Marriott Concierge

Good Morning, FlyerTalk community.

I wanted to share with all of you an announcement we recently leaked on Marriott Rewards Insiders, introducing the latest MegaBonus® promotion.

...As the Fall approaches, it is my honor to provide you with an exclusive...heads-up on our Marriott Rewards’ MegaBonus® promotion.

Registration for this promotion is from August 19, 2010 through October 31, 2010. Pay with your Visa® card for stays made between September 15, 2010 through January 15, 2011, and you will earn your exclusive MegaBonus!

Be sure to visit MarriottRewards.com/MegaBonus for more information and details. Stay tuned to learn more and to earn more…and be sure to visit again on August 19, 2010 to view your exclusive MegaBonus offer.

With registration just days away, we hope this MegaBonus will help carry you away to the world’s most desirable destinations.

Thank you – we hope this early notice helps you plan appropriately!

To see the original announcement, feel free to visit us at Marriott Rewards Insiders!

Regards,

Andrew

bigguyinpasadena

Thanks for the heads up Andrew!

Back to having to use a Visa for the promo?

PhillyPhlyer40

Back to using the visa to close out the account!!

Ugh..now I have to spend a few extra bucks each stay!

davevt98

Hopefully this turns out to be something worthwhile.

msuroo

Thanks for the heads up! There were megabonus fliers on the counter at the Chicago Oak Brook Hills property last night, and I meant to grab one, but by the time I got to the counter (convention or something checking in), I forgot about it.

CPRich

I'm very disappointed that Marriott has gone back to requiring a specific credit card to participate in promotions. There are many, many MR members that travel on business and are required by our employers to use company-provided cards. The majority of these, I assume, are American Express cards like mine.

I guess it's fortunate that my travel will be down in Q4 and my ability to max out both SPG and MR promos is reduced, so SPG's rumored triple points will be an easy choice.

But I was counting on racking up some rollover nights now that I've hit 75 for the year. Oh well.

SkiAdcock

Doesn't Hyatt require Mastercard on their promotions? It probably varies by chain.

BTW - I'm assuming everyone knows the flip a card thing to qualify for promos. Use something else to check in (in my case, MC) & pay w/ Visa at check-out. The folio gets slipped under the door before check-out & usually shows the card used at check-in - let's say for someone else's purposes, it's Amex. Unless the Amex is master bill, you pay w/ the Visa and on the expense report attach the folio showing Amex payment. You get reimbursed & pay off the Visa - and also get the points. I think that's the way it's worked w/ the FTers who are also constrained by corp Amex but don't want to give up the bonus promo.

If I'm wrong in my understanding, maybe someone on a corp Amex can trundle along & say how they get around it.

Cheers.

PhillyPhlyer40

At the risk of closing a loophole (and I havent done this in a while, because Visa wasnt required) here is how I did it...

Check in w/MR Visa. Add 1 bottle of water (or some other minimal cost item to the room). At check out-hand cashier the Corp AMEX, and tell them "put the room, tax, parking, etc on the this card and give me a new bill for it please". Then, ask that the room is "closed out" on the visa w/the water on it! Has worked in the past.

(I have a central bill system, and just "showing" a charge on the rcpt doesnt work)

VickiSoCal

Yeah, they are going to notice that the charge isn't on the corp AmEx card when they reconcile the card vs the expense reports.

travelingsalesgal

Woo hoo! Guess I'll be pulling out the old Visa for a couple months here...

SkiAdcock

Presumably on companies that there's a master bill, and Philly seems to have a work-around. I know other FTers have corp Amexs (one in particular comes to mind) & still qualifies for the promo. Don't know if they/he is using Philly's work-around or have a dif one.

Back when I was in the corporate world, while the Amex card was a corporate card, the monthly bill actually went to us to pay which we did after getting reimbursed on expense report, so switching cards was pretty easy using the method I described.

Ironically enough, when they finally switched it to corp direct bill (after someone got fired for something else & it came out he was also buying clothing/furniture on the card when the final bill was sent to corp), corp didn't pay the Amex on time - and there were a few times I & others had to switch to personal card because the corp card was declined due to non-payment And this was a F50 company! Evidently we were better about paying the Amex bill personally than the corp was LOL...

Cheers.

Cheers.

VickiSoCal

My husband's company uses ADP's online expense reporting tool which links up with the Carlson Wagonlit travel site. It is prety slick from the company's point of view- although somewhat restrictive from the employee point of view. You book your air, hotel and car thru the travel tool (and the company can put restrictions on maximum flight/hotel price or maximum over the cheapest hotel/flight, etc) Then when the trip is over you click a button and an expense report is created that copies over the expected hotel, air and car rental charges as booked, it checks for matching AmEx charges (you can manually match if the matching system doesn't find them for some reason) tallies up your per diem and voila your expense report is created. Hit submit and it goes to your boss, who aproves and then ADP puts the amount due you on your next check. Any unmatched AmEx charges sit in a queue for you (and presumably accounting) to see everytime you login. Any expense report charges other than per diem, etc. not linked to your AmEx card need to be explained, and you'd better have a good reason.

cfischer

finally. This took a LONG time. With the current decent Hilton promo I have only a few Marriott stays planned so far ... hopefully Aug. 19 won't be a disappointment.

SkiAdcock

Got it. So for folk using that type of corp acctg/expense system, they're SOL on the promo. But not all corps use one like that, so others can qualify using the work-arounds.

As with all promos on all chains, some people will be able to take advantage of them. Some won't. <shrug> It is what it is.

Cheers.

MSPDeltaDude

I really hope its based on "nights" rather then "stays" This Delta promo has me moving every night on a 5 day trip to get the most out of it.... I'm guessing it will be based on "stays".....wasn't the Visa Promo last year????