of Hyatt points, the Andaz certainly presents real value.

The Andaz is not perfect though. I was given a room close to the main reception area, and noise emanating from a wedding on Friday night and from a separate event on Saturday afternoon caused the room to vibrate. Hotels, of course, have competing interest and are trying to maximize revenue, but in this case the events were incongruous with the resort setting and the guest experience. I think the noise would have been unpleasant under any circumstance, but was especially so after a 6-hour drive from Monteverde.

Second, the JW Marriott Guanacaste.Marriott's flagship Costa Rica resort is much larger than the Andaz, further from the Liberia airport, and not contemporary, but rather Hacienda style. On the surface, it has more of the feeling on a large Caribbean resort, seeming less unique than the Andaz, and caters more to middle America patrons. It is a completely different setting, placed against an ocean beach (instead of a peninsula bay) and if the sound of crashing waves against a Pacific sunset is a requirement for your Costa Rica vacay, this is a better location.

It probably isn’t as easy to see monkeys at the JW Marriott as it is at the Andaz, but if you take an early morning bike ride with the free bikes over the barbed wire fence and around the area adjacent to the hotel, you will see them. I also saw large iguanas on premise and a large crab walking through the lobby.

The JW Marriott also has Tamarindo, a happening town, a few minutes away with all sorts of food options, so unlike the Andaz you really aren’t stuck on campus for your meals. But I found the Asian fusion restaurant in the Marriott to be outstanding.

In addition to mountain biking, the JW Marriott presented more free activities, such as a fun mixology class (we made Guaro Sour), yoga and marshmellow roasting at sunset.

And, the staff at the JW Marriott was outstandingly friendly.

At 36,000 or 37,000 Marriott points, the JW Marriott Guanacaste also presents real value.

The amount of points required at the Marriott is of course far more than the Hyatt. However, these are two completely different currencies. I still find valuable redemptions all over the Hyatt network, including redemptions at spectacular hotels in major Asian and European cities for 15,000 World of Hyatt points. But, Marriott points are easily to get and when I look at Marriott’s chart, I virtually never find a nice redemption for under 60,000 points. While I did stay at neat hotels in Montreal and Lisbon over the last year for 50,000 Marriott points, I just haven’t found anything that represents the redemption value of the JW Marriott Guanacaste in years.

Bottom line: If you are both Marriott and Hyatt-point heavy and looking for valuable redemptions, consider choosing the JW Marriott Guanacaste over the Andaz Peninsula Papagayo.

(All images ©BestCashCow.com)

Capital One announced the Venture X card last month to great fanfare. They paid the credit card bloggers handsomely to promote it with many of them obliging all too easily and changing the background of their sites to Capital One wallpaper.

The Venture X card is not a bad card and should have great appeal at once to many of the affluent readers of sites like OneMileAtATime or ViewFromTheWing.

It offers 100,000 points for signing up and 2x points on all spend. It is instantly a top travel rewards card, accruing points that can then be transferred to a host of airline partners (although no major US airlines are included), and the $395 annual fee is well within reason, especially since it comes with a $300 travel credit for bookings on Capital One’s own travel portal. It also comes with all the frills that travelers seek – a full featured Priority Pass with restaurant credits, Global Entry, primary automobile rental insurance coverage (only Chase Sapphire Reserve also offers that) and no currency exchange fees.

The unveiling of the Venture X comes at a great time. The Platinum Card from American Express now has a much higher price and was converted in the early stages of COVID-19 into a sort of coupon book that benefits those who also patronize American Express’s partners. Amex had already begun cutting the benefits that most savvy travelers rely on prior to the pandemic (they had already converted the $200 travel credit into a heavily restricted incidental credit and offered a less than full featured version of the Priority Pass), and the Venture X card gives them back similar features at a lower fee.

Venture X also targets the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. Not only is Capital One offering a larger sign-up bonus, it is offering all the same frills at a lower cost ($95 versus $250 after netting out all direct travel credits that most will be able to use). While it offers 2x on all spend, it does not offer 3x on travel and restaurant spend. It also doesn’t have Hyatt and United as travel partners which barring some sort of massive devaluation in point values will always be more appealing to most US-based cardholders than Capital One’s limited partners (Singapore, Air France, British Airways, etc.)

As attractive as Venture X is, here are the three reasons why I would still prefer to have an Amex Platinum or a Sapphire Reserve card in my wallet when I travel, especially internationally.

