This is a limited time opportunity that may be useful for some with very large Ultimate Rewards and/or Marriott Rewards balances. 

As you probably know, US Airways is running a promotion through the end of April in which you will get a 50% bonus when you convert hotel points to US Airways miles (details here).  My first thought was to convert my Wyndham points to miles, but then I read Lucky’s advice:

This would also be a good promotion through which to take advantage of Marriott’s Flight and Hotel Packages, whereby you can redeem points for a combination of miles and a set number of free nights.

Yes, indeed.

Marriott’s Flight and Hotel Packages offer 7 night stays plus airline miles in exchange for Marriott Rewards points.  The way most of these packages are priced is that they charge the usual cost for 7 award nights, but then charge extra for a one to one conversion to miles.  Let me give an example to be clear:

For 300,000 Marriott Rewards points, you can book a Category 6 Marriott for 7 nights plus you’ll get 120,000 miles (you can pick from quite a few airlines).  If you booked the same hotel for 7 nights outside of this package, you would get the 5th night free as a standard benefit, and so you would pay 30K X 6 = 180,000 Marriott Rewards points for 7 nights.  In other words, the Flight & Hotel package costs 120,000 points more, but you get 120,000 miles which are arguably much more valuable than 120,000 Marriott points.  As a general rule, if you are flush with Marriott points and you are planning a 7 night award stay, you might as well book this package.

This month, the deal gets much better.  By booking the package and selecting US Airways miles, US Airways will kick in 50% more miles.  So, in the example above, instead of getting 120,000 miles, you would get 180,000 miles.

Let’s now twist things around a bit.  Assume your goal is to convert Marriott points to US Airways miles.  By booking this package for 300,000 Marriott Reward points, you would get 180,000 miles plus a 7 night stay.  So, you can think of this as converting 180,000 points to miles (1 to 1), and then getting a 7 night stay for only 120,000 additional points, which is about 17,000 points per night.  That’s a great deal.

Marriott offers different versions of the package that vary depending on which category hotel you want and how many miles you want:

Since Marriott points are generally worth less than airline miles, the best value options are those earning the most miles (120K miles, before the 50% bonus).

If you think of this, as I suggested, as a way to convert 180K Marriott points to 180K US Airways miles, and to get a discounted 7 night stay, then the following chart may be helpful:

While the Ritz-Carlton prices are still high, Marriott properties top out at 25.7K per night.  Not bad!

Ultimate Rewards

With Chase’s premium Ultimate Rewards credit cards such as the Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold, and Ink Plus, you can transfer points one to one to quite a few airline and hotel programs:

Neither US Airways nor American Airlines are transfer partners.  So, if you want to transfer miles to either of those programs from Ultimate Rewards, you’re generally out of luck. 

Marriott is a transfer partner, but I usually recommend against transferring points to Marriott.  Ultimate Rewards points can be used directly to book stays at almost any hotel for a value of 1.25 cents per point.  It is very rare to get that much value per point from Marriott Rewards points.  So, if you really want to use Ultimate Rewards points to book a Marriott stay, you’re usually better off booking through the Ultimate Rewards travel service than to transfer points to Marriott.  With US Airways’ 50% bonus, though, the math changes…

With the combination of the Marriott Hotel and Air package and US Airways’ 50% bonus for transferred points, converting Ultimate Rewards points to Marriott may make sense.  For example, suppose you transfer 300,000 Ultimate Rewards points to Marriott and then book the 7 Nights + 120K miles package for a Category 6 hotel, and you pick US Airways miles.  Then, you would essentially be trading 300,000 Ultimate Rewards points for 180,000 US Airways miles and 7 hotel nights.  If your goal was to get US Airways miles anyway, then this is like getting 7 hotel nights for only 120,000 points (about 17K points per night).

American Airlines

Thanks to the upcoming merger between American Airlines and US Airways, US Airways miles will eventually become American Airlines AAdvantage miles.  If your goal is to accumulate AA miles for a trip well in the future, it’s worth considering collecting US Airways miles today.

Does it make sense to do?

