Hi Jix,

Consider buying Marriott points and redeeming them for a hotel and flight package. The flight is just airline award points of your choice. It really depends on how many Marriott points you're starting with and how many Mariott accounts you have access to. And your timeline...

But you can get 120,000 AAdvantage points this way as an alternative. It may save you some money if you actually have MR points to begin with. Once you have 150,000 MR points accumulated, each addional MR point is worth one airline mile if you save them for a hotel and flight package.

270,000 MR points equals a 7 night Cat 5 redemption plus 120,000 AAdvantage points
50,000 Marriott points cost $625 USD to purchase
You can buy a max of 50,000 Marriott points per account in a calendar year
Starting January you can transfer 50,000 Marriott points to friends (this may already be in place - not sure)

So, WORST case if you have access to three Marriott accounts (spouse and one friend/child/parent) all with ZERO points you could buy 300,000 Marriott points for $3,750 USD (probably plus GST unless you temporarily change addresses to US):
Buy 50,000 MR points now x three accounts @ $625 USD each
Transfer to your account
Buy 50,000 MR points x three accounts in January @ $625 USD each
Transfer to your account

Of course you don't need 300,000 MR points, just 270,000 if you're starting from scratch. And you're only creating 120,000 AAdvantage points this way and you said you need 200k. And if you can't transfer points now, you'll need additional accounts to transfer from in January 2016.

But depending on what MR position you're starting with combined with the fact you have to buy points anyway, consider doing some MR point math to see if you'd come ahead this way.

Both myself and spouse still have the MR Visa bonus points from the sign up bonus. So I'd come ahead in your scenario, so I thought I share this with you.

Hopefully I didn't spew and confuse with my post.

NJD