Originally Posted by
Fluff Ermine
These are all great responses. As a former consultant mainly staying at full-service Hyatt properties for work, I was enamored by Globalist and find it hard to leave, so been mattress running ~$1K a year or so trying to maintain it (usually during a promotion so net cost isn't terrible). Staying at luxury properties on Chase points with guaranteed suite upgrades have been awesome, but that'll probably change once the award charts inevitably go away in a couple years.
Totally fair. Status can be addictive. Globalist is definitely worth $1000 a year if you are otherwise spending 40-50 nights in Hyatt hotels anyway. I agree Hyatt eliminating their award chart is a matter of when, not if. Frankly, the devaluation of category 1-7 certificates is already very telling.
Originally Posted by
Fluff Ermine
Looks like some low-effort 85K certs with the Brilliant / Ritz and mattress running Titanium during a promo might be the way to go for me. Just annoying how difficult it can be to generate Marriott points effectively without work travel.
I'm not sure if Titanium is worth mattress running for. Realistically, US travelers only need 30 nights to hit Titanium. If you're not spending that amount of time in Marriotts every year, the marginal improvement for Titanium over Platinum may not be worth it. I am glad you see value in the 85K FNC farm strategy though. That is sadly the best way to accumulate Marriott award stays at the moment.
I am fortunate to be in a position where about ~1.2 million Bonvoy points through cash stays every year but even that does not stretch very far these days. The end-game best system for someone with flexible travel is probably to relegate Marriott largely for cash + 85K FNC stays and focus on accumulating points for award redemptions on other programs. Hyatt points are the easiest to mass accumulate with the Chase Ink cards and Hilton award stays have become relatively cheap with the Hilton Business card awarding a FNC for just $15K spend / year. You can stack multiple of those as well with no impact on 5/24.