I think that if you are flush with Marriott points and can make use of a 7 night stay, then this is a no-brainer.  Marriott points are generally worth much less than airline miles so this is a great opportunity to trade-up.  Whether transferring Ultimate Rewards points makes sense, though, depends on your circumstances…

For the hotel portion of your 7 night vacation, you can often do as well or better by transferring points to Hyatt since you can stay at the best Hyatt properties in the world for only 22K points per night.  However, there may not be a desirable Hyatt property where you want to go.  If your vacation plans are better suited to a Marriott property, then this opportunity is definitely worth considering.

For the airline portion of the package, this makes sense if you are working towards building up your US Airways and/or AA miles for a specific purpose.  For example, you could go for US Airways sweet spot awards such as 90K round trip business class to northern Asia.  Or, wait for the miles to become AA miles so that you can book a dream first class trip on Cathay Pacific.  In general, though, I would prefer to keep points as Ultimate Rewards for their flexibility.  I love that Ultimate Rewards transfer to United, British Airways, Southwest, Hyatt and more.  By keeping points as Ultimate Rewards points, I keep my options open.

Should I go for it anyway?  In my case, I have about 100K Marriott Rewards points and many hundreds of thousands of Ultimate Rewards points.  I could transfer 170K Ultimate Rewards points to Marriott and then book a 7 night category 5 vacation for 270K points.  In return, I would get 180K US Airways miles and a 7 night stay.  That’s tempting!  What do you think?

By the way, for another great use of Marriott’s hotel and air packages, take a look at how Frugal Travel Lawyer used one to get a Southwest Companion Pass.

955,000 points earned. 45,000 left to go.

Background: Million Mile Madness is the fun and foolish quest to earn a million points in one month. Throughout March, I’m doing everything I can to earn as many points as I can while keeping within my ethical boundaries. I don’t expect that a million points will have been credited to my account by March 31st: points often take quite a while to get credited. Instead, I’ll track all of the points that I expect, and I’ll declare victory if the expected total is over a million. To keep things challenging, I will try to keep my net costs below $1,000.

All points earned and expenses incurred are tracked via this Google Docs spreadsheet. See all Million Mile Madness posts (in reverse order), by clicking here.

Easy Points

If you play this game long enough, every now and then points just fall in your lap.  Here are a few minor windfalls I’ve enjoyed receiving this month:

15,000 Membership Rewards points

I called American Express to cancel my year old Business Platinum card so as to avoid paying its $450 annual fee next month.  They asked if I would be willing to downgrade to their $99 Green card instead.  No.  Then they asked if 15,000 points would be incentive enough to keep the card.  I asked if I could do both.  Could I get the 15,000 points and downgrade to the Green card?  I was definitely willing to pay $99 for 15000 points!  The answer was that I could accept the 15,000 point offer now and then downgrade next month before the Platinum fee is charged.  The points won’t post for a few months.  So, I accepted the offer.  Next month I’ll call and downgrade.  Then, I’ll give the card a try to see if it like it.  Most likely, though, I’ll cancel altogether once the points post.  At most I’ll be out a small prorated portion of the $99 fee.

After the call it occurred to me that I should have haggled and asked for more points.  Ever since flying Singapore Suites on my return from Bangkok I’ve been eager to amass more Membership Rewards points (since they transfer to Singapore Airlines).  I can’t wait to fly Singapore Suites again!

20,000 Ultimate Rewards points

The annual fee on one of my Ink Bold cards is coming due next month.  Since I rarely use this particular Ink Bold card anymore (I have several), I decided to call and cancel.  The customer service representative offered to give me a $95 statement credit to offset the annual fee if I was willing to keep the card.  I asked if he could offer bonus points instead.  So, he offered 20,000 points.  Sold!  While technically I could still cancel the card next month after getting the points, I think that $95 is a small price to pay for 20,000 points.  That’s less than half a cent each!

50,000 Marriott points

I love how AwardWallet sends out emails when point balances have changed.  In a recent email, AwardWallet claimed that I had just received 50,000 Marriott points.  Nice!  But why?  I logged into my Marriott account and saw that I had been re-credited with two 25,000 point award nights that I had redeemed last year.  I remembered that, at check-in, the hotel was unable to find my reservation despite my confirmation numbers.  Luckily, they gave me a room anyway (actually it was a very nice suite upgrade).  Apparently the snafu was never really fixed, and the system thought that I had never completed the stay. 

