Background: first year plat member with MR, and made plat already for next year. Previous year I was nobody: like 2 stays with maybe 10 nights total. This year, 80+ nights with another 20-30 to go. In case your wondering, I moved in to a new position at the company. So the travel thing is new to me. I travel enough that the staff at various hotels that I frequent remember me by name and my eating (and drinking) habits. Fortunately those habits aren't bad<g> I stay at Marriot properties because, well, I do I don't have to, but i picked a courtyard near where I often frequent, I liked the staff there (they were oh-so-nice and down to earth), and I ended up returning (often).

Ok, so that's out of the way. So I require some travel for my job. I hit 83 nights this year so far, though 20 of them were due to the summer double (well, 19 actually,though how you can hit 19 out of a double is math beyond me <g>). I see lots of folks asking what's better: MR or (HH, SPG,<other rewards>). But I'm a bit befuddled, some of it out of "newbie" ignorance.

So the big thing I see mentioned is free nights at a the various hotel properties. But the one thing I haven't seen mentioned is what I consider the "non-stay" reward. I just got a catalog in the mail that had all kinds of stuff from flat-screen TV's to iPod's that i could exchange my MR points for.

So please excuse my ignorance as this is my first year as a MR PLAT <or any kind of travelere, period> . I think the stuff offered in the MR catalog is pretty, well, hot dog! Shoot, ok, maybe I've got the "newbie rewards" blinders on, but heck, these rewards seems pretty good to me. I've seen some posts that mention things about "points being worth less than they were before", and again, please excuse the ignorance as this is my first year with MR status, but I'm pretty happy

So educate me, please. Are the SPG things that good? Note: I did create my SPG account this year, and will be accruing some nights because Marriot doesn't have property everywhere I go (I have ~10 nights at SPG properties and a few more planned before the end of the year). But is Starwood that close? Are the "other' benefits (from SPG, HH, etc) that good?

To clarify: I have ~200K points this year, and I just added the MR signature visa, so I should get a lot more points. Are the points I could accrue at other properties really (i.e. SPG) worth that much more? The stuff I saw in my MR catalog were, as I mentioned, well, gosh! I was happy But I can pretty much stay anywhere I want, and I want to get the most "bang" for my buck..

thanks for the feedback,
-pk