Is Marriott the redheaded step-child of Points & Status seekers?

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Trevor

Guest
“Hi, I’m Trevor, and I am a Marriott Platinum member of 5+ years.” I say that tongue in cheek, but really, if you look at the blogosphere, I think you would be hard pressed to see much love for Marriott, except for the 70k miles after $2,000 spend in three months (and not nearly as much as you see Hilton mentioned).

More out of sheer curiosity, I tweeted to some of the titans of BoardingArea, Lucky and Gary.


Why is it that @MarriottIntl seems to be a red headed stepchild for points bloggers? @Saverocity @OneMileataTime @garyleff ?

— Trevor (@tmount) August 18, 2014

Lucky responded:


@tmount Like most hotel cards it’s worth keeping for anniversary benefits. But return on everyday spend is weak.

— Ben Schlappig (@OneMileataTime) August 18, 2014

Gary was slightly more verbose, so I’ll just type it: “Big hotel chains don’t need to be rewarding, smaller chains must be more rewarding.” He further noted: “extremely weak elite benefits, few special properties, poor credit card earn.” (emphasis mine)

About the Marriott Rewards Premier Credit Card.

Right now the offer is 70,000 Marriott Rewards (MR) points after $2k spend. We’ll get to what that actually gets you in a moment. But lets talk about the credit card earn that Lucky and Gary mention: Anniversary benefits – Category 5-night, and 15 Elite Qualifying Nights (EQNs), that’s why I keep it. You also earn 5 points per dollar at a Marriott, 2 points on travel (airfares from airlines, rentals, and restaurants). On the face of it, that’s really not bad of an earn rate–in a vacuum. The real problem is Marriott’s award chart.

About Marriott

First lets look at the redemption chart.


Marriott Rewards Points for a free night


You’re looking at 7,500 to 45,000 points a night at a Marriott property. But wait, there’s more! You can also stay at Ritz-Carlton Hotels.


Ritz-Carlton Hotel Redemption Rates with Marriott Rewards Points.


So now we’ve gone from being able to get 9 nights with that 70,000 sign-up bonus, to potentially a single night. It’s pretty rough, but, I’m not sure it’s the roughest, but I’d have to refer to the monumental work that Scott at HackMyTrip has done.

Now lets talk elite status

Many highlight the super high requirement to maintain top tier status – a whopping 75 nights!


Marriott Rewards Elite Status Levels and Perks


Yes, you read that right, 75 nights in a Marriott to get top tier status. I’ve had top tier status since 2009, so I am going on 5 years. It is quite the commitment, but I can’t say that I have been disappointed. Last year I didn’t make the nights, but participated in a StarMegaDO, where ironically I met my blogging partner, @JoeCortez, as well as the VP for Marriott Rewards, who did a lot of listening that week.

Where Marriott has potential

Marriott’s Hotel + Air Package is pretty cool. If you’re the type that spends 7 nights in one place (you might’ve guessed, that isn’t me), you can “convert” a portion of MR points to airline miles, and not just a few. 37 Airlines!


Marriott’s Hotel + Air Packages, book 7 award nights at a Marriott and get 50,000-132,000 miles!


Marriott’s “RewardsPlus” partnership with United gets you 10% more miles, over an above the Hote + Air Package 1. If you take the pessimistic approach, that you’ll get the 5th night free when you redeem, you’re actually burning points for 6 nights. At the lowest amount of miles, it looks like this:


Marriott Rewards Hotel + Air Package 1 Analysis.


What this boils down to is, if you’re looking to stay 7 nights at a Marriott Hotel, you’re looking at an even 1-1 exchange for a Hotel + Air Package 1. Avoid Ritz-Carltons! Just a brief review, you can transfer your 50,000 airline miles to Aeromexico, Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, GOL/Varig, Hawaiian Airlines, Iberia Airlines, US Airways, Virgin Atlantic.

Conclusion

The Marriott Rewards award chart is hard to defend, but I don’t think it really is that out of the ordinary, especially when you consider that top tier Platinum members earn a 50% bonus on points for stays, and if you pay for your stay with your Marriott Rewards Premier card, you get another 5 points per dollar. Ok, not the greatest. I’ll close with this though – Its not as good as the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) transfer program, but, I’d say a 1-1 conversion of some Marriott rewards points ups the value, when one has MR points in larger numbers (which, logically, you would if you’re either churning credit cards, or staying 75 nights a year).

Continue reading...
 

smittytabb

Moderator
Staff member
I have watched Marriott be snubbed for years by the big bloggers, that is until the credit card links come their way. They can keep on bashing Marriott as far as I am concerned. Have been Platinum for several years and have found a lot of good value with them. The credit card combined with Platinum status gives a lot of possibilities. Again, if no one cares about Marriott, that is fine with me!
 

Lucas

Silver Member
Marriott also has a really awesome LNF team! ~75% of my paid non-work stays have been lnf'd, and the rate guarantee of 25% is huge. I've been unsuccessful with price matching with all other programs other than hilton, once.
 

Sgnyc

Level 2 Member
Using Marriott points -

Edinburgh has a month long festival in August when the price of hotel rooms skyrockets. However, the # of points/night is consistent, making a pretty good use of points... I haven't checked but imagine this might be the case in other locations as well...
 

Matt

Administrator
Staff member
Using Marriott points -

Edinburgh has a month long festival in August when the price of hotel rooms skyrockets. However, the # of points/night is consistent, making a pretty good use of points... I haven't checked but imagine this might be the case in other locations as well...
That's how all hotel programs work. The only issue you may face is award inventory.
 

Haley

I am not a robot
The real perk in the program, for me, is that the miles you get from a nights and flights redemption count towards a Southwest companion pass.

You can also sign up for a Ritz card but credit the points to a Marriott account. There has been a 70k point no AF 1st year card around for awhile. The card gives $300 a year reimbursement for airline incidentals. You don't have to pick a single airline, a plus, very ymmv on credit for gift card purchases. It does cover pet flight fees though. It also includes Gold status for the 1st year.

It is a Chase card and there is a long list of cards I'd get first, but this one is moving up my list.

If you transfer UR points to Southwest regularly this might be a better option, 180k points (+the 70k bonus) would get the companion pass plus 7 nights at a category 5 Marriott and 100k Southwest points. Gold status gives you lounge privliges and a room upgrade so it might be a pretty ok redemption.

Anyone know any good cat 5 options?
 

projectx

Level 2 Member
I don't have an opinion on the rewards program as a whole. As far as the card goes, the sign up bonus is nice but for everyday spending, bonus category spending, or MS it's absolute garbage.
 
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