At the beginning of each month, new promotions appear within the Ultimate Rewards Mall.  Usually, on the last day of each month, I make predictions about what we may see the next day.  And, usually, my predictions are wrong.

Today, instead of making specific predictions about specific merchants, I’ll make a few general predictions about the portal overall.

10X promotions return

In 2011, and frequently in 2012, a merchant or two would increase their payouts through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to 10 points per dollar.  In the last three months of 2012, though, we suffered without these special promotions.  Sure, some stores such as Kohl’s continued to offer 10X (which is the same amount that has been offered since I first looked at the Mall), but there were no more monthly 10X specials.  My guess (and its just a guess) is that we’ll see the monthly specials return.  Call me an optimist.

Gift card restrictions increase

The Ultimate Rewards Mall has a section titled “gift cards”.  This section lists the merchants that explicitly give bonus points for customers who purchase their gift cards.  In 2011, this section was pages long.  Now, it is just one page of mostly uninteresting options.  Worse, the fine print for many merchants now says “not eligible on gift cards”.  Despite that, many merchants continued to pay out points for gift card purchases.  Recently, though, some have started enforcing the restrictions (for example, you no longer get points at Sears for buying e-gift cards).  My guess (and its just a guess) is that we’ll see fewer stores offering points for gift cards, and more stores enforcing restrictions.  Call me a pessimist.

Holiday promotions reappear

In 2011, near the winter holidays, the Mall offered special one day bonus point offers such as Apple at 10X.  I’m hoping these specials will reappear.  Call me hopeful.

What do you think we’ll see in 2013?

2012 was a great year for me despite losing my job.  No, that’s not right.  “Despite” is the wrong word.  It may be more accurate to say that 2012 was a great year thanks to losing my job.  Or, maybe it was thanks to the Chase Ink Bold; or thanks to Vanilla Reload cards; or thanks to great shopping portal promotions; or… 

When this year began, I was bored and frustrated with my career.  I kept myself amused with this blog, which I worked on in my spare time.  Now, a year later, this blog is my career, readership is up about 6X from the start of the year, and I couldn’t be happier!

To cap this year, let’s take a look back at some of this blog’s themes…

Mile/Point/Travel Goals

I began the year by declaring a simple goal: to retain Delta Platinum elite status, and to earn one million miles (see “My strategy to buy Platinum and a million miles“).  These goals seemed like a stretch at the time, but they turned out to be remarkably easy.  By mid-year I discovered that I had already earned over a million points & miles! And, I found that strategic spending on my two Delta credit cards was all I needed to maintain near top-tier status.  So, to keep myself entertained, I added new goals along the way such as getting Platinum status with Marriott, and visiting Manhattan for $19 per day.

5X Everywhere

I’ve written many, many (and some would say too many) posts this year detailing ways to earn 5 points per dollar everywhere.  The excitement began, to some extent, with the discovery of $500 prepaid Visa cards at Office Depot.  But then I stumbled upon Vanilla Reload cards at Office Depot.  At first I teased readers with the announcement that I had found the perfect perpetual point machine, but I didn’t yet reveal the details.  Then, on May 1st, I broke the news for real with the post “One card to rule them all.”  That post became a bit of a sensation in itself.  According to Google Analytics, it has been viewed over 50,000 times!

The following month, I reported that the NetSpend card may be the next great thing.  In addition to using the card for daily spend and ATM withdraws, it was possible to use it for paying bills – any bills!  Just days later, though, my account was shut down.  Many others reported the same.

Then came Bluebird.  Bluebird, from American Express, offered all of the advantages of the NetSpend card, but with none of the disadvantages (see “Bluebird takes flight and changes the game“).  The combination of Office Depot, Vanilla Reload cards, and Bluebird was too good to be true.  Anyone with a credit card that earned a point multiplier at office supply stores could take advantage of these products and basically generate points out of thin air.

