Best use of points?
Jan 24, 2011 | 7:35 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: State College, PA
Programs: US Airways CP, UA 1K, DL Plat, Marriott Gold, SPG Plat
Posts: 286
Best use of points?
I have built up around 200,000 marriott reward points and I would like to know the best way to use them. I am US DM chairman and I know a rule of thumb is to use your DM miles for FC long haul flights to get the best value. Are there guidelines like that for Marriott points?
Jan 24, 2011 | 11:04 am
#2
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Tampa, FL
Programs: AAMM & PLT; UA Gold, DL Silver, Marriott LT Titanium Elite, Hilton Diamond, Hertz #1 Gold Club
Posts: 1,592
I have built up around 200,000 marriott reward points and I would like to know the best way to use them. I am US DM chairman and I know a rule of thumb is to use your DM miles for FC long haul flights to get the best value. Are there guidelines like that for Marriott points?
Jan 24, 2011 | 3:12 pm
#3
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: SNA
Programs: Bonvoy LTTE/AMB, AmEx Plat, National EE, WN A-List Preferred, CLEAR+, Covid-19, NK Gold
Posts: 5,272
Hey, last time I used my points I used my MR points for the hotel, but my AmEx points for the tickets, 'cause I'd wanted to fly in F and I'd thought I'd read here something along the lines of F wasn't available or the tickets didn't book into upgradeable classes.
Can you fly F on an MR travel package? I'll be sitting on ~800K pts by the summer and wouldn't mind another trip (and save my $1/pt AmEx pts).
Can you fly F on an MR travel package? I'll be sitting on ~800K pts by the summer and wouldn't mind another trip (and save my $1/pt AmEx pts).
Jan 24, 2011 | 6:20 pm
#4
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Tampa, FL
Programs: AAMM & PLT; UA Gold, DL Silver, Marriott LT Titanium Elite, Hilton Diamond, Hertz #1 Gold Club
Posts: 1,592
Hey, last time I used my points I used my MR points for the hotel, but my AmEx points for the tickets, 'cause I'd wanted to fly in F and I'd thought I'd read here something along the lines of F wasn't available or the tickets didn't book into upgradeable classes.
Can you fly F on an MR travel package? I'll be sitting on ~800K pts by the summer and wouldn't mind another trip (and save my $1/pt AmEx pts).
Can you fly F on an MR travel package? I'll be sitting on ~800K pts by the summer and wouldn't mind another trip (and save my $1/pt AmEx pts).
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...edemption.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...est-hotel.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...-use-them.html
http://www.marriott.com/rewards/usepoints/morepack.mi
Last edited by jamflyer; Jan 24, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Jan 25, 2011 | 1:31 am
#5
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: United 1K, Marriott Platinum, SPG Platinum
Posts: 2,002
Honestly, you can always just grab a few gift cheques packages. If you travel a lot for work, you can just pay with them, get reimbursed like normal, and then take home the profit on it. Here's a link to a post I did about them.
Jan 25, 2011 | 12:05 pm
#6
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: New Orleans
Programs: Marriott Lifetime Platinum; UAL Silver
Posts: 296
Honestly, you can always just grab a few gift cheques packages. If you travel a lot for work, you can just pay with them, get reimbursed like normal, and then take home the profit on it. Here's a link to a post I did about them.
Jan 25, 2011 | 1:19 pm
#7
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 216
Honestly, you can always just grab a few gift cheques packages. If you travel a lot for work, you can just pay with them, get reimbursed like normal, and then take home the profit on it. Here's a link to a post I did about them.
Whether this makes sense in any given case would seem to vary depending upon the room rate you get compared to the number of points you would have to use for it. And if you paid with a Marriott Visa card you would get more points, which doesn't apply to gift cheques (I assume, you didn't mention them). In any event, 135,000 points for $1000 is 0.74 cents per point. I'd be curious if anyone has calculated an effective rate for other uses of points. For example, a number of people have mentioned the travel packages as the best value and I wonder if there are examples to support that.
Last edited by kar120c; Jan 25, 2011 at 1:35 pm Reason: OOPS! Bad math. Thanks, aacharya.
Jan 25, 2011 | 1:34 pm
#8
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Jersey Shore/YYZ
Programs: UA 1K, Marriott Plat, Hilton Diamond, Hertz PC
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Very interesting post. Are the gift cheques still available? I don't see them on the Marriott site.
Whether this makes sense in any given case would seem to vary depending upon the room rate you get compared to the number of points you would have to use for it. And if you paid with a Marriott Visa card you would get more points, which doesn't apply to gift cheques (I assume, you didn't mention them). In any event, 135,000 points for $1000 is 74 cents per point. I'd be curious if anyone has calculated an effective rate for other uses of points. For example, a number of people have mentioned the travel packages as the best value and I wonder if there are examples to support that.
