msNJV

Hi everyone,

Didn't know where to post this question so I'll just put it here.

There's an offer for elite members of 25$ credit for food,etc at FI Orlando per STAY. If I book one night and hubby books another night in his account. And assuming we will check out each day. Do you think we'll get a 25$ credit each day?

hhoope01

As long as each "night" is a different reservation and alternates between your husband's and your names you should be able to do that.

Note that you might have to change rooms each day though.

msNJV

thank you

Wisdom

Just signing up for this card. I've been using the Starwood Amex.

Here's my question. With my American Express When I get close to my limit I can pay it of everyday if I need to. Is there a limit to how many payments you can make per month with the Marriott card?

T. Sanderson

Apologies if this has been asked/answered somewhere else. I have the Marriott Chase card, which gives 15 elite credit nights per year on the card anniversary. For me that is in early January. I will finish the year in the mid-high 40 night area, but I might have a chance to hit 50. It seems that the smart thing for me is to make sure that I don't hit 50, because then I carry all nights over 10 into 2016 as rollover nights, and then I get 15 more based on the credit card bonus, setting me up for Gold early in the year, with a good likelihood of hitting platinum.

Have I misunderstood a rule somewhere? Is there a reason that I want to strain to hit Gold by the end of 2015?

Thanks!

T. Sanderson

I know I've made payments on that card weekly; all charges on all cards are paid on Wednesdays in my house, and I have had no issues.

Wisdom

Thanks for the response. I went ahead and got the card and charged the $3,000 to get the 80,000 points, then went online and paid it off. It was all very easy to do.
Thanks again.

monkatpeace

Hi, been a while since this thread has seen activity. Please let me know if this is not the right thread for my questions below.

I am currently at the Gold Elite status on the MR program. I had a decent number of stays in 2015 and was upgraded from Silver to Gold in 2015. But the no. of nights has dropped down to zero for 2016 (obviously) as I am yet to make a stay this year.

My Gold membership is set to expire in Apr 2017 and Marriott CC mentioned that the status-downgrade will happen by Feb 2017 itself (in case I am unable to stay 50/75 nights at Marriott properties in 2016).

My queries:

1. Assuming I am unable to complete the desired no. of stays i.e. 50/75 nights in 2016, my account status will be downgraded to Silver Elite. Do I now qualify for Marriott's status-buyback option?
2. Also, wrt to above question, once I complete a Gold status buyback, would it simply be a reinstatement of my Gold status or would 50 nights be alloted to my account? (Note: By allotment of 50 nights, I do not mean I get 50 free nights)
3. I had significant business travel/stay in 2015 and anticipate the same next year. As for this year, I don't anticipate much business travel/stay. I am thinking of trying the 'Taste of Platinum' challenge (assuming it's still 9 stays in 90 days) and completing it with a couple of Mattress runs. Do you think it would be worth it? (I am primarily aiming for the 50% bonus points, United Airlines Silver membership and the possibility to get status-match with other hotels)
4. Also, wrt the Taste of Platinum' challenge: Let's say I complete the challenge and achieve Platinum status this year, e.g. by August 2016. What would the expiry date of my newly achieved Platinum status be? (My guess: rest of 2016 + 2017)

Long list of questions ... thanks in advance for your inputs .

Ch33rs,
Monk

hhoope01

In general, this tends to be mostly a view thread with questions being asked in their own threads. But don't worry, it isn't an issue that you asked here. We can still answer.

1. Probably. I usually don't think the buy-back option is worth the cost, but everyone has different needs/likes. But I think you would be eligible for the buy-back, assuming they offer it of course.

2. Marriott would not add 50 nights to your account to get you to Gold. They would just make you Gold. IOW, you would need 75 more nights to get to Platinum status (not 25 nights.)

3. Is it worth extra time/money to get Platinum over Gold? I do think that Platinum is better than Gold, but it tends to be more "incremental". I wouldn't pay much extra to get Plat over Gold, but that is my preference. Gold's get upgrades and lounge access just like Plats do. Plats get more bonus points and some better guarantees.

4. I do believe you are correct. You would get the status for the rest of the year you achieved it and all the following year.

monkatpeace

Thanks for the support mate .

My thoughts...
#1 Right now, I wouldn't qualify or rather, don't need a status buyback right? Reason: As I still have my Gold status and this expires only in Feb 2017. Technically, buy-back for me would be required once (and if) my Gold status expires in Feb 2017. Please correct me if wrong on this point.

Completely agree with you on #2 and #4. Thanks for the confirmation ^

#3 This might be a long story, advance apologies .

Scenario#1 : No Platinum .. stick to Gold
Let's say I do not try for Platinum upgrade. Since my current Gold status expires next Feb and also because I do not have much travel/stay on my calendar this year, most probably, I would get a soft-landing/status-downgrade to Silver next Feb/Mar .

And I don't think I would have such a heavy travel season in 2017 that I would be staying 75 nights (not in my hands and I can't predict it). So, my options would be to either Buy-back my Gold status using 25k points (which I do have), which would be lost in the transaction (or) be content with the Silver status. And the Gold status, I guess, is valid till Feb 2018.

Worst case, I would either have Gold or Silver status (<- relatively minimal benefits ).

Scenario#2 : Try for Platinum and go for it
Now, on the other hand, let's say I pursue 'taste of / road to Platinum' (9 stays in 90 days) and somehow manage to get it done after June 2016. Per other members, that would get my Platinum status for the rest of 2016 plus 2017, maybe even till 2018 (per certain members). My options here would be to buy-back Platinum status with 40k points (or) stay content with the Gold downgrade.

Either ways, I still get to have at least Gold or Platinum for the next 3 years (rough estimate).

Your thoughts on this plan?

Thanks,
Monk

hhoope01

1. Yes, you wouldn't need to try to buy-back your status until it is expiring (or just expired.)

3. It is hard to answer for you whether pushing for Plat now or not is worth it. The answer is it depends on how much it will cost you, how much "benefit" you will receive from it and what you value. If you aren't staying much at Marriott hotels over the next couple of years, then I'd say the benefits might be limited as you won't be in the hotels to get those benefits. Also, on those "few" stays you will have, will they be FS or non-FS hotels? If non-FS, then the benefits during those stays will not be as pronounced (as they don't usually have a lounge to give you access to and upgrades can be a bit more limited as well.)

Scott Kiwi

Sorry, but I am new to Marriott Rewards. Searching their website, I do not find a list of hotels by categories or the amount of points those categories require per night. Is that available and I have missed it?

hhoope01

Use Marriott Rewards Points - Click on the link under Free Nights. You should get a pop-up window with the amount of points per each category level.

I'm not sure Marriott publishes a complete list of all hotels worldwide organized by category level. What you can do though is to search an "area" for hotels using rewards points. Then at the top of the list page, you can 'sort by' Reward Type. That will show you all the hotels in an area organized by reward levels. For example, you could search "France" to get all the hotels in France. And then sort them by reward levels. I did that and found 26 hotels. I did a similar search for USA and found 3625 hotels (but that was too many hotels for the online tool.) But you may notice on the right side of the list web-page, there is a "Filter Results" section. Expand that and you can then check the category level you want to see. You can then filter based on any other criteria you want to help you zero in on what you are looking for.

SkiAdcock

I think they do, but it's been a while since I was on that page. Probably should have bookmarked it. If it's still available & I find it, I'll post a link that you can add to post #1.

Cheers.

Scott Kiwi

Thanks hhoope01 and SkiAdcock for the posts.