The bubble burst in October when Office Depot discontinued Vanilla Reload cards.  It was (and is) still possible to generate points with reload cards, but the game had become more complex.  See “The reload game is on,” “Multiple paths to 5X everywhere,” and “5X, in perspective.”

One of the highlights of my 5X year was this video created by blogger Points to Point B.  I still laugh every time I watch it.  I apologize if anyone is offended by it, but come on, it’s really funny.

Mega Promotions

Every now and then a promotion appears that is almost too good to be true. I love these opportunities for big scores! Here are some of the great ones from this past year:

• Nordstrom 36X: I earned almost 150,000 Avios by buying (and then selling) headphones and GPS watches.  Through a quirk, I also profited financially from this deal!  See “How Amazon paid me to collect miles.”
• Club Carlson Buy One Get One: See “When 138000 points is not enough.”  My family racked up about 400,000 points from this promotion!
• Sears 15X: See “Sears 15X: Leveraging the deal.”  I bought (and then sold) several thousand dollars worth of tablet computers when Sears offered 15X through the Southwest Rapid Rewards portal.  Through these purchases, I earned just over 110,000 points, which was enough for a free Southwest Companion pass!
• MyPoints 150X: The last big portal bonanza of the year came in September when MyPoints offered 150 points per dollar for shopping at OpenSky (see “MyPoints 150 points per dollar! Maybe“).  The deal was limited to $500 worth of purchases, or 75,000 points.  New MyPoints users, though, were eligible for double points on their first purchase, so many readers earned 150,000 points for $500 worth of purchases!

As I hinted at above, one way to leverage some of these mega-promotions is to buy stuff for the points and resell them for as little loss as possible.  For ideas about how to find items to resell, see “Hunting for deals.”  For a look at what can go wrong, though, see “Frustration by Amazon” and “When the deal goes awry.”

My Career

In March I learned about the corporate reorganization that meant the end of my job.  In May I told readers that I would give full time blogging a try (see “Up in the air“). Then, in October, I declared that, so far, this blogging gig was working out fine.  In between, I adjusted to the new answer to the question “so, what do you do?”  I now answer “I’m a blogger.”  And then I prepare for the inevitable follow-up question: “Really? How does one make money doing that?”

A great boost in my new career came with the invitation to speak at the Chicago Seminars in October. There, I showed how to generate over 800,000 points & miles per year through gift card churning.  Then, at Frequent Traveller University in LA, I spoke about the many paths to 5X everywhere as well as credit card category bonuses.  Each of these presentations were well attended and well received.  Both events were awesome opportunities for me to meet readers face to face.

What’s Next for FM

• As we go into 2013, I’ll continue to experiment with and report on new ways to earn points, miles, and cash.
• Thanks to reader suggestions, I also plan to launch an FM Labs online meet-up space that will (hopefully) facilitate the exchange of ideas with less risk of overexposure. 
• I’ve been tapped to speak again at Frequent Traveller University in the Spring, but this time in DC.  I’ve also been asked to present again at the next Chicago Seminars in the Fall.  I would love to go, but the dates may conflict with an overseas trip.  We’ll see.
• I’ll continue to pursue high level Delta elite status without flying unless Delta introduces a new SkyMiles program that changes my mind.
• I might pursue Hyatt Diamond status.  To some extent this will depend upon Hyatt running a great promotion like they did early in 2012 (see “Hacking Hyatt“).

Thanks!

To everyone reading this, I want to thank you for helping to make this an awesome year.  I hope you too had a great year.  Either way, here’s to hoping for a fantastic 2013…

Barclays is offering a new, very good card with a very good sign-up bonus! 

A few days ago, my wife received a credit card sign-up offer from Barclays.  While the offer wasn’t the best I’ve ever seen, it turned out to be pretty darn good…

There are two versions of this card.  Confusingly, they are both named the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard.  There is the free version of the card with a public 10,000 point signup bonus, and then there is the $89 annual fee card with a targeted 40,000 point signup bonus.