Whether this makes sense in any given case would seem to vary depending upon the room rate you get compared to the number of points you would have to use for it. And if you paid with a Marriott Visa card you would get more points, which doesn't apply to gift cheques (I assume, you didn't mention them). In any event, 135,000 points for $1000 is 74 cents per point. I'd be curious if anyone has calculated an effective rate for other uses of points. For example, a number of people have mentioned the travel packages as the best value and I wonder if there are examples to support that.
Jan 25, 2011 | 3:19 pm
#9
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: BHM
Programs: DL GM, Marriott Plat, Hilton Gld, SPG Gld, Hyatt, PC, CBP Global Entry
Posts: 147
Very interesting post. Are the gift cheques still available? I don't see them on the Marriott site.
Whether this makes sense in any given case would seem to vary depending upon the room rate you get compared to the number of points you would have to use for it. And if you paid with a Marriott Visa card you would get more points, which doesn't apply to gift cheques (I assume, you didn't mention them). In any event, 135,000 points for $1000 is 0.74 cents per point. I'd be curious if anyone has calculated an effective rate for other uses of points. For example, a number of people have mentioned the travel packages as the best value and I wonder if there are examples to support that.
Whether this makes sense in any given case would seem to vary depending upon the room rate you get compared to the number of points you would have to use for it. And if you paid with a Marriott Visa card you would get more points, which doesn't apply to gift cheques (I assume, you didn't mention them). In any event, 135,000 points for $1000 is 0.74 cents per point. I'd be curious if anyone has calculated an effective rate for other uses of points. For example, a number of people have mentioned the travel packages as the best value and I wonder if there are examples to support that.
https://www.marriott.com/rewards/mor...points=135,000. The site still showing "The choice is yours through December 31, 2010". But I think it is valid thru at least 12/2011. There was a thread where Marriott CS confirmed that.
Jan 25, 2011 | 3:21 pm
#10
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: United 1K, Marriott Platinum, SPG Platinum
Posts: 2,002
As seen in my post, it really depends on the rates currently available at the resort and other factors, as to whether or not it's worth it. For me, i needed the elite nights, it put me over the top on the 20 nights megabonus, etc. So it made sense for me. But every situation is different! it's just not a bad option in many cases.
Jan 25, 2011 | 10:06 pm
#11
Moderator, Marriott Bonvoy & FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: McKinney, TX, USA
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Jan 25, 2011 | 10:22 pm
#12
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: BHM
Programs: DL GM, Marriott Plat, Hilton Gld, SPG Gld, Hyatt, PC, CBP Global Entry
Posts: 147
Marriott Cheques are in one of the section of the Platinum Rewards (Home > Marriott Rewards > Use Marriott Rewards Points > Platinum Rewards). The link for that page is https://www.marriott.com/rewards/use...tId=elite.plat
Jan 26, 2011 | 4:23 am
#13
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Tampa, FL
Programs: AAMM & PLT; UA Gold, DL Silver, Marriott LT Titanium Elite, Hilton Diamond, Hertz #1 Gold Club
Posts: 1,592
Its available to all Elite members - not just Plat.
Jan 27, 2011 | 11:48 pm
#14
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: BZN
Programs: AA:LT Platinum DL:LT Gold UA:1P MAR:LT Titanium
Posts: 8,292
If you aren't in a rush, I strongly suggest waiting to see if a matching promotion springs up through one of the airlines again. In the past, US and DL have both had various promotions where they will typically post a 50% to 100% bonus on transferred miles. Therefore, instead of getting the 120K miles that will come with these Travel Packages, you might get 180K or even 240K miles instead. No guarantee they will spring up again, but I'd put my money on it that they will sometime before the year ends.
Jan 30, 2011 | 8:34 am
#15
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Minneapolis
Programs: Delta Plat Kool-Aid Drinker, Hyatt Diamond, SPG GM, Marriott GM, Hilton GM, and Priority Club GM
Posts: 1,184
Travel Packages are indeed the best way to leverage your points' value. Category 5 hotels in particular, though they may not suite your desires.
If you aren't in a rush, I strongly suggest waiting to see if a matching promotion springs up through one of the airlines again. In the past, US and DL have both had various promotions where they will typically post a 50% to 100% bonus on transferred miles. Therefore, instead of getting the 120K miles that will come with these Travel Packages, you might get 180K or even 240K miles instead. No guarantee they will spring up again, but I'd put my money on it that they will sometime before the year ends.
If you aren't in a rush, I strongly suggest waiting to see if a matching promotion springs up through one of the airlines again. In the past, US and DL have both had various promotions where they will typically post a 50% to 100% bonus on transferred miles. Therefore, instead of getting the 120K miles that will come with these Travel Packages, you might get 180K or even 240K miles instead. No guarantee they will spring up again, but I'd put my money on it that they will sometime before the year ends.
That's what I'm holding out for
