Originally Posted by
hawkandhoo
I initially thought this was a good deal, too -- an easy way to earn some extra points for some credit card spending that I would do anyway (while staying at Marriott on business trips), but then I saw the terms and conditions in the confirmation e-mail (after I already bought the gift cards) and realized that I will not earn any Marriott Rewards points for any stays I pay for with the gift cards. That's a bad deal from my perspective, because I would rather earn 750 Marriott points for spending $75 (plus Elite bonus) rather than earn 500 MyPoints for the same spending.
I wonder if these are "special" gift cards as I have used gift cards to pay (or partially pay) for rooms before and always earned points. That is, they have always been treated like regular cash or credit card payments in the past. What I have lost are the points on my Marriott Rewards VISA card for the value of the gift card, and that is a good point that I had not thought about.