Since this was such a strange fluke, I won’t count these Marriott points towards my Million Mile Madness quest.  And, if Marriott figures out what happened and pulls back the points, I won’t complain.  After all, I don’t really deserve those points.  If I keep the points, though, I need to see if I can find availability at that same hotel…

Learn about Million Mile Madness:

• A crazy million mile idea. Should I do it?
• Million Mile Madness, it’s on
• Million Mile Madness: Strategy
• Million Mile Madness: Preparing to buy & sell
• Million Mile Madness: Tracking points and expenses
• Million Mile Madness: The big churn story
• Million Mile Madness: buying, selling Kohl’s
• Million Mile Madness: Banking on Lowe’s
• Million Mile Madness: A setback from Sears
• Million Mile Madness: Pending Success
• Million Mile Madness: Bumps in the road

A number of hotel loyalty programs have recently suffered major devaluations.  Here is a summary borrowed from One Mile at a Time:

• Hilton has literally destroyed their award chart for high end redemptions by adding three new hotel categories and introducing seasonal pricing
• Marriott has added a new hotel category, and 36% of properties went up in price
• Over the past couple of months Wyndham has more than doubled the cost for redemptions at their top end properties
• Starwood just announced their 2013 hotel category changes, whereby less than 50 properties went down in price while over 200 properties went up in price, and also increased the cost of cash & points by 20-25%
• Priority Club introduced a nine category award chart, which resulted in many aspirational properties going up in price

All of the above changes have made your points less valuable.  But, in most cases, there are still arguments to be made to keep the associated credit cards.  With the Marriott card, I’m no longer so sure.

In my post, “To have and to hold,” I described a few hotel credit cards that I like to keep around, not to use for spend, but for their annual free night benefits.  In that post, I listed the Marriott Premier Visa card right after the Priority Club Visa.  At the time I felt that the annual free category 1 through 5 hotel night more than made up for the $85 annual fee.  Now, I’m not so sure.

In May, Marriott will introduce a new top tier category 9 and reassign many existing hotels to different categories.  According to Loyalty Traveler, of the current 344 category 5 hotels, more than half will increase to a higher category.  This means that those hotels will no longer be available for the annual free night benefit of the Marriott Premier card.

Expiring certificates

The downside of getting free nights rather than points is that free night certificates expire.  If you don’t use them, they’re worthless.  With most hotel credit cards, the associated free night certificates are good for a year.  With the Marriott card, though, the free nights are only valid for 6 months.

Now that there will be fewer nice properties to use the free nights on, the chance of the certificates going unused increases. 

The $85 annual fee is not worth it to me

I used to be able to count on staying in a nice property with Marriott’s free night certificate.  Now, though, I think chances are good that the certificate will go unused.  I don’t plan to renew my Marriott card when the annual fee comes due later this year.

Better Options

I still love the Priority Club card.  For only $49 per year, you get a free night certificate (after your first year) for any Priority Club property in the world regardless of what category it is in.  It also offers other great perks like automatic Platinum status and 10% point rebates on awards.

An even better option for some is the new Club Carlson Premier Rewards card and its twin business card.  In addition to fantastic perks (bonus award nights & automatic Gold status), these cards give 40,000 points each year upon card renewal.  For $75 for the personal card or $60 for the business card, you automatically earn almost enough points each year for a free night at any of their properties.  Even better, the bonus award night feature means that you earn almost enough for two nights!  And, unlike free night certificates, Club Carlson points don’t expire as long as you have activity in your account every two years (which happens automatically by keeping the card).

Summary of annual costs and benefits

Here is a summary of hotel credit card costs & benefits (ignoring signup bonuses).  The point here is to look at hotel cards that offer sign-up-like bonuses every year after the first year simply by paying the annual fee.  These are roughly sorted in the order starting with the card I like most to the one I like least:

