jags86

You say “certain” airlines when it’s nearly all airlines, at least, far more than American Express offers. Additionally, is a 60,000 points transfer that crazy? How often are you transferring less than 25,000 MR points to a FF program? I don’t really view that as an issue. If you have the Bonvoy Brilliant card you’re earning a minimum 18.5 Marriott Points per $1 spent at most Marriott properties...that means you need to spend $3243 at Marriott Properties per 60,000 points or 25,000 airline miles. If they dump the Marriott card (and assuming they have no status otherwise) they will be earning 10x Marriott and 3x MeR which means at that same $3243 spent they are only getting 32530 MaR and 9729 MeR. If you convert to airline miles that’s only equivalent to 20,572 airline miles.

Also, it is sometimes worth transferring to Marriott from AMEX. In fact I just did: I used 174000 MeR to get 226,200 MaR and booked a 7 night stay at a property for 225,000 points. Cash value was $505/night. So I redeemed 174,000 MeR for $3,535 which is a $0.02/pt redemption for my AMEX points. That is a good redemption considering I believe 1.5cpp is a decent redemption for MeR.

FT

Thank you for the feedback. Appreciate it.

In my particular case, I'm continuing to stay and earn at Marriott as LTT so I receive 17.5 points per $1 spent as is (for sake for ease, I'm assuming the points not provided on the tax is made up for by welcome bonus). Using Brilliant adds 6 more points per each $1 spent. My typical yearly spend would result in 150k Bonvoy points a year if I use Green or $200k Bonvoy points a year if I use Brilliant.

I can help augment Bonvoy by also charging non bonus AMEX spend on Brilliant which results in an additional 25k points bringing the total to 225k. As a reference, when I used my SPG as my daily driver under the old earning rates, I'd earn the equivalent of 185k Bonvoy points a year so I'm not far from that right now.

Charging Marriott and non bonused AMEX spend to Bonvoy, to me, is a less efficient way of earning points. While I'm considering using Green as my new daily driver, this would overload me on AMEX points and depress me on Bonvoy points. I'd fly for free, but still have to pay for hotel stays which is the rub.

I think more than anything, this exercise has made me quantify the recent Marriott devaluation as it relates to my spending. My same annual spend now results in less room nights than before.

mlin32

Pleasantly surprised at the new benefits of the Green. I will downgrade my Gold to Green at the end of the year. The 3x bonus categories on the broad categories of travel (hôtels, car rentals, airfare) make it much more valuable for me, plus I'll have a lower annual fee versus the Gold. The 4x on supermarkets and food credits offered on the Gold card are useless to me as I'm not based in the US anymore, and the annual airline credit also not useful as I don't fly any US airlines (used it to pay for better seating for my mother on DL this year).

blitzen

Calm down. Did I call it crazy? But being forced to do it in 60k > 25k chunks has disadvantages (as sometimes I need just a top off). And no you can not transfer to all airlines. And some do transfer but not at the 60>25 ratio. And some you could (maybe can again) only transfer into from Bonvoy (LH M&M).
Good redemption can be found anywhere. I used 30k Hyatt Points (aka 30k UR points) per night for a room that is $2k plus taxes. Or I transferred 150k MR to ANA and got a $20k flight out of it (if I would more flexible in timing I would wait to book it with VS for 120k and the Amex transfer bonus). Or Osaka Intercontinental around $500-600 a night. Booked 4 night for 60k IHG points = 240 - 60k (4th night free) - 18k (Ambassador) - 18k (Chase 10%) = 144k points for a $2k+ stay ... 1,4 cents per point and you can buy them at 0.5 cents ..... That only shows good/bad redemption exist and it all depends on your travel pattern.
Do NOT assume your travel pattern/ value per point/.... makes sense for anyone. I will stay away from Bonvoy not because of bad points value but because their IT issues created a lot of problems for me that I can live without.

lsquare

It's possible to downgrade to Green? If so, can you still get the SUB?

Diplomatico

Yes. No.

lsquare

My Gold's renewal is in November. Can I downgrade to Green and maybe sign up for another Green to get the SUB in January 2020?

Diplomatico

Generally speaking, the AMEX T&C's state that the sign-up bonus is not available to anyone who currently has or previously has had the card in question. So, no.

You would want to apply for the Green first and downgrade your Gold after approval for the Green.

rasheed

And you might get a good retention offer for the Gold because of the situation...

lax01

I just did this...

$100 for Clear
$100 for Away
$10 back for Internet/TV Offer on Onboarding
45k MR min-spend bonus which is already 10% complete without any actual dollars out of my pocket haha

I think I'm WELL ahead on them for this card....

FT

Let's go with your valuation... 2 Bonvoy points equal 1 AMEX.

If I spend $100 at a Marriott on the Brilliant I will receive 600 Bonvoy points. On the Green, I receive 300 AMEX points. It's still equal to the valuation you placed. At best, Brilliant is on par w/ Green for Marriott and that seems to be a valuation solely based on transferring to airlines presumably to book award seats.

The only point for me to use the Brilliant will be to accrue additional Bonvoy points to stay at their hotels. I've got enough air options through AMEX through transfers or Pay w/ Points.

I went back and looked through my old statements. Looks like I was a bit off with respect to the devaluation. I used to earn ~50k SPG points per year. Enough for 3-4 nights (5th night free) at a Cat5 depending on low peak or peak season. If I use Green to pay for Marriott stays, I'll maybe earn 150k points; with Brilliant, 200k points. That's similarly enough for 3-4 Cat5 nights.

Not yet decided one way or another. I may keep Marriott spent on Brilliant, but I detest doing so when there's a better option to accrue w/ the Green. I still need a place to stay when I get to where I'm going.

miadukes

HAHA minus the fact that I can't make up my mind about Clear yet, this is exactly what I have done as well LOL

jags86

While at the end of the day I think you’re pretty much even par whichever way you go, I think the benefits of the Marriott Rewards vs Membership Rewards is that if you choose to stay at a Marriott hotel you’re in a much better position having earned straight MaR, and if airline transfers are your primary concern you are in a better position with MeR. If you regularly do Pay w/ Points you should look at other cards IMO... Citi Premier would give you $0.0125/pt in their portal for $95 annual fee, Chase gives you $0.015/pt for their net $150 annual fee, and US Bank gives you $0.015/pt for net $75/annual fee. With AMEX you’re getting $0.01/pt on flights only. You can increase it to $0.0125 or $0.0154 with the Schwab Platinum or Business Platinum but then you’re adding $550-$595 in annual fees. If you have a ton of spend it can work, but I think for most normal folks it doesn’t make sense.

Keep in mind that with Marriott Rewards you can transfer to American, Southwest, and United. If none of those interest you then its a wash.

Javier1704

What do you mean?

I'm not getting Clear. I don't trust giving my fingerprints and RETINAL SCAN to a private third party company that clearly states on their Privacy Policy that they sell your data to third party advertisers.

I know that this doesn't have much to do with the Green Card itself... but as a PSA, if you care about privacy at all: don't do it.

Refer to: https://www.clearme.com/privacy_policy

By signing up you are AUTOMATICALLY expressing consent to share you biometrics with other entities.

miadukes

Exactly why I haven't rushed to sign up yet.......