Any way to get 15K MR points quick and cheap?
 

Hi,

is there any way to get 15K points into my account quickly? Would like to redeem an award but am this amount of points short...

Must be available to non-US residents, so signing up for a credit card is not an option...

Greeting - Dirk

Is your need for award points for an award stay redemption, and if so is the award stay imminent? The reason I ask is if the stay is for months down the road, you can book an award stay without having the required points. You will need them at least 7 days prior to your stay. Then between now and then take a weekend road trip (or two) and stay at a Marriott property and earn the 15K points.

You can buy points on Marriott.com. $12.50 per 1000 points, so $187.50. http://www.marriott.com/rewards/usepoints/tranpurc.mi

Unfortunately getting a CC that offers sign-up bonus points is not an option for you since you are in Germany.

There are Marriott branded CCs for some areas outside of the US. I think there is one for Canada and one of residents of the UK. Have you checked to see if there are any for German residents? I don't know of one, but I have been surprised before.

Short of the CC route, a few options come to mind. One, is to purchase the points you need. This may not be the cheapest option, but it is one. Another, would be to get some quick nights at some Marriotts. Usually, the quickest and easiest way to get those Marriott points is to stay in their hotels. (Again, if you weren't planning on staying in any hotels in the next week or so, that might be an expensive proposition as well.)

Does your spouse have any points? Anyone else you know? The "official" rules state that one is supposed be able to combine points from a spouce's account for an award, but based on posts in this forum, it seems that quite often Marriott will let you combine points from anyone's account. This could be quick and cheap, so it may be your best option. Also, you can get points for online purchases. Check out Marriott's website for online partners and what points you can earn. If you have some "purchases" you can make in the next week or so, you should be able to get some points that way as well.

Another promo Marriott has right now is their "Refer a Friend" promo. I think that if someone joins Marriott Rewards based on your referral, you will get 1K points for each of their stays (upto 5K per referred person and 25K total). So if you have some friends that will be travelling soon, that could help as well.

Is the Diner's Club card a US based card only? If not and you have one or can get one, I think it is the only non-Marriott program that will still allow you to transfer points into Marriott Rewards points.

Good luck.

Another potential option is to purchase through SkyMall. You can earn 20 points for every dollar you spend through them here.

It's funny -- that's a great conversion rate, but somehow if I think about the two options:
1) Buying the points from Marriott for $190 bucks with nothing to show for it
2) Spending 750 dollars on SkyMall stuff

It makes buying the points from Marriott seem like a steal. Sure, you actually get something in return when you buy from SkyMall, but I just don't know what I'd do with a remote control de-ionizing digital nose hair trimmer that also cures arthritis in me and my pets. :)

The $750 stuff you got from Skymall probably has an actual street price of $350-400. Better off just buying the points...

I was going to say another option is suffering through a 90-minute timeshare presentation at MVCI. But there's two issues with that: (a) you're in Germany, probably not near an MVCI and (b) if you ever *are* near an MVCI, you can usually get a better value by taking cash-credit or other perks instead of Marriott points for your MVCI tour.

For example, in Orlando two weeks ago they offered me my choice of $200 credit on the spot or 15,000 points. I didn't accept either, but I would be more likely to take cash in hand over points when the value is somewhat even like it was in this case.

Buy the points. Marriott's not gouging you with that valuation, and you don't have to leave the house or worry if your points will post in time.

Well, it is an option, and the conversion rate isn't as horrible for some of the products. I would only do it if the product's price was less than 15 % higher than the price at a competing merchant.

Thanks for the suggestions...I currently only have one Marriott stay scheduled before the arrival, and given the rather low prevalence of Marriott's brands in Germany (at least within the limits of my company's travel policy) I doubt if I get another stay by the time I need the award. Buying makes no sense for me as well...the missing 15K points is +/- the going paid rate for the night.

So it seems I'm out of luck with this...

Greetings - Dirk