• Club Carlson Premier Rewards Visa: $75 per year.  40,000 bonus points each year upon card renewal.  Automatic Gold status.  Bonus Award Nights practically double the value of your points.
• Priority Club Select Visa: $49 per year.  Free night at any Priority Club hotel. Automatic Priority Club Platinum Status.  10% rebate on point redemptions.
• Hyatt Visa Signature: $75 per year.  Free night at any category 1 through 4 Hyatt. Automatic Platinum status (free internet!).
• Fairmont Visa Signature: $95 per year.  Free night at any Fairmont after $12K annual spend.  Two free lounge visits per year.  Automatic Premier status.
• Hilton HHonors Reserve: $95 per year.  Free weekend night at almost any Hilton property after $10K annual spend.  Automatic Hilton Gold status (free internet, and free breakfast and room upgrades at many properties).  This card is notable as the only one on the list that is not a Chase card (this one is from Citibank).
• Marriott Rewards Premier Visa: $85 per year. Free night at any category 1 through 5 Marriott. Free night expires after 6 months. 15 nights elite status credit (enough for Silver status which isn’t worth much).

Join me as I travel in style to Bangkok and back.

Usually, the travel hacking game goes like this: 1) Get lots of miles & points as cheaply as possible; and 2) Spend miles & points to travel, often in luxury.  And, without question, that was the formula I followed for booking my First Class flights for this trip to Bangkok and back.  My hotel, though, was a different story…

The formula I followed for hotel luxury for this trip was as follows: 1) Obtain high level elite status as cheaply as possible and, along the way, earn free night certificates; and 2) Spend the free night certificates at a fantastic hotel, and enjoy great elite status perks.  No points were required.

Renaissance Bangkok Ratchaprasong Hotel

It’s not often that a hotel exceeds my expectations, but this one did. Here are some of the highlights:

Check In:  As a Platinum elite, I was escorted to the club lounge and served tea during the check-in process. This did far more to make me feel special than the obligatory “thank you for being a loyal guest” welcome I’ve become used to at every other Marriott property.

Club Lounge: The lounge was open throughout the weekend.  It offered a full hot breakfast buffet as well as the choice of made to order omelets or Eggs Benedict.  High Tea, with amazing desserts, was served every afternoon from 3 to 5.  Open Bar was 4:30 to 8:30.  And, canapés were served from 6 to 8.  All food service included a mix of western style foods and Thai specialties.  And, all of it was fantastic… except the Eggs Benedict.  I’m a big fan of Eggs Benedict, in general, but somehow they dropped the ball on this one.  Despite that one quibble, the lounge was awesome.

Complimentary Laundry or Pressing: As an elite guest with access to the lounge, I was entitled to 1 piece per night of complimentary laundry.  I could have left a few items at home had I known about this benefit!  Examining their laundry price list, I see that the most expensive item to launder is a Safari-suit (300 Baht).  If you go, maximize this benefit by wearing your Safari-suit every day and have it laundered every night .

Complimentary Massage: As an elite guest with access to the lounge, I was entitled to a free 15 minute Head and Shoulders massage.  No dandruff required.

Platinum Arrival Gift: When given the choice of food & a drink or 500 Marriott points for my arrival gift, I chose the food and drink.  The Mango and sticky rice plate I selected was delicious!

Corner Room/Suite: They upgraded me to a room that they called a suite.  Normally, I expect a suite to have a separate bedroom and sitting room, but this was just one very big room.  That being said, it was an awesome room.  The photos below may give you some idea.  It had a fantastically big and very nice bathroom.  The glass wall between the bathroom and the bedroom had an electric shade that could be raised or lowered with a switch.  Beside the bed was a master light switch so that I could turn on and off lights around the room from one spot.  And, most importantly, the bed was incredibly comfortable.

Hacking Marriott

While other chains such as Hyatt and Starwood arguably have more exciting elite benefits, Marriott has a lot going for it for those of us who do not travel much for work (at least, not much on paid stays…).  Here are some stackable Marriott opportunities that I took advantage of:

• Discount Gift Cards.  Over the past year, several opportunities to buy Marriott gift cards at about 20% off face value have come and gone.  I bought these at every opportunity.
• Marriott’s Taste of Platinum Challenge.  I earned Platinum status simply by calling and requesting the “Taste of Platinum Challenge.”  The challenge called for completing 9 stays in just under four months.  So, during that time, whenever I traveled, I opted for Marriott properties, and I made some “mattress runs” to complete the challenge.  See “Four months Platinum with Marriott” for details.  At each stay, I paid with discount gift cards I had bought previously.
• MegaBonus Promotions.  Marriott regularly runs one of the best hotel promotions around.  Their quarterly MegaBonus promotion usually entails getting a free category 1 through 4 certificate for every two Marriott stays.  And, each person can earn up to three certificates during each promotion.  My Platinum Challenge straddled two separate MegaBonus promotions, so I was able to earn 5 certificates from 10 stays (I had one more Marriott stay after the Platinum Challenge ended, but while the MegaBonus promotion was still going).

