Is Marriott the worst points program or is it me?
 

Last year I transferred 35k chase points to MR so that we could spend a night at Atlantis, but that trip didn't happen. Now I have been trying to use the Marriott points before they expire but they are worthless. I just looked up a Marriott in Pompano beach. It is $153 per night but it cost 35k points. How is that even possible that is less then 1/2 cent per point. Where as if they were chase points I could get 3 times that. Man this just really irks me, and I wanted to know if others feel the same.

Marriott points are more valuable than that but I would have never transferred points from Chase to Marriott. Best to transfer them to airlines as miles are much more valuable.

You transferred Chase UR points to Marriott at 1:1?

Marriott points are worth somewhere around .7 cents each. Chase points are worth over 2 cents each.

Too low and too high.

Agreed.

Best use of Marriott points is generally a Travel Package. Especially to WN for a 2-year Companion Pass.

Yeah Marriott is pretty useless except for the travel package. It's going to be a sad day when they take over SPG. I hope this merger causes them to fail like AOL Time Warner.

It's worse than SPG, but not as bad as Hilton, IME.

I can easily find one very poor value for points in any program - ski resorts in the summer, Jersey shore in winter, etc. One data point hardly condemns an entire program.

Not totally useless. I recently used 45k Marriott points on a Cat 9 resort in Vegas ($370 cash price), 40k HHonors was going to get me into a $145 Embassy suite.....

It's a bit silly to say that the entire Marriott program is a horrible program because you're looking at a single property at a particular time . There are a variety of 35K properties that are lovely/high-end you could stay at instead. The fact that you have a problem w/ a single property does not make a program worthless worldwide.

Also the property that is $153 today may be significantly more at a different time.

Cheers.

Posting the (also not usual) counter-example here: Checked in for a five-night stay at a Cat. 9 property yesterday that is running at about $2800 for the five nights I am here (and in fact is sold out completely for some of the nights) - which means that my 180K points have a value of about 1.5 points for each of them...

While not a valid comparison the nearby Sheraton (not nearly as nice and well-located) is running at about $1600 for the same five nights and charges 40K points for these night, so comes to about 4ct per point - also a good value, yet lesser than the Marriott given the different earning-ratio Marriott vs. SPG is about 3,75 to 1, so that comes to approx. a 1.06 ct. per point ratio in Marriott points...

Greetings - Dirk

The same property in early February is $309 per night, so 1.27 cpp all in.

Prices vary with season, demand, etc., etc. Point redemptions don't. Bottom line - pay cash when point redemption values are poor, use points when values are good.

Also, "cents per point" isn't a direct comparison - SPG points will always have a higher "value" than MR points, but that's because you earn them much more slowly. If you do an in-depth analysis of free nights earned per dollar spent/night paid for, MR is actually a bit better (but subject to availability restrictions). Again, HH is worse than both.

This is what I found also, but I live in Quebec so SPG is a good deal here and Marriott hotels are overpriced points wise.

Also it depends how you are earning those points. I have 180k points through sign-on bonuses this past year. 80k for personal and 100k for business. Point value isn't so important when they are FREE!

Understand that while some loyalty programs offer points that can be redeemed at a fixed dollar value, Marriott Rewards is not like that. The effective value you receive with MR points depends on the cash rate of the hotel at the time you book relative to the points rate. A property's points rate is basically flat across the whole year while its cash rate can vary enormously with demand by season, midweek vs. weekend, special events, etc. So there will be cases where a 35k point hotel is a bad deal on points in the low season when you can pay $153 for the room while the same hotel is a great deal on points in the high season when rates are $300+. Savvy MR members hold their points for opportunities when cash rates soar. If you rarely stay at MR hotels and your points are about to expire you may not have the luxury of choice.

It depends on how your points are earned. If you earn them from everyday $ spent on hotel brand credit card, $1 = 1 Marriott point = 3 HH points.

I could pretty much always get better value for the HH points earned thru credit card spent. But I think I get better room upgrade as a Marriott plat than as a HH Diamond.

To pile on here. In my opinion, MR is not the worst points program; I personally would nominate HIlton for that title, but as noted there at many variables that impact that. I regularly get very acceptable value from my MR points. So, to answer your question, it must be you.

There are other programs that may be even worse, but the point is, if you travel this rarely (in terms of when you need to stay on points), and you think that one program should work for all destinations equally, then I think perhaps it's your approach that is the problem.

