Originally Posted by
Adelphos
I fail to understand why Amex doesn’t make spending on some of these cards better than Amex Gold. Amex Gold already offers 4x Marriott points on restaurants and supermarkets (with the flexibility of using them for other uses). What does Bevy add? Each of the Marriott cards should earn 8x or 10x on Marriott spend, Bevy should offer 6x on dining/groceries
Do you place the same value on Marriott points as for Amex MR points? If you hold a biz gold card the Amex points are worth at least 1.25 if redeemed for travel. Or if you have biz Plat then 1.5. Better value than that can be found if you know how to leverage booking directly with airline transfer partners. There is no way that Marriott points can be worth anywhere close to that so 4x Amex is not equal to 4x Marriott. I would personally never put my groceries on a Marriott card as I'd feel I was losing at least 50% on my points earn.
Originally Posted by
cubeman
The fact that with the double ENC bonuses that Titanium could be achievable for under $4k is nuts. 25 nights off the bat, plus the 5 for plat means you only need 45 nights and if you do budget stays you can easily be under $4k. Average case maybe $5-6k? Does Marriott actually see increased revenue at properties when they decrease the spend needed? Even if you kill any double ENC this year you could get Titanium for under $7-8k. Get rid of the night bonuses and then you start looking at 9-10k.
If you have a Biz card you have 40 nights off the bat - so +35 to get to Titanium. Or +30 if you select 5 nights as you annual choice benefit. You don't even need to spend all $$ to get there because even award nights booked with your points will count.
Originally Posted by
lsquare
Not really. You still need 10 years of Platinum status and you can only get that after 50 EQNs. So you’ll need to find a way to get 10 EQNs or else you’ll just have the nights in your account.
You get Plat status automatically with the card. No need to get to 50 nights. The only thing you gain by getting to 50 is being able to choose your annual benefit. But you will already have had Platinum status just by holding the card.
That's what I figured. I probably should have gotten it before the refresh, but the SUB was just the standard 75K. I didn't think it was worthwhile. Oh, well. I guess I will just wait for a better SUB.
LAX
SUB is now double at 150k.