Thanks to these stacked opportunities, I earned Platinum status and 5 free night certificates for very little cost.

The Value of the Stay

The problem with Marriott’s category 1-4 certificates is that Marriott’s most desirable properties tend to be category 5 or higher.  Category 4 properties are more likely to be mid-tier brands such as Fairfield Inns or Courtyards, rather than more upscale brands such as Renaissance or JW Marriott.  I was very lucky to have been in a situation where a highly rated category 4 property was available when & where I needed it.

During the time I spent in Bangkok, the best available paid rate at the Renaissance was $145 per night.  So, the certificates were arguably worth about that much (OK, a little bit less since I didn’t earn points for the stay, and I could have used discount gift cards for a paid stay, but let’s not split hairs…).  In the past, I’ve gotten better value from these certs.  For example, I used a cert last year to stay at a property that would have cost $179.  But, unlike points, these Marriott free night certs expire 12 months after they are issued.  So, I decided it was much better to get a definite $145 per night value from the certs than to hope a situation arises in which I’d get even more value.  You know, a bird in the hand…

Overall, even though I didn’t save a fortune through the use of my certs, my stay was free.  And, thanks to the wonderful perks they provided to me as a Platinum elite member, I got incredible value from my stay.

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.

Thanks to Marriott’s Platinum Challenge, I received my Marriott Platinum Elite membership card earlier this week.  My Platinum status is valid through February 2014.  Normally, to get to Marriott’s Platinum Elite status level it is necessary to stay 75 nights or hold 8 events at Marriott hotels within a single calendar year.  Luckily, there’s a much easier way. 

As I described in the post “Pursuing Platinum @ Marriott,” you can sign up for Marriott’s “Taste of Platinum Challenge” simply by calling and asking for it.  If you make the call after the first of the month, you will then get temporary Platinum status for the rest of that month and throughout the three following months.  In order to retain status past the challenge period, it is necessary to have 9 separate paid stays at Marriott properties.  You can, alternatively, go for the Gold Challenge which requires only 6 stays.

Platinum Benefits

You can read about Marriott’s elite benefits here and here.  I’ll list just the benefits I think are worth mentioning:

• Priority Late Checkout (available to all elites)
• Free Internet Access (Gold and Platinum)
• Room Upgrade (Gold and Platinum)
• Guaranteed Lounge Access / Free Breakfast (Gold and Platinum)
• 48-Hour Guaranteed Availability
• Guaranteed Platinum Arrival Gift
• 50% point bonus

Regarding free breakfast: If the hotel has a lounge, you get free access to it during your stay. If the hotel doesn’t have a lounge, then you’ll get free breakfast instead. There are many exclusions. For example, not all Marriott properties are included. Also, within the US and Canada, free breakfast is not guaranteed on weekends.

Regarding room upgrades: Usually this means getting a room on a higher floor.  Suite upgrades are rare.

I’ll follow up soon with more details about my Marriott stays as a Platinum elite, but here’s my brief take on the benefits:

• Don’t expect suite upgrades.
• Lounge access is a great benefit.  It means free (often hot) breakfast  each morning, and free hot appetizers each evening.  Some properties even include afternoon tea.  The downside: lounges are often closed on the weekend in the US and Canada.  In that case, you get nothing.
• Free internet is a great perk.
• The best benefit I received is not even listed as a benefit.  Twice I showed up extremely early for check-in (once at 9 a.m.).  Thanks to my Platinum status, they had my room ready immediately.
• At properties without an open lounge, I recommend taking the food and drink arrival gift instead of points if you’re hungry.  At most properties, you can chose between 500 points or a food and drink option.  In the past four months, my wife and I have often enjoyed getting a small bottle of wine along with a nice cheese and cracker tray at various Marriott hotels.  I value 500 Marriott points at less than $5, so I felt that we got great value from the food and drink options.

