Is Silver Elite worth anything?
 

My reward points are mostly from my Vacation Club deposit option, 120,000 points every other year, and there is no way that I could ever hope to reach gold or platinum level. But I read here that the Visa Card provides enough points for silver status.

The benefits of silver seem very limited and I'm not sure are worth getting another credit card. For those of you who are vastly more experienced with the elite process than I am, can you tell me what value (if any) I might get from the silver level? Thanks. This board is really helpful.

If you're not doing many stays at Marriott properties, then no status is worth much. And the Marriott Visa card isn't much good except for use at Marriott.

If you are a Silver, and you do stay at a Marriott, you get a 20% bonus on your points. (Golds get 25%, and plats get 30%, so there's not a whole lot of difference).

For spending your points on awards, you have the same availability as everyone else, so no particular benefit there.

If you do get the Marriott card, you will get a cert good for a free night, so that's a nice little bennie.

The regular Marriott Visa provides silver status, a signup bonus and one free night certificate (category 1-4) with an annual fee of $30. The Marriott Premier Visa gives 15 nights elite credit each year (automatic silver and drops nights needed towards gold and platinum), a signup bonus and one free night certificate each year (category 1-4 at signup and category 1-5 upon anniversary of signup).

The Premier card is worth it simply for the free certificate each year, and you get credit towards lifetime elite status with the 15 nights. The Premier also gives more points on Marriott purchases, 5 versus 3 with the regular Visa.

You can check out Marriott's website at Membership Benefits to see what the stated benefits are for each level. You'll note that the Silver doesn't have a lot of "real" benefits. Since Marriott almost gives Silver level away, that seems reasonable. For you, if you aren't staying at Marriott's very much, then the few benefits Silver does have (reservation line, reservation guarantee, bonus points, late check-out, etc.) just won't be of big help to you.

With that said, the card does have a few benefits for you. One you will get around 20K bonus points, a free night coupon, etc for getting the card. There are three different versions of Marriott branded Visa cards. A search can get you the pros/cons of each card. Another benefit that the card can get you even if you don't have a lot of hotel stays during the year is I think that if you pay your annual Maintenance fee, if you use the Marriott card, it is treated as a Marriott purchase, so you will get extra points that way. Plus I do believe some purchase their MVCI ownership using the Marriott card, as much as possible, to get a whole lot of extra points as well.

20% bonus points make it worth it alone, IMHO.

But the question is if one doesn't travel and won't be staying at Marriott hotels, then what good is the 20% bonus? That bonus is not applied to the 120K that the OP will get from trading in their Owner's week for points.

I should have been more clear about my situation. We do stay at Marriotts during the year where we pay for our room and we also have used our points to stay and just have the expenses for meals/etc that go to the rewards system. But not enough to reach the gold level on our stays alone.

So an extra 20% on points isn't compelling to me. The certificate would be a plus. Is the separate reservation system better than general reservations? Thanks

Silver is better than nothing, but I wouldn't go out of my way to get it.

all in all i would not fight for this status unless you get it anyway

marriott rewards is very slow and stingy on promotions

radisson is amazing though

It depends how many nights you stay a year since the premier Visa gives you 15 nights plus if you stay 35 nights you ar enow gold. The premier Visa also gives you 5 points per dollar spent at Marriott on top of the 10 per dollar and the 20% bonus.

..... but then u have to stay at a radisson!!

In the for-what-it's-worth category, I'm a low-end Silver. I get 15 nights from my MR visa and while I generate a few rewards points by putting the rooms of some of my traveling companions on my card, I average maybe 10-12 nights a year, so I'm not even close to Gold. However, I have found two major benefits of being Silver:
1) As much as people around here grouse about the lack of service and respect for loyal customers, I have found the people on the elite reservation line to be considerably more friendly and helpful than those on the standard Marriott reservations line. It's the little things, but they add up to a better experience.
2) Usually when I'm checking into a Marriott I ask if there's any possibility of being upgraded to the CL. I wouldn't even think of trying this if I wasn't Silver. Surprisingly, even though my night count is low (and I'm sure they know that 15 of the nights they see are from the CC I'm paying with), I have almost always been given the free upgrade, or at least access the lounge. I know they the staff is under no obligation to do so, and I would never fight them if they said no, but I've found that they don't, so I get the benefits of the CL.

...I'm actually going to be staying 10 nights in about a 2 month span from March to May, and paying for 16 nights (one of those group trips), so I'm thinking about trying to get a challenge to see how the Gold folks live, but I know the odds are very, very slim of them granting that. If they don't, that's fine. I think Silver is pretty nice as it is.

Note: unless I'm mistaken, you will still only get the 10 nights credit for stays (although you will get the points for all 16 nights), so I don't think you will get much closer to Gold.

Cheers,

GenevaFlyer

Correct (at least that is what they've done before), but I'm not trying to actually earn Gold...I'd never make it. From reading on FT, though, it seems like if you happen to get the right person on the phone, you can get a "challenge" where they will upgrade you to the next level if you stay x nights in 90 days or some similar time frame (regardless of your total night count for the past 12 months). I know it's usually reserved for people coming from the higher ranks in other programs, so I'm not optimistic, but it can't hurt to ask...

I'm with those who say "it's nice to have the 20% bonus," particularly if you're going to be staying with Marriott throughout the year.