Kohoutek

Marriott TravelCard: $500 for just $400 (201 were offered)

SOLD OUT

Other cards are still available.

The $1,000 and $500 cards are SOLD OUT.

flsunshineflyer

Just bought one. Would have bought more but my address seemed to give them problems. It finally accepted it but didn't show up on the confirmation page. So, I didn't want to take a chance on more.

jtp1947

Quote:
Originally Posted by jtp1947
You are correct, the Gift Card cannot be used for a prepaid rate.
Not true, I just used, I explained in another thread how to use it.


Okay, per Marriott's T/C's, it cannot be used to secure a prepaid rate. However, it has been done evidently so YMMV.

Kohoutek

Check your email, just to be sure. Then, go for another swim.

stinger

Tried to buy some earlier this morning but not available for Canadian addresses.

Kohoutek

After the heavy hitters scooped up the $1,000 and the $500, there are still cards available. Very heavy interest in the $50 cards, at this moment in time.

mooper

The Honeymoon/Registry promo has a 10% bonus, not 10% discount, so it's actually $1,100 in credit for each $1,000 you spend, plus 20 MR points/$ and the extra 4 MR points/$ you noted. As long as you value your MR points at over a cent each, it's easily the better deal. If not, you could argue that the up-front 20% off is more appealing, but I suspect most people would be in our boat.

pinniped

I clicked on the $1k card the instant my screen refresh showed it available. (A few seconds after 10:00:00 on my clock.) They were already gone, perhaps because my connection was weak and each screen load was about 8-10 seconds. (A Palm Pre running the WebOS browser with a crappy Sprint signal. )

No worries though: I was able to get what I wanted in $500's and $250's. Most of my upcoming Marriott stays are going to be 1- and 2-nighters so carrying smaller cards is almost preferable in a way...

Kohoutek

Marriott TravelCard: $50 for just $40 (100 were offered)

SOLD OUT

The $250* (350 cards originally available) and $100* (400 originally available) are still up for grabs.

*No problem getting through, at this moment.

iahphx

I find it curious that the high-value cards went first. Do flyertalkers want to use them for the "pre-paid trick" (where I'm guessing you need sufficient funds on a single card to be able to book the rate). Otherwise, I would think the lower denomination cards -- which you could buy in multiples, if you wished -- would have gone first.

boomdog

The low value cards are a pain in the keester to carry around and to coax the front desk through implementing. Often you'll need two to settle one bill, which can lead to confusion and delay. I'd much rather carry around a 1 k$ giftcard to pay for an entire trip than juggle four 250$ cards.

bd

joshua362

FWIW, totally forgot the 10am thing but it appears you can buy these all day long (until runout) by using a different credit card each time. It even gives you an error message telling you just that.

pinniped

Probably a combination of ease-of-use on longer stays as boomdog points out and the uncertainty of whether any cards would remain available for long. Having never used this site before, I wasn't sure if it was like those holiday Amex offerings where all items sell out within the time it takes to click a few times. (Meaning you get 1 buy or 0 buys - never two.)

I also was uncertain whether the site would allow me to do a 2nd purchase at all. I wanted to get $1,000 bought first (two 500's in my case) and then I considered the ability to keep buying to be gravy.

hhoope01

From my perspective, having one GC with a larger balance is almost always more preferable than having multiple lower denomination GCs. I suspect it could be a nightmare trying to use a bunch of them for a single stay. Using one can be a challenge, much less adding more GCs to the complexity.

mooper

I viewed it as a one-shot deal whereby cards would be snapped up quickly and I'd want to maximize my participation in my first opportunity. Therefore, noticing that only a handful of the $1K cards were available but 200+ of the $500 cards were, I figured my odds were better with the $500s. Also, seeing that the quantity limits were 1 and 2 respectively, I figure it was the same anyway. For the lower denominations, the amounts available were even more generous, but the quantity limits resulted in lower total participation. If this deal is beneficial, why go in for just a couple hundred instead of a couple thousand (assuming you can spend the full amount in reasonably short order)? I snagged two $500s in one browser, then two more in another browser. Used different CCs for each order.