Based on your not traveling until Thanksgiving, you have some time and therefore some options. Before you do anything though, go ahead and make the rewards reservation NOW. If they are letting you use a standard award for the nights, grab it. I'm positive it won't stay that way for long. Just make sure you check the box stating that you already have a cert. This way the system won't try and deduct the points right now. Of course, you will have to call later (once you do have the points) to order the cert for the reward.

So lets look at some options:

1. You state that you have already applied for a Marriott CC to get that 15K bonus. There are actually three US based Marriott branded CCs: Signature, Business, Premier Signature. And all three will give you a 15K bonus. So apply for the other two.

2. If you really want to play the CC game, you can hold on to each of the CCs for a couple of months and then cancel them. Wait a month and then re-apply. You will get another round of 15K bonuses. If you do this for all three cards, you will have 90K points just from doing this. Note that the Premier card does not waive the annual fee, so you would have to pay for it twice. If you don't want to do that, just cancel and reapply for the other two.

3. Sign up for the Megabonus promotion and spend some nights a Marriotts. Marriott's program is designed to give the most points for BIB (butts in bed). So do that as much as you can. Also, you should check out the Megabonus thread to see what the various offers are within the Megabonus promotion. Then based on your stays, figure out which version maximizes your bonus. Give Marriott Rewards a call and get them to change the promotion to the one that fits your stays the best.

4. If you hurry (as in do it NOW) you might be able to still purchase all the points you need at the cost of only 1 cent per point. So for about $1000 you could purchase 100K points (more than enough for your stay and a lot less than paying for the stay). Marriott is supposed to have increased the points cost, limited the number purchased, and put in some restrictions today. But based on the Bye bye to unlimited purchase of points for a penny each thread, Marriott has been a little slow in updating their points purchases. Right now, the website says that 50K is the max to purchase, but if you actually go and try to purchase, it doesn't look like they have updated that yet. So hurry if you want to do this one.

5. If you get those CCs, use the Premier card as much as you can. (It has the same or better points accumulations as the other two.) Depending on how much you can charge to it before Thanksgiving, you might be able to get some nice points this way as well.

6. Constantly watch this forum and Marriott's website for any bonuses and promos that Marriott might throw out before your stay. You might find another good way to get yourself some points.