Originally Posted by
BoilerHack
CGE:
Aren't you just trading the 4x from the Chase UR Mall for the 2x from the Marriott mall with everything else the same (Ink Bold or Chase Marriott multiplier)? If I understand what you are saying, you are trading the Marriott Mall 2x for the Chase UR mall 4x at Staples.com.
Ah, I see.. I don't have a Chase card with the UR program, so didn't realize you go through their own Mall to get to Staples.com and associated bonus points.
You are correct, then. Sorry about that.
Originally Posted by
Counsellor
If you purchase the gift cards on marriott.com and pay with the Marriott VISA, the purchase (in the past, at least) has earned the same 5 points per dollar from the credit card as if you had used the credit card to pay a bill at a marriott property. I don't think it would work that way if you bought the gift cards from another source (like a drugstore).
Also, of course, the charge to the Marriott VISA goes toward the free night credit for each $3,000 charged to the card.
I love this board, I really do. Thank you so very much for that.
Um.. one more question though.. if you buy Marriott gift cards from marriott.com and pay with the marriott visa, and get 5 pts/$1 for the purchase, then do you still get another 1pt/gift card $1 value when redeeming the gift cards? (Because up thread it says that if you pay for a purchase/stay at Marriott with a Marriott gift card, you get the same pts/$1 as if you paid with cash, and I believe that is 1 pt/$1.)... because this works out to 6 pts/$1 total value which I can work with.
(I'll throw out something else while I'm in here - I don't have the Chase card and associated mall, but I have a Barclay's Travelocity card which earns points towards travel. Barclays has it's own "RewardsBoost" shopping site where you can buy Marriott gift cards with your Travelocity card and net 2.5 Travelocity points per dollar that way. Not nearly as good as the Chase/Staples combo, but worth a mention, especially since 20,000 Travelocity points is worth
$400, not $200 like most other programs I've seen... but of course 10K pts is still only worth $100 which I only just realized. Thought it was $200.. oh well. Incentive!)