Besides the annual fee and the sign-up bonus, the main difference between these cards is that the $89 card earns 2 miles per dollar for all purchases, whereas the no-fee version earns 2 miles per dollar for travel and dining, but just 1 mile per dollar for everything else.

Carry-on miles

Both cards offer a feature called “carry-on miles”.  Miles can be redeemed for statement credit at any time for a value of 1 cent per mile.  However, if you redeem miles for travel you get back 10% of the miles.  In other words, if you plan to always redeem for travel, you can think of the $89 version of the card as being like a 2.2% cash back card.  Valid travel expenses include: Airlines, Travel Agencies & Tour Operators, Hotels, Motels & Resorts, Cruise Lines, Passenger Railways and Car Rental Agencies.

The value of the bonus

Redeeming points with this card for travel reminds me of the hypothetical turtle that always goes half way to its destination.  It gets closer and closer, but never arrives.  When you redeem your points for travel, you get back 10%.  You can then redeem those points for travel and get back 10%.  And so on. 

With the 40,000 mile sign-up bonus, you could redeem those miles for $400 worth of travel.  Then, you would get back 4000 miles.  You could then redeem those miles for $40 worth of travel.  Then you would get back 400 miles….

OK, its not worth going further than that.  The signup bonus is worth about $440.  That’s not the best sign-up offer available (see “Best credit card offers“), but it is pretty darn good!

I think it’s time for my wife to do a little credit card churn…  If you’re interested in this offer, watch your mailbox!

I’ve mentioned before that U.S. Bank’s Cash+ card may just be the best cash back card there is.  U.S. Bank allows cardholders to choose two 5% cash back categories from a long list, and one 2% cash back category among gas stations, grocery stores, and drug stores.  All other purchases earn 1%.

Where things get really interesting is that there are multiple ways to easily increase your earnings with this card.  First, by opening a Platinum checking account, you get an extra half percent cash back for all purchases.  So earnings go from 1%/2%/5% to 1.5%/2.5%/5.5% just by opening this account.  If you have a credit limit of $25,000 or more across all of your U.S. Bank cards, the Platinum checking package is free.  Even better, each time you withdraw cash rewards of $100 or more, U.S. Bank throws in a $25 Visa gift card bonus.  So, by simply redeeming your rewards $100 at a time, you can increase your earnings by 25%.  By stacking these two opportunities, the earnings go to 1.875%/3.125%/6.875%.  Those are pretty spectacular cash back earnings, especially for a no-annual fee card!

Time to Choose for Jan-March 2013

Each quarter, it is necessary to pick your 2% and 5% categories.  Here are my thoughts about each…

2% Categories (effectively 3.125%)

Gas/Grocery/Drugs: I can only pick one of these in order to get an effective rebate of 3.125%.  I don’t tend to spend much on gas (I work from home!), so the real debate is between groceries and drug stores.  For reasons that will be apparent to frequent readers of this blog, I’m leaning towards drug stores.

5% Categories (effectively 6.875%)

I can pick two of the following.  Which should I pick?

Department Stores: I used this option this past quarter and regretted it.  I found that neither Sears online, nor Kmart in-person counted as department stores.  I simply don’t often shop at regular department stores, nor do I know of any that have really good gift card racks.

Restaurants: I do eat out a lot, so this could be a good choice, but I already get 5X from my Citi Forward card at restaurants.  When paired with a ThankYou Premier card, 5X is worth 6.65% towards airfare.  That’s good enough, so I think I’ll pass on this option.

Home Improvement Stores: I do have some real home improvement purchases on the horizon, so this one is very tempting.  The main argument against this category is that it is easy to buy Lowes and Home Depot gift cards at office supply stores with my Ink Bold card for 5X Ultimate Rewards points.  On the other hand, I noticed that OpenSky showed up on my credit card bill as a home improvement store.  Maybe they’ll bring back the 150X MyPoints promotion…

Electronic Stores: This is another tempting category.  I may buy a new computer sometime soon and it would be great to get 6.875% cash back for the purchase!  Also, there would be some interesting lab experiment opportunities such as checking out at Target via the electronics counter…

Airlines: Thanks to having so many miles & points, I hardly ever pay for airfare anymore.  I don’t see a good opportunity here for me.

