Glad to hear that, worked great for me also.

We used the Priority Pass at Marco Polo Lounge in Italy, nice lounge,

Worth it for the wife and myself, enjoy,

Thank you coolfish!!

Hi, where did you buy the card from?

This still working? Put $301 on my card several days ago and has not been reimbursed. Transaction posted as MARRIOTT GIFT CARDS

EDIT: Credit posted 11/7

ducksaucei3, did you buy from a physical Marriott location or online from gifts.marriott.com?

Online from gifts.marriott

FYI -

This credit also applies to Marriott branded gym memberships.
I joined Renaissance Club Sport gym (equinox equivalent) and the monthly membership was reimbursed to my surprised.

For buying these gift cards, do you earn 6x points? Do stays paid with these giftcards count towards elite night count?
What is a reason for not paying the hotel charges (mainly room charges) at checkout via credit card Vs buying GC?

I've stayed in rooms on the card and no problems on reimbursement. Did not even think about trying to get a GC for the $300. That's the new strategy, it seems. I'd rather hold GCs that don't expire than the 80+k points that could presumably be taken away.

I'm curious why everyone thinks the Aspire is the better deal. I wish that was true, because I'm probably going to have 3 Aspires, but the Airline Credit is pretty difficult to take advantage of, now that the GCs are out. The Resort credit is even harder to take advantage of, unless I create trips/expenses I would not already have. The Free weekend night is nice, but it doesn't beat the free any time night up to 50k points (~$350 value to me) for the Bonvoy (SPG Lux). So, I see $650 of easily obtainable value for the Bonvoy. For the Aspire, I *might* get that 250 airline credit, and will probably get the free weekend night. I probably will not get the resort credit.

I thought someone mentioned GC can’t be used to get the cheapest rates. It’s better to use the credit on a room or room charges first.

I agree with you. However, in my view, I can keep GCs forever, but I can't keep free annual nights. Points can also be taken away, as many Amex churners are currently experiencing. So, I'm thinking that I should try to expend my points & free nights to extract their value, whereas I can keep GCs and use them when I run out or close accounts.

If I ended up using it all, then I agree that using the money directly on rooms makes more sense. I'm in a long-distance relationship, and flying frequently, but after I move back locally in a couple months, I don't anticipate using hotels more than a couple times a year, and that's already covered by the free nights.

One remaining good reason, and two that have changed a bit:

1. The Aspire comes with Diamond status straight up, which is a lot better than Marriott Gold.
2. The airline credit used to e easy to turn into gift cards. (Though I’m doing fine with using mine.)
3. Confusion about, and varying use for, the resort credit. At launch it could be used on prepaid rates, and apparently plenty of people stayed at a resort yearly anyway (Disney World often ca,e up, I think?).

Given the room certificates are a bit of a wash, that was $200 more credit on the Hilton card, plus better benefits when staying at the hotels. And Hilton points aren’t worth a ton, but 14 of them against 6 Marriott points is probably still a win?

Thank you for pointing #1 out. For some reason I thought Platinum card did that for me, but I just checked and learned that it doesn't. I do value that perk with Hilton very much.

The airline credit change is a HUGE let down. I was putting away a nice chunk of gift cards on the Aspire & Platinum while using points to cover flights. Now, the plan is to combine Delta gift cards I bought & continue to buy with my CSR with the airline credit to cover the additional cost of tickets. Apparently, that's good up to the $250 credit available on the aspire. How are you spending yours, if you don't mind sharing?

I'm going to lose the resort credit entirely, this year. I've read about people buying prepaid rates with international resorts and cashing them in during subsequent years when they can combine the new year's resort credit with previous prepaid credits. That's the only idea I've had, but I don't know if it's feasible, or which resort I'm eventually going to be interested in experiencing. As far as I'd heard, prepaid stuff can still be done, but not on domestic resorts.

This forum has a series of megathreads about using the credit with different airlines. I’m on Delta: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...l#post31716259

roger. I've reviewed them, which is why I switch to Delta so I can mix GCs & the benefit for ticket purchases. Thanks though