I am in the early stages of planning a year long sabbatical of traveling the US and Canada. I am trying to figure out how to get the best value for my travels. I do plan on driving, with no flying.
I am trying to figure out if Marriott Rewards are a better choice than Hotels.com. Can you look over my logic and let me know what you think? Am I crazy with the assumptions I am making?
- Assumption 1: Every night will be in a hotel.
- Assumption 2: I will have the Boundless Elite Credit Card with the extra 6x points. Automatically starts me at Silver Level.
- Assumption 3: Because this will be 365 days, I imagine I will reach Titanium if not Ambassador Elite.
- Assumption 4: Will be using the figure for $150 per night for my calculations
Points Earned:
75,000 for new credit card
Nightly Points:
- Base: 1500 Points per night
- Silver: 1650 Points per Night (10 Nights to Gold = 16,500 total points)
- Gold: 1875 Points per Night (25 Nights to Platinum = 46,875 total Points)
- Platinum: 2250 Points per Night (25 Nights to Titanium = 56,250 Total Points
- Titanium: 2625 Points per Night (58 Nights Ambassador = 152,000 Total Points)
As this point, I have 271,625 Points from the Nights
Plus 75,000 Points from the Credit Card Offer
Plus 6x the Nightly Rate of 150 for 133 days to reach Ambassador = 119,700
Grand Total of 466,325
So, assuming the free nightly room is 40,000 points to redeem, I have 11 Free Nights
Plus the Book 4 Nights, Get 1 Free perk, so I have 13 Free Nights
Now that I have reached Ambassador, its 2625 Points per night for the remaining 232 nights of the year = 609,000 points
Plus the 6x from the credit card = 208,800
This is a Total of 817,800 Points
If you add 817,800 + 466,253 = 1,284,053
Divided by 40,000 = 32 Nights
Plus the Book 4, Get 1 Free = 8 Nights
By my calculations, I could get 40 nights free at a Marriott hotel (making sure to stay at the 10 points per night hotels) in one year.
More when you calculate the additional miles for groceries, gas, and other things.
Do I have my numbers correct? Thanks in advance!