Hotels: I’m a little tempted here because I may go for the Hyatt Diamond Challenge beginning in February.  If so, I’ll need a number of paid nights to qualify.  That being said, my American Express business credit cards give me 5% cash back for Hyatt transactions thanks to the OPEN Savings program.  So, this wouldn’t save me much money over what I could do already.

Bill Payment: This option covers telephone charges, cable, internet, and insurance.  Through my Ink Bold card, I get 5X on all of those except for insurance.  I’m not sure that my quarterly insurance payments are high enough to justify selecting this category.  However, I’m tempted to pick this category for just one quarter and prepay my insurance for the whole year…

Fast Food: See restaurants, above.

Furniture Stores:  Know any furniture stores with good gift card racks?  I didn’t think so.

Car Rental: I still have a bunch of Hertz points from last Spring’s Daily Getaways.  I don’t see myself spending much in this category unless there’s a great mile earning opportunity.

Charity: I picked this last quarter and I’m tempted to do so again.  It’s a great way to get something back while doing good.

Movie Theaters: My Citi Forward card has this one covered at 5X already.

Help me choose

So, what do you think?  Among the 5% categories, I can only pick two, but I’m torn between Home Improvement, Electronics, Charity, and (to a lesser extent) Bill Payment.  What do you think I should do?

Yesterday I announced that I would give away a number of gift cards to lucky blog commenters.  After running the magic random generator, the winners are…

• Sears $50 gift card
• The winner is… veeRob with comment 3: “Would love the Sears GC so I can buy some storage bins! Would be happy to leave the other GC’s for another lucky reader. Thanks!”
• Walmart $50 gift card
• The winner is… Alde M with comment 28: “me, me and only me………”
• $20 Mio Prepaid card
• The winner is… Denise with comment 565: “Happy Holidays! Please pick me!”
• $25 Michael’s gift card
• The winner is… Sherry M with comment 525: “Merry Christmas! Pick me!”
• $25 Sony gift card
• The winner is… Randy with comment 132: “Any prize is fine. Thanks for all the great info throughout the year. Merry Christmas!”
• $10.17 Sony e-gift card
• The winner is…  Ian with comment 62: “Yeehaw!”
• $5 Toys R Us gift card
• The winner is…  KJ with comment 493: “Merry Christmas! Pick me, please.”

Congratulations winners!  I will contact you shortly via email in order to work out delivery of your gift card!

Secure message regarding card ending in 1226:

Dear Ink Plus,

I must say, I am flattered by your recent offer.  Words can’t describe how tempted I am!  You are, clearly, just as desirable in every way as your twin sister, Ink Bold.  I am intrigued, too, by your suggestion that we could try out our relationship for a while. As you said, six months is plenty of time to see how much interest we have in each other. 

Things were different with your twin.  When we began dating, she boldly declared that a relationship is not worthwhile if it does not pay off immediately.  That is where you two differ the most.  I took a chance with her and my life has been incredibly rewarding as a result.  Despite your differences, I have no doubt that the same would be true with you.

For now, I must turn down your offer.  It’s too soon for us, Ink Plus, especially considering my recent flirtations with others: Discover, Forward, Hilton, and Cash Plus. Its not you, but the pull of Ink Bold and these others that keeps me from saying yes.

You asked me to give you an answer before the end of the year, so this is it.  I beg of you, though, to please give me more time.  I know that in a month or two memories of my flirtations will fade, and then I’ll be ready.  Will you accept me then?

Yours truly,

FM

Related archive message dated 05/04/2012: Let’s just be friends

UPDATE: Comments are now closed.  I will pick from the comments already entered and results will be announced this evening (12/26).  Thank you for visiting this page!