Two Strategies

There are two reasonable approaches to taking advantage of these challenges.  One is to sign up for the challenge and complete it in order to keep your status.  The other approach is to sign up for the challenge before a planned Marriott stay in order to enjoy high level elite status even if you have no plans to complete the challenge.  Let’s look at each of these options:

Option 1: Go for it

If you are planning a number of paid Marriott stays within a four month period, a Gold or Platinum challenge can be a great opportunity.  This way, your planned stays will be more rewarding and you’ll keep your status well past the end of the challenge.  It may even make sense for you to do a few “mattress runs” to complete the challenge.  The idea behind a mattress run is to check into the cheapest Marriott property you can find just to get credit for a stay. 

Timing this option correctly is critical.  Clearly, you would want to start the challenge prior to a number of planned stays.  Another important factor, though, is to start the challenge as soon in the new year as practical so that your earned status will last longer.  Here’s an example: if you complete a challenge that was started in December 2012, your earned status will be good through February 2014.  However, if you wait one month more and start the challenge in January 2013, your earned status will be good until February of 2015!  By starting your challenge just once month later, you will get an extra 11 months of elite status.

Option 2: Enjoy it

If you have a big Marriott vacation planned, it can make sense to sign up for the Platinum Challenge just to enjoy that status during that trip even if you have no plans at all to complete the challenge.  A year after the challenge is over, you are allowed to sign up for the challenge again!  In fact, if you travel often with a partner, the two of you could alternate challenges so that at least one of you has Platinum status a lot of the time.  Here’s an example:

• Jan 2: You sign up for challenge.  Your status lasts until the end of April.
• July 2: Your partner signs up for the challenge.  His/her status lasts until the end of October.
• May 2: You sign up for the challenge.  Your status lasts until the end of September.
• etc.

Challenge Considerations

Regardless of which option you decide to go with (if either), here are some things to keep in mind:

• A “stay” is different from a “night.”  If you stay 3 consecutive nights at a singe Marriott property, that will count as a single “stay” towards the challenge.  If you hop around to a different Marriott each of the 3 nights, that will count as 3 stays.
• If you can help it, never start a challenge on the first of the month since that will reduce the length of your challenge to exactly 3 months instead of nearly 4 months.
• Once you call to start the challenge, assume it will take 48 hours to kick in.  It will probably be faster than that, but that should be a safe interval to count on.
• You can save money on your stays by buying Marriott gift cards in advance.  Many deals expire by the end of this year, though, so it may make sense to buy the gift cards now.  For details, see “Marriott gift card triple dip.”
• You can save money on stays by booking with corporate codes, a government rate, AAA, etc.  However, I don’t recommend doing this unless you have proof of eligibility.  During my Platinum challenge, I was asked for proof at approximately 1 out of 3 stays.

Three stackable deals for buying Marriott gift cards come to an end on December 31st 2012. 

Sometimes hotel gift cards are better than points.  With gift cards you can take advantage of discount codes and hotel sales (except for prepaid rates).  With gift cards, you can earn points and progress towards elite qualification with each stay.  With gift cards, you never have to worry about seeing that the hotel where you want to stay has no rooms available for point redemptions.  And, gift cards are gift-able. 

Currently, there are three stackable deals that can be used to save money and earn points when buying Marriott gift cards.  In total, you can save over 17%!

Step 1: TopCashBack

Just until the end of this year, TopCashBack is offering 5% cash back when you click through their site to Marriott to buy gift cards.

1. Sign up for TopCashBack (if you use this link, I’ll earn a small referral bonus)
2. Go to TopCashBack.com and search for Marriott
3. Click through the button that says Marriott Gift Card 5% Cashback (as shown below)

Step 2: Amtrak Bonus

Until the end of the year, you can get 10% more value added to any Marriott gift card you buy simply by entering the Amtrak promotion code AMT.  Terms & Conditions can be found here.

1. Select a gift card.  After going through the TopCashBack steps listed above, you will end up at the Marriott gift card site where you can pick out the gift card you want to buy.  For this promotion, gift cards with value between $25 and $1500 are eligible.
2. Check out.  Enter code AMT in the box titled “APPLY PROMOTION CODE“.  Loyalty Lobby shows the steps here.

Step 3: Pay with Freedom or Discover

This quarter’s Chase Freedom 5X category includes “hotels”.  Since the gift card purchase is processed by Marriott.com, it counts towards the 5X category.

