judolphin

I went through the exact same thought process. Trust me, go with the Delta promo.

You can book partner AS awards from the lower 48 to ANC for 25,000 miles easily for example... also, AF awards can be had for 60k. If you and a friend/spouse want to go to Alaska, bingo, you can't get those tickets for much less than $750 a pop... $1500, + an extra 10,000 miles. Or if you're flexible enough, get an Air France ticket for that retails for $1000-$1500.

Let's say you spend 13 nights in 13 stays for the Delta promo (any FTer worth his salt would do no less) at $100 apiece at FS Marriotts as a Plat (for ease of calculation). You come out WAY ahead with DL vs. MR points.

For comparison... let's see how you come out with each promo if you optimize them:

With Delta SkyMiles promo: 62,600 SkyMiles + 20,000 points
With Marriott points promo: 80,000 points

Delta Promo Math

FOR FIRST 13 STAYS (1 NIGHT PER STAY)

$1300 * 2 SM/$ + 60,000 bonus SM

THEN SWITCH EARNINGS BACK TO POINTS FOR REMAINING 12 NIGHTS

$1200 * 15 pts/$ + arrival gifts = Roughly 20,000 points


MR Points Promo Math

$100/night * 25 nights * 15 MRP/$ + 500 Plat points/stay * 15 stays + 40,000 bonus points

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, which seems better to you? 80,000 MR points, or 62,600 Delta Skymiles plus 20,000 MR points?

I came to the conclusion that the answer was obvious.

However: my actual reaction was to book a few stays with Hyatt for my wife and I to both max out their 5,000 AA miles/stay promo (since AA miles are worth much more than DL miles), and then stay at Marriotts for the rest.

This is a fun game :P

boomdog

Yeah, but are we SURE that if we switch to miles and the Delta promo, that we will be able to switch back for the rest of the MR promo? Concierge?

I agree that 62,500 skypesos > 60,000 MR points, but I'd say that 80,000 MR points > 62,500 skypesos...

bd

jredknapp11

I posted in the DL 60K thread here that yes you can flip between both. I registered for the MR bonus, then flipped my account to SkyMiles and registered for this deal. Since the Marriott pts deal doesn't kick in till 6/1, you may as well take on the skymiles which already kicked in on 5/1. I've already done 2 mattress run to the tune of 90 bucks for two nights and 5k in pts.

defiance96

Putting aside CarolDisney1's whining and trashing of those trying to have an intelligent and relevant exchange on the correct board: As long as there are apologists like CarolDisney1 out there, why would Marriott be worred? Personally, I think it is too tenuous to think Marriott would feel any loss of goodwill because Delta's program is broken for many (but clearly not all) trying to use it.

TrojanHorse

there is trashing for a reason; I for one am quite upset at the removing AA redemption and then throwing out crappy skypesos to try and fool us into believing they are doing something better than they had with AA

its a lousy exchange as its commonly believed that 1 AA is worth more than 1 skypeso. so this is one big bend forward enhancement and bashing skymiles AND MR is justified in this instance

judolphin

Strongly disagree... and I'm someone trying to dump SM. Moot anyway because you can switch earnings pref at any time.

boomdog

When I value 80,000 MR points higher, I am assuming a travel package redemption, which is what I would do - not sure if that changes your judgement.

I'm considering switching to SM for the rest of May.

CarolDisney1

I rest my case....

You guys made it for me.


Really, you have an entire board and now you need NEW places to trash the airline???

It's really kind of funny. Voting with your wallet is most effective IMHO. If you don't like Delta, fly someone else. If you don't like the Marriott programs choice of rewards, sleep someplace else.

(And please don't bother to send me PMs calling me nasty names. After being called all kinds of LOVELY names in PMs because I happened to post that I was actually able to book a low mileage Business Award to London... I don't read my PMs now. I fail to understand why the 'anti Delta' crowd thinks threats are required to prove they are right

judolphin

The fact you were able to book J to London is wonderful, as long as you're not dismissive of others' difficulties in using SkyMiles. I daresay most of the pro-Delta folks on that board are dismissive of difficulties most posters are experiencing, and some of the frustrated people make knee-jerk reactions. It doesn't justify people calling you names regardless.

texdoc

Thanks for the math lesson Judolphin. Makes sense the way you played it out.

H3A3H3

Each and every time that we have attempted to redeem Delta WorthlessMiles at 11 months prior to departure, during non-holiday periods, and on routes that are served by numerous DL mainline flights in a day, we have been met by DL's demand for some ludicrous number of Delta WothlessMiles.

Clearly, Delta has deployed their most skilled customer DISsatisfaction employees to two venues, their marketing department and their yield/revenue management department.

I join others in deeming the Delta WorthlessMiles program worthless.

My opinion is that Marriott is out of their mind for ending their relationship with American Airlines. I don’t believe for one minute that AA brought that relationship to an end.

judolphin

I understand what you're saying, but IMO this is better than a travel package because you don't have to trade in points for a 7-day certificate... you get the miles without cashing in a ton of points for a terribly inflexible 7-night certifiate that expires in one year. More flexibility this way.

Glad to help!

indyscott

I've recently been burning SkyMiles for gift cards (5K SkyMiles = $50 retail/restaurant gift card).

Skipping the whole laundering through Delta part of this debate, if the promotion was "Get a $50 gift card for each stay" would it be attractive?

A $100 hotel stay nets me a $50 gift card? I'm all over it! This is the first in my 9 years of MR membership that I've switched my earning away from Marriott Points.

To stay on topic with the original question, it doesn't much matter to me the value of the points - when they give so many away, there is still value to be had. I'm as down on the value of SkyMiles for getting flights as anyone else, but they're doing ok at saving me cash out-of-pocket by getting items through the SkyMiles Marketplace.

I likely won't make the number of stays required to hit the Summer MegaBonus anyway, so Marriott has won back some summer business from me where I would have otherwise stayed away and worked on Hyatt and other chain's sumer promos.

Can't say I'll miss the tie-up with AA too much; my travel packages have always been exchanged for Southwest RR credits. 5 free flights and 80% of a Companion Pass is the best option for me since Southwest is the best way to get non-stop from IND to LAS. So which am I, a "Kettle" or a "cattle"?

TrojanHorse

bold my emphasis

and I do; I haven't had a paid DL flight for roughly 8 years +/- a year

I collect DL only via the Avis 5K promos as I have to use avis for work

however my point here is that DL is one of the lousiest airline options that MR could give us and for MR to push it as a viable alternative to the removal of AA from the tvl package deals is just absolutely positively ludicrous