Happy Holidays everyone!  To celebrate the holidays I have some miscellaneous stuff to give away (because that’s much easier than writing a useful blog post; i.e. Happy Holidays to me!).  Here are the things I’m giving away:

• Sears $50 gift card (can be used at Sears, Lands’ End, Kmart, etc.)
• Walmart $50 gift card
• $20 Mio Prepaid card (can be loaded with Vanilla Reload cards and works as a true debit card).
• $25 Michael’s gift card
• $25 Sony gift card
• $10.17 Sony e-gift card
• $5 Toys R Us gift card

If you would like a shot at getting any of this stuff, just write “pick me” or something similarly brilliant in the comments below.  If there’s anything you particularly don’t want, please tell me so.  Please only comment once.

Some time tomorrow I’ll pick a random commenter for each prize.  If I pick you for a particular give-away item, but your comment says you don’t want it, then I’ll pick another commenter at random.

Each person is only eligible for one prize.  If I pick you a second time after you won a prize, I’ll pick another person at random.

Good luck!

Daily posts, weekly newsletters, deal alerts, blog comments…  There’s a surprising amount of information swirling around the Frequent Miler blog and it can be a challenge to keep up with it all.  Here is a guide that should help…

Daily Blog Posts

Every weekday I publish at least one new post.  Usually these posts are targeted towards advanced points & miles collectors, and the usual topics include creative ways to earn points & miles and/or elite status.  Truthfully, though, I tend to simply write about whatever interests me most at the time.  Here are a few options for ensuring that you don’t miss any of these posts:

• RSS Feed / News Reader: Search for Frequent Miler within your favorite news reader, or enter “http://feeds.feedburner.com/FrequentMiler?format=xml” for the blog feed URL.
• Email: There are three (yes three!) different ways to get my blog posts delivered to your inbox each day:
• The best option is to sign up for my weekly newsletter (see below) and check the box on the sign-up form indicating that you would like to receive the Daily Blog.
• The next best option is to find the box titled “Subscribe by Email” on the right of every blog post and enter your email address there.
• The worst option (in my opinion) is to comment within any of my posts and check the box titled “Notify me of new posts by email.”  The reason I don’t recommend this option is that the system that sends these does a poor job of formatting the blog posts.  You’ll get better results with either of the above options.

Weekly Newsletter

I’ve created a free weekly tutorial series targeted towards those who are new to the points & miles game.  The way it works is that regardless of when you sign up, you will get the tutorial posts, in order, about once a week starting with the very first lesson.  To get started, click here.  You will be presented with the following sign-up form:

Make sure to enter a valid email address and check the boxes at the bottom indicating whether or not you want to receive Deal Alerts or the Daily Blog as well.

Deal Alerts

Deal Alerts are occasional emails sent to newsletter subscribers.  I try to pick out deals that are likely to appeal to a wide audience and that are unlikely to disappear by the time the email is read (in other words, I won’t send out information about mistake fares since these usually disappear quickly).

Blog Comments

A lot of great information is spread not through any of the above mechanisms, but by readers through blog comments.  By monitoring comments it is often possible to learn about opportunities before they are published anywhere else.  If you would like to get an email when anyone comments on a particular post, then you need to comment there yourself and then check the box titled “Notify me of follow-up comments by email.”  If you don’t have anything in particular to say, simply write “subscribing“.  I’ll occasionally sweep through and delete those non-comments just to keep the conversation cleaner.

Here are some pages and posts that you might find interesting to subscribe to:

• Laboratory: This is the place people (including me) first announce their results when they try various point earning schemes.
• Contact Frequent Miler: People ask miscellaneous questions here and I do my best to answer.  Other readers often help out as well!
• Best credit card offers: Going forward, whenever I add or remove a great sign-up offer, I’ll post a comment letting everyone know.  Also, if anyone comes across great offers that aren’t listed, please let us know!
• Other credit card pages you might want to consider subscribing to include:
• Preparing for Miles
• Best Category Bonuses
• Best Big Spend Bonuses
• If you’re interested in keeping up with details about various “5X Everywhere” techniques, consider subscribing to some of these posts:
• Multiple paths to 5X everywhere
• The 5X everywhere backup plan
• The reload game is on
• Bluebird takes flight and changes the game
• The end (of 5X everywhere) is nigh

I realize the problem here: by encouraging people to sign up for blog comments, everyone will be deluged with emails saying simply “subscribing”.  All I can say is Sorry!  The technical powers that be at BoardingArea tell me that our commenting engine has no option to allow people to subscribe except by commenting. 

