Hello,

Does the MR program have a system where you can earn points for dines at participating restaurants. I know other FF programs such as US Airways and United have websites where you can register your credit card numbers at and when you make a purchase at a participating restaurant with one of the registered cards you earn points in the FF program. I haven't seen anything like this for Marriott?

I know of no points generating "idine" type of program to garner Marriott points. The closest I know of would be using the Marriott Premier Signature. Using it, you would earn 2 points per $ spent rather than the normal 1 point per $.

The only other way to earn points through Marriott dining is to just charge your meals from the Marriott-related restaurant to your room folio. The points would be included on your folio upon checkout.

This is actually an interesting question, since Starwood allows you to earn Starpoints when dining at a Starwood hotel (or just having drinks at the bar), without a hotel stay. I do this all the time at the W New York when having drinks in the lobby bar - they just punch in your SPG number and the points appear on your statement, even though I'm not staying at the hotel. This would be a nice perk for Marriott to consider offering as well.

I've often wondered why Marriott doesn't allow this. At minimum, I'd think the FS property restaurants would pick up a number of "local" business meals they wouldn't get otherwise.

In my own case, I don't have many local customers, so my benefit from this would be minimal. But it would still influence me and be a nice perk. While they're at it, they could also break down and give points for the breakfast buffets you have to pay for at CYs.

You can points at CYs for breakfast, kind of. Quite often they offer a breakfast rate that is about $10/night more than the base rate. If you can snag that rate, then you get your cake and eat it too.

If the option costs me an extra ten bucks, I'd be more inclined to just grab one of my high-nutrient/high-fiber bars out of my briefcase.

Much as I enjoy a sit down breakfast buffet, as often as not, I don't have the luxury of time in the first place. So its usually a "grab & go" of some sort.

Well, if, as you suggested in your earlier post, you paid for the buffet, then you would have paid the $10 as that is about what they charge for it.

BTW, if you get the breakfast rate on the room, you normally get 2 adult and 2 childrens buffets with the rate. So if your traveling with the family, $10/day breakfast for the whole family isn't too bad (and you get the points for it.) ^

Are you sure? I've typically only received points for the room rate only at CY. A CY I used to frequent had an attached TGIFridays which allowed you to bill dinner to the room. But after about a month of doing this I eventually realized I was only getting points for the hotel stay room rate only. After that I went to paying my restaurant tab with my MR Visa.

By the way, it was the restaurant where breakfast was served also in the morning, although I've never bought breakfast at a CY.

You get the points if the breakfast is included in the room rate because the entire rate is recognized as a room charge. I did charge outside restaurant food to my room at a Courtyard last August, and I did not get any incidental credit. However, I got 5 points for every dollar charged to the restaurant since it was all on my Marriott Premier card as a payment to the hotel.

At full-service hotels (Marriott, JW Marriott, and Renaissance), Marriott Rewards members can earn points for incidental charges (gift shop, coffee shop, restaurant) only if staying overnight in the hotel. It would be nice if you could just post your receipt for points and I personally don't see what's the difference between a meal when you're staying and a meal in your own town. Hotel gets the same amount of money.

At Courtyard, you get credit for room rate only. If breakfast is included in the room rate then yes, you would get credit for it. If you charge breakfast (or whatever else) to your room, you wouldn't get additional points.

More details about earning points at hotels

I understand the rules clearly. My points are simply these....

1.) If CY doesn't include a free breakfast option for MR members (or elite members as the case may be), then why not offer points if the customer elects to pay for the breakfast buffet? Is a hundred more points if a guy/gal buys a breakfast going to break them?

2.) It would be nice if FS properties dropped the "must be staying at the hotel" requirement to obtain points for MR members dining. Heck, I wouldn't object if they wanted to put a $10 or $20 floor in order to qualify.

Both of these would be a welcome addition to the MR program, and hopefully would also drive revenue for the hotels. In my instance....at minimum, it would create a new preferred venue for customer breakfasts,lunches, etc.

Essentially, it boils down to rewarding your best customers for every dollar (pound, euro, yen, etc.) spent.

Well, in a way, yes. Obtain a MR Visa Card and dine in any restaurant and earn MR points. In fact, I have my MR Visa linked to one of my IDINE accounts so I generate MR points and the FF miles to which that card is presently attached.