First, Capital One is not known for its customer service. Even if I am only likely to call my credit card company once every year or two about a questionable charge or some other matter, I want to be able to get in touch immediately with someone who is competent and able to address my concern. This is especially true if I am calling from Ushuaia. I know that I get that with Amex Platinum and Chase Sapphire Reserve.

Second, the Venture X doesn’t even say that it comes with emergency evacuation coverage. If I am in some sort of remote corner of Vietnam and have a medical emergency, I want to be able to call someone and try to get medevaced to Singapore or Hong Kong. This may be more of a “peace of mind” thing, but for the travel that I do, Platinum and Reserve give me this, and Venture X does not.

Third, the Venture X card is just too heavy. It weighs in at twice the weight of the Sapphire Reserve and more than twice the Amex Platinum. This heavy card thing may have been attractive a decade ago, but it is the 2020s and it smells of unnecessary excess and indifference to the reality that we all need to limit consumption of everything going forward. It would be obnoxious to hand the card to a waiter in Paris or Rome; it screams “stupid American”.

So, while Venture X is interesting, I for one will just keep it on my desk and use it to pay taxes and other large expenses for which I cannot get 2x the points on any other personal credit card.

Over the last several years, all major credit card companies have gotten into the business of promoting spend in certain categories by issuing cards that provide extra points (or cash back) in certain spend categories. It started when most airline cards and hotel cards incentivized spend in the attached brand through bonus points. Now many credit issuers offer cards with bonuses across entire categories – for example, Chase’s Sapphire Reserve card offers 3x Chase Ultimate Rewards points for all travel and dining and Chase’s Ink Cash card offers 5x cash back (or UR points) for spend at office supply stores.

The whole game of getting the most bonus points for your spend has become a sport for many, and now borders on an addiction for some. BestCashCow helps you determine which card or cards will maximize your rewards or your cash back with the handy tool on this page (https://www.bestcashcow.com/credit-cards).

It is clear that there are some people who do not want to play the game of seeking the best bonuses in each category and who just want to carry the single card that rewards them the most across all of their spend.

There are others who play the game, but find that a lot of their credit card spending is in categories for which no credit card offers a bonus. Taxes, for example, is never a category for bonuses is taxes and service fees for paying them online are close to 2% for federal taxes on sites like pay1040.com and as high as 2.50% for some state and local taxes (usually through their websites). While taxes could easily be the largest spend category for many high earners, it is hard to justify paying them online with a credit card (instead of by check in the mail) when you pay these service fees to get back only 1 airline or hotel point per dollar or 1% cash back.

There are now two cards that stand out by offering an outstanding return on all spend, and that can be (and should be used) used for tax spend as well. One offers travel rewards (https://www.bestcashcow.com/credit-cards/cards-for-spend) and the other offers cash back (https://www.bestcashcow.com/credit-cards/cash-back).

The first is the Capital One Venture X card. This card is a new offering that gives 100,000 Capital One points after spending $10,000 in the first 6 months. It has a $395 annual fee, but also has a $300 travel credit for travel booked on the Capital One travel portal. The card gives 2x Capital One Venture points for all spend, regardless of category. The points can now be converted to Singapore Krisflyer, British Airways or Air France at 1 point to 1 point where more than a penny and half per point of value can be achieved when redeeming for Business class long haul travel.

Many people, however, are wondering whether they will be traveling as much in the Coronavirus and climate crisis era (and whether that travel will be international on partners like Capital One’s). At some point, there also becomes an issue relating the viability of some of these airlines and/or whether their points will continue to be significantly devalued. The second card by Bank America may be more suited to these folks.

The Bank of America Premium Rewards Visa Credit Card is a cash back credit card offering 2.625% cash back to cardholders holding at least $100,000 in an account at either Merrill Lynch or Bank of America. The card carries a $95 annual fee and usually offers some sort of bonus. It also offers a $100 incidental air travel fee (for checked bags) that you may or may not be able to use. (After your first year, you can also “downgrade” the card to another card that will give you 2.625% back with no fee, but also no travel credits).

Both of these cards have drawbacks – Capital One and Bank of America have inconsistent customer service that routinely falls below the level that customers of Chase or American Express have grown to expect. I suspect that many will wind up getting these cards and using them just for taxes and maybe other occasional and large purchases for which they cannot get bonuses, but will continue to keep Chase and Amex cards as their primary go-to cards in their wallets.