I find places where Marriott works well and places where Marriott works poorly. But then I do mulitple trips a year, and mostly not to typical "aspirational" destinations.

I did do a trip that was 'aspirational" for me (dunno if for anyone else) last month, and used 35k points for a nice SpringHill Suites in Anchorage Alaska (with free parking, which the FS properties wouldn't have had), and on cash the rooms were in the $250-$300/night range in July. So I didn't consider that that bad a value. (Across town, Hilton was charging 60000 points as a minimum, even though the cash rates were no worse. So doesn't that make Hilton worse in that particular comparison?)

I consider Anchorage "aspirational" because I got way more "wow" from side trips -- like watching bears fishing for salmon at Brooks Falls, and kayaking across an iceberg-filled lake and then hiking on Spencer Glacier, and taking a tour boat across another iceberg-filled lake to the face of Portage Glacier -- than I could ever get out any boring-for-me beach lounging. Anchorage was simply the logical base for all these side trips, but the season for doing this kind of stuff around Anchorage is so short that hotels skyrocket in cash prices during that time, and thus the (cash) pricing is kinda "aspirational" too (though it's not much worse than midtown Manhattan NYC most any time).

I am always surprised when people say that Hilton is the worst program. I have moved to Marriott, but I still think that Hilton offered a much better value. While Hilton properties cost much more on a per point basis (not quite double Marriott ) you earn Hilton points MUCH faster. If you take points all the time you get 15 points per dollar at most properties. With the recent promotions make that 25. Marriott gives you 10 per dollar and the promotions stink.... A total of 10,000 for 5 stays. With Hilton credit cards you get 3 points per dollar spent with generous bonus categories offering 5 or 6 per dollar. With Marriott you get 1 per dollar and 2 in much more limited bonus categories. Not to mention Marriott's ridiculous 50 night requirement for a mid tier status. A status that Hilton basically gives away.

.7 cents??...........wow, I want into your world! :) LOL

SPG is the best program out there when it comes to hotels. By a long shot!

Way too broad a statement.

You want to know the best redemption I have seen lately?

Red Roof Inn, downtown Chicago, Saturday of Lollapalooza recently. $299 plus tax for cash vs. 6000 points.

The W was about $500. Most everything else sold out.

Well, it depends in part how much you pay for your paid stays. As you noted, Hilton's promos are almost always per dollar. So they earn less for those staying in cheap suburban hotels.

By contrast, Marriott has lots of promos which give the same amount of bonus no matter what your room rate is. So if you get low rates (either because the hotels are inexpensive normally or because you do successful Look No Further best rate guarantees which lower the third party rate by 25%), Marriott promos may be better, while if you are staying at more expensive properties, Hilton promos may be better.

Meanwhile, on Hilton basically giving away its status: Yeah, that's another reason I stay at Marriott more. I have no need to stay at Hilton to have with Hilton. Meanwhile, I'm just a few years away (if my current stay and Marriott bonus patterns continue) from getting meaningful lifetime Marriott status. While it would be unrealistic for me to get to Hilton lifetime Diamond (and they haven't announced lifetime Gold), as you said, they practically give the status away, so who cares? I keep waiting for the year I'll have to get a HH Surpass or HHReserve card, but first I get two years of HH Gold from the (long gone) Milepoint Premium offer, and now this year I got two years of HH Diamond from their way-too-easy status match (from my Marriott Platinum :D).

...or you just buy a modest amount of points to reset the 2 year timer. Last time I checked, the cheapest amount of points you could buy was $12.

You don't even need to spend $12. Just purchase a song on iTunes through the Marriott Rewards Shopping Portal.

I used 270,000 MRpoints to transfer to United and got 132,000 miles. Booked a one way first class ticket on Lufthansa to from MIA-FRA-HKG in A380F then connected in Thai F to Bangkok and spent 7 nights at the new Marriott Sukuhumvit. Total package worth :
Plane ticket price: $6800
Hotel : 1050

$7900 for 270,000 points = 2.9 cents per point and you earn 3.75 to 1 over SPG as a platinum. Take that Starwood !!:)

I actually think Marriott has a great program and enjoy all platinum benefits

Silly question .... Where do I find these travel packages? Thanks!!!!!

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

Details are here. The miles transfer into your air account, but you still need to ensure the flights are available for award travel. You don't need to use them on the same trip. Once the air miles hit your account, you can use them however you wish.