From August 2nd to the end of November, I participated in Marriott’s “Taste of Platinum Challenge.”  The idea of the challenge is that you get granted temporary top-level Platinum status for a few months.  If you complete 9 stays during that time, you get to keep your status for the rest of the current calendar year, all of the following year, and through February of the next year.  For complete details about the challenge, please see my post “Marriott’s Taste of Platinum Challenge.”

Why Marriott

I chose the Marriott challenge simply because the stars aligned in the following ways:

• As a family, we had two planned paid Marriott stays for August and two more for November.  So, I knew that by starting the challenge in August I would be almost half way to completing it without changing any plans.
• Marriott’s MegaBonus promotion (stay two nights, get one free) ran until the end of August and then a new one was scheduled to start mid September.  Between those two promotions I knew that my paid stays would pay off not just towards completing the Platinum Challenge, but also towards many free nights.
• Last April I had bought $1000 worth of Marriott gift cards for 20% off.  With that burning a hole in my pocket, I knew that I would effectively get a 20% discount off my paid stays!

For full details of how I planned to benefit from the challenge, please see “Pursuing Platinum @ Marriott.”

The Joys of Platinum

Following is a quick rundown of each of my stays, with a focus on Platinum benefits received (or not).  In all stays, thanks to Platinum status, we enjoyed free internet access and a 50% bonus in points earned (with the paid stays).  Most rooms were nice and exactly what you would expect from a Marriott, so I’ll only mention the rooms if they seemed special in some way.

Anchorage Downtown Marriott

		We were upgraded to the club floor.  The club lounge was ordinary with decent fishcakes as the evening appetizer.  Our plans called for us to leave too early the next morning to try breakfast.  Overall my impression was that this hotel was fine, but a bit run down.

Renaissance Vancouver Harbourside

		We arrived at the hotel at about 9 in the morning.  At the desk I was immediately told that they were not yet checking in guests, but after looking up my name in the system the story changed.  As a valued Platinum member they had a room ready for us!  Plus, they had upgraded us to a harbor view room.  For the Platinum arrival gift we chose cheese & crackers and a bottle of beer.  The club lounge was closed for the weekend so the arrival gift was the only free food for us.  This photo shows the view from our room.

The Inn at Bay Harbor (Renaissance)

		We used points for two separate award stays here (near Petoskey, MI).  Both times we were upgraded to rooms with balconies that overlooked Lake Michigan.  On our second stay, due to a booking snafu, we were upgraded to a beautiful two room suite.  This resort does not have a club lounge, but does offer their very extensive and excellent buffet breakfast free for elite members. For both stays we took wine & cheese as our arrival gift which we enjoyed while sitting on the balcony watching the view.

Courtyard X 2

		I didn’t have enough real paid stays to complete the challenge so I checked into a couple of Courtyard motels at a low rate. Thankfully, my wife qualifies for government rates. One of the two motels did ask for ID upon check-in. We were offered a choice of 250 points or one free item from their food pantry.  I took the points.

Dearborn Inn

		My family had a mini “staycation” here in order to knock off another night of the challenge.  This hotel surprised us with a terrific evening spread in the club lounge.  We had planned to go out for dinner, but instead we feasted for free on Roast Beef & Gnocchi and various delicious noodle dishes. Later, we stuffed our faces with cake.  Breakfast was decent, but unremarkable.

