Need help using 60,000 Marriott Rewards points
 

I have 60,000 points that I don't know what to do with, I looked at the Merchandise Guide and nothing really stood out, I don't travel/stay in hotels anymore for work so what's my best avenue for using these points? $200 bucks in Home Depot gift cards doesn't sound that all great either.

Thanks in advance - Mike

I take donations! Getting expensive to travel with four kids.

I agree re exchanging for merchandise.

What about even a local getaway with a significant other, kids, grandkids, etc.?

There are three organizations listed on the MR website that take points.

Some FI locations only need 10k points per night. I would look into staying a weekend somewhere. Cat 6 hotels require 30k points per night.

Why are you in a hurry to burn them?

Regardless of the answer, I like the donation idea. Instead of giving the points away (complicated), contact a school team that travels (sports, debate, etc.) and offer to book a couple of rooms for them for a weekend trip.

Marriott Rewards points provide better value when used for hotel stays than for merchandise or gift cards.

If I'm reading your post right, you're no longer accruing points through business travel, but I assume you would still enjoy staying in a nice hotel on vacation.

60,000 points will get you five nights in a category 3 hotel (4 nights x 15,000 points + 5th night free). Category 3 won't get you very far in a major city or resort destination, but, elsewhere, you can find very nice properties that are category 3, including Marriott, Courtyard, and Springhill Suites.

Five nights in a $100 hotel is worth $500. Five nights in a $150 hotel is worth $750. Five nights in a $200 hotel is worth $1,000. Those are much better options than a $200 gift card somewhere.

I agree.

Do you have a Marriott branded CC? If not, then you might want to look into it. I think there is a current offer with 50K sign-up points plus a free night cert. And if your SO doesn't have a Marriott CC, then s/he could get 50K points as well (and a free night cert.) This could add another 100K points plus 2 free night certs to your current totals without any traveling on your part needed.

160K points could be used for a very nice hotel stay in most any Marriott hotel in the world.

I'm similarly situated. I actually haven't stayed in a Marriott in probably 10 years and thought my account had long since expired but just registered online (while setting up awardwallet I went through all my old cards) and found that I have 24k miles still sitting there. Technically Marriott could close my account at any time after 24 months of inactivity (though the last 8 years I've been clear) but I'd rather use these points now than kick myself for losing them later.

I'm trying to plan a trip for me and the girlfriend but seems like Category 1 hotels are basically no way unless it's in the middle of nowhere, right? Are there other ways to use these points? Any reasonable conversions to other programs (the FF airline mile conversions I saw were ridiculously low). Any other ideas for using these in a travel-related way? Thanks much!!

20k points can get you a room in a nice hotel, you don't need to find Category 1.
If you make them 25k (with on-line shopping, for example), even better.
Best way is to use them for hotel rooms, everything else is poor value.
Or you can transfer them to somebody :)

If you are participating in the US airways grand slam promo then you can transfer some to miles and get a hit.

Transferring them is a pain the behind. I did it once and it was too cumbersome. You have to have a document that states who they're going to, they have to have a reservation on file, it has to be signed by both parties, faxed, then it will be reviewed and finally approved. Also, it can only be done if the transferer is PLAT I believe.

60k = 5 nights at Renaissance Shanghai Pudong.

(I'm currently booked with a 10-night Cat 2 award at the Courtyard Pudong because we have a conference there...1.7 cents per point in value...but I'm tempted to move over to the Renaissance and spend the extra 4k/nt... :))

I mean, just to point out that Cat 3's don't have to be wretched airport Scarefield Inns. :)

I don't know what not travling for work has to do with using points at all. I've never used points for work travel, and I bet a lot of other people never have too. Points are usually used for personal trips, and you haven't said that you are unable or uninterested in ever doing any personal travel again.

And if you do personal travel, someday you'll find yourself going someplace where the even Fairfield Inns are expensive on dollars but are not booked up and so can be gotten on a low number of points. It's for occasions like that that I never want to get rid of my points, but hold on to them for when I can get a better value (than right away).

So I don't understand the need to burn. Perhaps (if this is your actual concern) you should instead be asking how you can keep them alive a long time without work travel...

Meanwhile, the only way to get good value from hotel points is to use them for hotel stays (at times and in locations where the hotel is low-priced on points but high-priced on real money). Second best may be to transfer to an airline where you'll get good value from them. All redemptions for non-hotels non-airlines involve Marriott paying for merchandise, and so all will at the same lousy rate.

Only catch with airlines is that to get any kind of reasonable rate of return you need to get up into the 250,000 point range (the Cat 5 Travel Package). It's difficult to get that high without a lot of hotel activity. The MR Visa is very weak outside the hotels and there aren't a lot of good transfer-in opportunities for Marriott points.

At 60k, look for a Cat 3 five-nighter. Maybe pick up the Marriott CC with a good signup bonus and you'll go over 100k and open up Cat 5. Got any Asian cities you've always been interested in? Lots of good midcategory (but full-service) Marriott hotels in Asia... Middle East might be another area - we did a 5-nighter at the Marriott in Cairo and thought it was a very good hotel and good value for the points considering what the paid rates at all of the big Western hotels in Cairo were for our dates.

Platinum level is not required to transfer points. The process is rather cumbersome; it could be much simplified given the internet & computerized systems available nowadays.


From the Marriott website: http://www.marriott.com/rewards/usep...rc.mi#transfer