Points or Miles
 

What is the preference of Marriott members?

If I choose miles, do I still qualify for gold/black/plat status? Do I also get elite bonus for miles like I do for points (e.g. 20%)?

I prefer points. I have used them to get rooms at some pretty nice places that are normally very expensive.

At 10 to $1 plus the bonus, I have racked up tons. When you take miles, you get 3 to $1 - no bonus regardless of your status.

Your status is based on the number of nights you stay and have no basis on whether you select points or miles.

.. and currently with miles you would also miss the actual extra 100% bonus using VISA (till mid-2000).

I have to agree, pick POINTS.

I just took a couple extra days in London after a business trip, and by having the points, I got to stay in a wonderful hotel that would have otherwise cost me $400 a night.

The general rule I go by (rightly or wrongly) is you take the currency of the company you're directly dealing with -- because you end up getting more for it. If you go with miles in this instance, Marriott has to buy those miles, so you're not necessarily going to get as much bang for your buck as you would have by taking points that Marriott themselves make good on, presumably at a lower cost. Of course, if you're saving for a particular goal (like mileage to take the family or friends somewhere), then take the miles.

[Rereading that last paragraph, I'm not sure if that was clear, holler if it wasn't!]

Thank you for all your advice...

I have been getting points from Marriott but have never done any research into whether miles or points makes sense. Now, I have the answer... thanks!

BWI,
You make a good point that Marriott has to buy the miles from other airlines so it is probably not as good for us.

BWI Flyer's general rule makes perfect sense. My sole exception is for those chains I don't use often, where it's unlikely I'd accrue enough local currency for an award in less than 5 years (and/or don't think I'd really want the free stay there). In those cases,I take miles.

Forget these conga lines where you can look at ads for an hour and get 500 miles. Whoopie. If you have a weeklong stay at a property, and have some time to prepare, you can really juice it up. This should be illegal, it feels so good:

My weekly itinerary -
4 nights @ $225 Renaissance
$100 in restaurant/room service
$150 in hotel taxes

My cash awards -
Reserve room through Travelers Advantage ($900 * 5% rebate) = $45
Purchase $1100 in Marriott gift certificates at Volumebuy.com @ 25% discount on a 1% cash back Visa = $11
[Note: a 10% discount is available anytime, with special 25% off sales sometimes]
At checkout, use $1100 of certificates, pocket 25% discount ($1100 * 25%) = $275
Pay for $50 balance with 1% cash back Visa = $0.50

Total cash award for stay = $331.50

My point awards -
$1000 in room charges * 10 points/$ = 10,000 points
Gold member (for a little while longer @ 20% bonus) = 2,000 points
Pay balance of charges with Visa, get double points = 12,000 points

Total points for stay = 24,000 points

Repeat weekly until the gift certificate offer and double Visa offer expire. The 10% off Marriott gift certs are available anytime. This is even better than the Hyatt game I outlined a while back: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum60/HTML/000070.html

Tino, I'm not familiar with Traveler's Advantage. Is this an AOL site? I like the idea of getting some cash back for my travel reservations. Are there other places to pull that off? Thanks! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

The name is Travelers Advantage, run by Cendant. It's $60 a year, but you get a 5% cash rebate off any air/hotel/car travel you buy.

You get the rebate after you send in the receipt for completed travel. It's a pain, but if you are like me, you have to do yer receipts anyway. The phone number is 1-800-835-8747.

Also, within a week or so of signing up, you can set up a "Profile" with them that includes your credit card # and FF#s, then they give you an exclusive phone number. (trust me, it's significantly better than the sub-minimum wage grunts from Nashville you usually get).

The service is very spotty, but if you have a few minutes to make reservations, it can be very lucrative.

More details upon request.

Tino: thanks for the tip; sorry I didn't follow-up earlier!

Has anyone else had any experience with Travelers Advantage?