Springhill Suites, Detroit Airport

		The primary purpose of this was to get another stay closer to completing the challenge, but I also used this as a convenient way to show up on time for my morning Global Entry interview at the airport (which went well, thanks for asking).  The hotel was fine, but unremarkable.  As with the Courtyard stays, there were no particular Platinum benefits other than the choice of 250 points or a pantry item.

St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel

		We spent four nights at this very impressive hotel.  Thanks to my Platinum status we were able to check in at around 1 PM. We were “upgraded” to an executive room which, while nice, is most likely pretty much exactly like every other room in the new section of the hotel.  Prior to this stay, I had filled out requests via Marriott’s Virtual Concierge service. I had asked for an upgrade to the more elegant “Chambers” section of the hotel.  Their response was to offer an upgrade for a fee. No thank you. I also asked for travel information, but never heard back.  Overall, the Virtual Concierge service was a bust. On the other hand, thanks to my Platinum status we had unlimited access to their wonderful club room which provided breakfast, afternoon tea, evening appetizers, and amazing service.  We twice tried their restaurant for breakfast (also free for us) but found the service to be spectacularly bad.  On the plus side, we asked for and were granted 4PM late checkout on our final day of the stay.

London Heathrow Marriott Hotel

		For our last night in London, we stayed near the airport in preparation for our morning return flight.  This hotel had a very nice central atrium and large bedrooms.  The lounge had a very nice food selection in the morning and evening.  This and the Dearborn Inn were the only lounges we visited in which the evening spread made for a decent free dinner.

Ann Arbor Marriott Ypsilanti at Eagle Crest

		This was another “mattress run” and the final stay needed to complete the challenge. I was put into an ordinary room with a very nice lake view.  This resort is beautifully decorated and I imagine it would make for a very nice staycation in the summer.  The lounge was nice, but the food wasn’t.

Benefits Summarized

Here is a rundown of the benefits we enjoyed:

• The most valuable benefit of all may have been the two occasions where we needed early check in.  Coming off a cruise in one case, and an overnight flight in the other, it was awesome to be able to go right to our room to settle in. Note that they do not guarantee this (or even mention it) as a benefit.
• Similarly, late checkout made the tail end of our London stay much nicer. 
• Where the lounge was available and open, this was also a great benefit.  When traveling, I like to eat first thing in the morning before going out to explore and so a high quality free breakfast is terrific.  Similarly, there are times where I prefer to stay put in the evening and so a lounge with a good evening spread is great.  Marriott lounges are usually available to both Gold and Platinum members, but the one at the St.Pancras is only free to Platinum elites. 
• Free internet for Gold and Platinum members is a huge plus especially if you have a gazillion internet accessible devices like we do (yes, I counted).
• The Platinum Arrival gift was really nice, especially when we chose the combination of a bottle of wine and a cheese & cracker tray.  On stays in which there was no lounge or where the lounge was closed for the weekend, this perk was hugely appreciated!

Perks compared to other chains

Sure, the perks I enjoyed in the past four months were great, but the truth is that Marriott’s elite program is missing two essential benefits:

Free Breakfast

Hilton sets the bar here by guaranteeing free breakfast to anyone with Gold or Diamond status.  Marriott offers free breakfast most of the time, but punishes us if we decide to stay on a weekend in the U.S. or Canada.  In fact, if free breakfast is important to you, I’d recommend simply getting the Citi Hilton Reserve card (which offers automatic Hilton Gold status) and spend your weekends with Hilton.  Note that as I wrote this I realized an irony: the Citi Hilton Reserve card gives two free weekend nights as a sign-up bonus.  Clearly Hilton wants to see us on the weekend!

