3x Delta Miles or platinum points?
 

Hi everyone,

I am struggling to find a concrete answer for this one... I am a platinum member at marriott, staying at marriott 4 days per week every week at a rate of $115 per night. I also fly delta, with gold status. What is better bang for my buck, doing the 3x delta miles promotion or sticking with marriott points given my platinum bonus.

With your answer, can you please / hopefully provide the math / logic. Thank you for your help!

Almost certainly the points; you should be able to register for and attain the 50K Megabonus. If you are really staying a lot you should be able to rack up enough points quite quickly for one of the vacation packages, which represent the best value.

http://www.marriott.com/rewards/usepoints/morepack.mi

what is the 50k megabonus!? I am registered for the MegaBonus 2012: Earn up to 3 free nights with MegaBonus® when you stay at any participating Marriott® hotel worldwide. With more brands in more locations, one rewarding experience leads to another.

promotion. What is the other one you are referencing?

The one I had was 50K for 25 nights...but I switched to the one you have, since IMO 3 free nights is of more value than 50K points, and comes quicker. But that's based on my use...

yeah, free nights better than point for megabonus. regardless, back to original question -->

What is better:
Points with platinum status
or 3x delta miles?

3x Delta Miles or platinum points?
 

Sorry for the diversion. Lets try this:

Since points or miles accrue per dollar, spend rate is irrelevant. Since you will likely use the same credit card either way, irrelevant as well.

So the question boils down to "which do you value more, 15 points or 6 miles?" (Assumes 10 point property and 50% bonus).

My rule of thumb is miles are a penny, points ate a half a penny.

So points. For me.

Points
 

I had same question and built some spreadsheets looking at my past two years.

The number of airline miles I got from points conversion was more than just miles.

With points I am earning 20x times rate. (10x + 5X bonus + 5x for CC)
Add on check in bonus + Top Tier Megabonus promotions and the points rack up.

Using for the Travel Package, I am booking 120K miles.
And a few years, Airlines had bonus for transfer so mile rate was even higher.

No Counting Megabonus or checkin - a spend of $13.5K = 120K miles.
Event at 3x that would require $40K spend.
Plus I have a 7 night stay.
(Actually it is cheaper for me, since I can book a 5 night for $235)

That also do not include doing things like buying the Platinum $1000 checks.

I will occasionally switch to points if there is a point mega bonus (Stay 2 nights get 6K miles) but otherwise, I find points with bonus is much better.

Marriott points by far. DL miles aren't called 'skypesos' for nothing.