<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by cmzimme:
I am a Marriott Rewards Gold member, a Southwest Rapid Rewards member and a Hertz Gold Club member. I always use the Marriott discount and ask for Southwest Air credit when reserving a car. Since I have ALOT of Marriott points, I usually ask for Southwest Air credit at when staying at Marriott. Am I optimizing each entity's rewards program? Can I ask for credit with each rewards program i.e. get Marriott Rewards points as well as Southwest points from each Marriott stay as well as Marriott and Southwest points from each Hertz rental. Make sense? I want to make sure I am earning every point I can. Thanks in advance. </font>
You are not necessarily maximizing your Southwest credits by only staying at Marriott.
If Marriott Gold status is important to you, then you should certainly do enough stays a year to maintain that. But you should also pay attention to promos from other hotel chains that partner with Southwest. For example, if you aren't getting 1.0 Southwest credits per stay already, well for the next couple months you can get just that at Choice (Comfort, Quality, Sleep, etc) hotels. And until the end of the month many airport Hiltons are giving 1.0 Southwest credits per stay when you book a special rate (which often is no more than the normal rate).
Similarly, you should pay attention to promos at other rental car companies that partner with Southwest. While often Hertz may have the best promo, there are other times when Dollar or Budget or Alamo might instead. While you shouldn't necessarily allow a promo to be the SOLE reason you choose a company other than your favorite, you should at least be aware of the fact that you can maximize the loyalty program of an airline by NOT being 100% loyal to any ONE of that airline's partners.