Suite Upgrades

Through mid-tier status with Hilton, I’ve received suite upgrades many times. Marriott, though, explicitly excludes suite upgrades from the elite benefits!  I’m sure that individual properties can choose to do so anyway, but that wasn’t my experience.  [Correction: As Gary Leff points out in the comments, Marriott has changed their policy to allow suite upgrades at each hotel's discretion]

In the past four months I checked into Marriott hotels 11 times (9 paid stays and two award stays). Only once was I upgraded to a suite and in that case it was due to a booking error (on their part) and the suite was the only room available.  Starwood and Hyatt set the bar here by providing mechanisms for their top elites to get confirmed suite upgrades.  With most hotels, you won’t know about your suite upgrade until you’re handed the room key, but with SPG and Hyatt you can secure your upgrade ahead of time for those stays in which it is most important.

Summary

I’ve really enjoyed having Platinum status with Marriott.  Lounges, early check-in, late check-out, free internet, and even Platinum arrival gifts all contributed to nicer stays.  That being said, Marriott’s elite program has serious catching up to do with Hilton, Starwood, and Hyatt.  Here’s to hoping that they do.

Ever since I began posting tricks for earning points and miles people have approached me with schemes involving buying and returning merchandise.  The idea is usually to go through an online portal to buy merchandise and collect lots of points.  Then, return the items in a way that prevents the merchant from clawing back the awarded points.  Sometimes the tricks are simpler: buy items with one credit card and return for cash or credit to a different card so that the earned credit card points don’t get withdrawn.  I’ve never tried these tricks and I’ve never published them.  The reason?  For me, earning points this way crosses the line.  My line.

Everybody has a line that they won’t cross.  For some people, double dip techniques I often write about are across the line — their line.  Others happily take things much further.  As long as people aren’t breaking the law, I don’t think badly of them for drawing the line beyond where I do.  And, I hope that those who think I step over the line don’t think badly of me.

I don’t have a set rule for where to draw the line.  Basically, if it feels wrong to me, I won’t do it.  There’s also my exterior conscience – my wife.  Every now and then there is something that seems OK to me, but not to my wife.  In those cases I’ll refrain from stepping over her line.  Here are a couple of examples:

• When Radisson first held its 50K promotion (earn 50K points after one night stay), I signed up my entire family… and my dog.  My intent was to book cheap Radisson stays from each person’s (and dog’s) account and then check-in just for the points.  My wife was very clear about this one: humans are OK, dogs are not.  She’s not usually one to discriminate against dogs, so I respected her opinion.  Our Lhasa Apso has a Club Carlson account, but has never booked a stay.  I don’t know how he feels about missing out on 50,000 points.  He doesn’t talk about it.
• A few weeks ago, Million Mile Secrets (MMS) set off a firestorm by posting a way for non-elites to enter the elite security lines at airports.  Many readers were appalled and took MMS to task for advocating an unethical line-cutting technique. Others defended MMS and pointed out that this was no different than taking advantage of other travel related loopholes such as credit card churning, status matching, etc. To be honest, I thought his technique was great.  I saw it as a great way to get into shorter lines.  I didn’t think that anyone would be harmed in any meaningful way.  My wife, on the other hand, saw it differently.  To her, this was a clear, unconscionable, violation of rules.  End of discussion.  Back to the long line for me.

When I think about the difference between my line and my wife’s, I see a clear difference in philosophy.  The reason I don’t like schemes that involve returning stuff is that those schemes hurt the vendors.  The vendors incur many costs without any benefit: they cover portal fees, shipping & handling, credit card processing fees, and whatever costs are involved in handling returns. In return for all of that, they get nothing.  On the other hand, booking a room in my dog’s name does no harm (at least no proximal harm).  And, switching to the fast security lane does no harm except maybe to delay a couple of elite travelers by a few seconds.  In fact, it probably helps more people than it hurts (by shortening the longer security line).  In other words, I think that my line is drawn primarily by a judgment call about the outcome: does it hurt anyone?  My wife’s line, though, may be drawn by the rules: is it breaking any rules? 

So, given all of that rambling, the line I now draw can be described as “do no harm and break no rules.”  In truth, though, I don’t analyze each opportunity in this way.  I simply decide whether it feels right to me, and whether or not I should tell my wife .

What about you?  Where do you draw the line?