Biggest drawback (for some people) is the need to stay 7 consecutive nights at the same property. Works great for my travel, though.

No program is perfect for all occasions. All programs have their strength weakness. Judging an entire program on the availability of one night redemption is a very shortsighted approach (as is transferring of UR to Marriott, usually).

With the current state of affairs, it is extremely easy to achieve a meaningful status in most big chains without actually staying there a lot of nights. IHG, Marriott, Hilton, SPG (heaven forbid, even Choice and Carlson) statuses can all be achieved via credit cards. (Hyatt is the only one out of the game, as Platinum status is both easy to achieve by staying and pretty much meaningless).

As an educated consumer, one should not follow blindly one program, but explore the program and use each one for its strengths.

Point wise, in the end, and on average, all the big ones are pretty much the same. When you take into consideration the ease of getting point and the points required for redemption, in toto (while not necessarily true for one particular redemption), they are all very similar.

If there was one program that was significantly better value from the other, people will flock to it, and very soon after they will not be so much better.

So does Hilton.

Not including promos, I easily get ~30 HH points per $ when staying at Hiltons. At an average value of 0.6c, that's a return of ~18%. It doesn't matter if the property is cheap or expensive. Its a rate of return on spend.

What sometimes seems to be lost in these discussions is that there are hotels attached to the programs. The best program is the one with hotels that work for you. The program gives you a (small) discount on your use of their hotels, which is good if the hotels work for you.

How can you achieve status with spg with a credit card? Or are you referring to paltry 2 stay/5 night credit you get each year with spg.

You can get Gold SPG by holding Amex Platinum, or spending $30K on Amex SPG card.

Ah thank you missed that benefit.

Marriott gives status away too. You just need a credit card to get Gold and spend $75 a year to get Plat. More than the $40K for Hilton Diamond, but not too bad.

I think you meant $75K, not $75 :D I'm assuming you're referring to the Ritz Carlton card.

Cheers.

haha yeah. :D

OP: Marriott worst program or is it me?

Yeah, it's you! Forming an opinion on an entire program based upon one offered redemption is downright silly!

All of these programs can return frighteningly bad values, and astonishingly good ones. This can even happen at the same hotel, literally during the same weekend. I kid you not! Last year I stayed a weekend at the Marriott Marquis NYC. The Saturday night was $550, the Sunday $190. I redeemed 45,000 points for the Saturday night returning a very creditable 1.2cpp. I paid cash for the Sunday, had I redeemed it would have cost the same 45,000 points returning a dismal 0.4cpp.

I've seen values as low as 0.1cpp and 10cpp bandied around here!

I find IHG generally requires slightly more points for like-for-like redemptions, but elite bonuses are higher. Hilton generally requires considerably more points
for like-for-like redemptions but with the extra 5 basis points and near permanent promos those points accrue faster than anyone else. SPG awards the least number of points per $ spent, but it's redemptions are about half the like-for-like Marriott costs.

Last year I did a monthlong road trip visiting Toronto, Montreal, Adirondacks, NYC, DC, Niagara and small-town Pennyslvania and Ontario. Comparing earn and burn for all the big 4 schemes produced a return of 24% at Marriott, 22% at IHG, 21% at SPG and 18% at Hilton, suggesting Marriott had the edge and Hilton fell last, but it's important to realise I ignored credit cards as we can't get the great credit cards in the UK that you can in the US, and hence I know nothing about what's on offer, but I think both SPGs and HHs performance may be very much improved by their cards...

In short... All will produce great redemption bargains and dreadful redemption howlers. But Marriott is not the worst.

When was the last time? :confused: The past year or two, Hilton seem to be doing an endless series of double points promos, which obviously give more bonus points the higher your room rate.

Even with that admission you've still got more facts wrong. The RC card only gives Gold one year:

https://creditcards.chase.com/credit...arlton-rewards
after that it needs substantial spend.

On top of that, it's got a quite high annual fee of $395.

By contrast, the Hilton Amex Surpass card gives you HH Gold for $75 a year, every year you hold it, and the Hilton Citi Reserve card gives you HH Gold for $95 a year, every year you hold it.

So I don't see how a $395 annual fee + $10000 spend requirement a year (after the first year) is "giving status away". :confused:

I am able to redeem Cat 2 and Cat 3 that normally are $150+ per night on a regular basis. I think it depends on where you look.