Marriott, IMHO, has been the least-inflationary program of the majors.

The type of hotel I now get for 330,000 points used to (typically) cost 270,000 points - but that 270k point world had lower earnings - slightly fewer points to Plats in general and 2 points per dollar fewer to credit card users. It also had a two-tier availability scheme that often made it tough to find 7 consecutive award nights.

At one point I did the math and came up with 8% net inflation for a Platinum member, assuming the property was hit with category creep one time. In exchange, redemption did get legitimately easier. For Golds, or for a property that jumped two categories, it's more like 15-20% inflation, but I'll still take the trade-off vs. the former, often infuriating redemption process.

I have *other* complaints about MR, but the inflation/redemption side isn't one. I still feel like I get solid value for the points.

Compare to HH, with its massive restructuring of program twice in 5 years PLUS a bunch of big category jumps. Compare to IHG which was so built around the bonuses that the act of taking them away completely changes the program. Compare to SPG which I like as a program, but each single category jump can result in almost double the points required.

Not so fast my friend... The card is invaluable for business in addition to the 5x Marriott stays for its 2x dining and travel and $3k/night for PLT qualification for sub-50 night butt-in-bed travelers.

But even for dining and travel, you're leaving a bunch of value on the table every single time you use it outside of Marriott.

Don't get me wrong: I like MR Plat, although I don't really miss it too much in my Gold years since there's so little difference between the two levels. It's just not worth enough to make me pay a great deal for it through the suboptimal use of credit cards.

$3000 spent on dining is 6,000 MR points plus one room-night. (And you can register the card in a dining program on top of that.)

Whether that's sufficient value varies.

Your argument is a complete fail. You can't debate without providing a factual basis for your assertion (which there isn't even one). Rewards CC point/mile accumulation is a complete YMMV situation based on business affiliations, home airports, personal preference, etc and most important: what you can redeem them for. I can redeem MR points for over 3c during holidays. You can't beat that with a Barclay's 2% card and bringing up Chase URs or Citi TYP is irrelevant as that is also based on redemption. You're talking to someone that he and his wife MS on non-marriott cards in the hundreds of thousands. Getting 1.5c on Travel and Food (based on TPG valuations) and the $3k/night is a good return.

*shrug* If we're going to count the points that way, then I can get 10 cents per SPG point. Maybe more...

Oh, and my airline miles are worth 10 cents each because I redeemed them for an international F ticket...