If you don’t have the Freedom card, or you’ve already maxed out the category bonus, another great option is to use a Discover card which offers 5% cash back for Online merchants this quarter.

Pay with either of the cards listed above to get 5X points or 5% cash back.  Both cards cap the quarterly bonus at $1500 in spend, so make sure you do not go over that amount.

Add it up

Suppose you buy a $1000 Marriott gift card.  Here is how the costs and rebates add up:

• Cost: $1008.50 (Marriott charges $8.50 for express shipping or $1 for regular shipping with smaller orders).
• TopCashBack rebate: $50
• Freedom / Discover card rebate: $50
  • Note: If you have the Freedom card and an Ultimate Rewards card that allows transfers to loyalty programs then you can transfer the points to the other card and then use those points to transfer to airline miles, hotel points, or Amtrak points, all of which can be more valuable than straight up cash back.  Good examples of cards with this capability include: Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold, and Ink Plus.
• Amtrak bonus increases card value to: $1100
• Total cost after rebates: $908.50
• Total card value: $1100
• Total discount as % of card value: 17.4%

Additional Points

I went through the steps listed above and was pleased to receive confirmation of pending cash back from TopCashBack within a few hours.  Nice!  Of course, I’m not done earning points, free nights, & cash back from Marriott.  When using Marriott gift cards, you can stack promotions too…

• Make sure to sign up for the latest Marriott promotions.  Marriott regularly runs MegaBonus promotions.  For most people, this means that for every two Marriott stays, you’ll receive a free night certificate for a category 1 through 4 hotel.  Some people get a different offer: after 3 stays, receive a 1 night certificate for a category 1 through 5 hotel.  Either way, make sure to sign up!
• If you plan to stay at several Marriott properties within a few months of each other, consider going for their Gold or Platinum challenge.  See “Pursuing Platinum @ Marriott.”  This way you’ll be treated better as an elite and you’ll earn more points with each stay!
• When booking your stay, make sure to start in a point earning or cash back portal.  I use CashBackHolic to find the best option since it consistently delivers the most accurate results (see “Portal finder fight! Round 2“).
• When comparing rates, make sure to look at AAA and other rates you may qualify for.  In my experience, stays booked with AAA discounts do still earn portal points / cash, but stays booked on a government rate do not.  Your mileage may vary.  FYI, thanks to my wife’s job at a public University, we do qualify for government rates. 
• If you have some time on your hands, use Kayak or other aggregators to search for a site that offers a better rate than Marriott does directly.  If you find a price discrepancy, you can take advantage of Marriott’s “Look No Further Room Rate Guarantee” to save 25% off the lower rate.  Loyalty Traveler offers details here.
• When you check-out of your hotel, don’t forget to pay with your Marriott gift card!

This offer has expired

Thanks to DealsSeeker for tipping me off to this great opportunity… 

Through EBay, the GiftCardMall is offering $50 Marriott Travel cards for $40 each.  That’s a 20% discount on any Marriott stay!  Click here for the offer.

Save even more by starting at FatWallet for an additional 1% back! From FatWallet, go to EBay, then search for Marriott gift card.  Plus, you’ll earn 2% back in EBay Bucks as well!

Note that Travel cards have more restrictions than regular Marriott gift cards (see below the Terms & Conditions that I bolded).  In practice, though, I’ve never had any of those restrictions enforced.

Redemption Information

Marriott TravelCards may be used throughout the Marriott portfolio of brands, including participating retail, spa, golf, food and beverage outlets.

Terms & Conditions

Marriott TravelCards may be used within the Marriott portfolio of brands, including participating retail, spa, golf, food and beverage outlets. Card is a prepaid card, not a credit card, and is property of and issued by MI Fulfillment Services, LLC. Protect card like cash. This card does not expire. Each transaction will be debited against card balance; if transaction exceeds balance, user must pay the difference. Card is not redeemable for cash and change will not be returned except where otherwise required by applicable law. Card becomes inactive upon use of all card value. Card cannot be applied to group, special corporate/negotiated, catering, associate or other discounted/non-commissionable rates. Card cannot be used when reservation is booked by a travel agent or other third party. Card cannot be used to secure or confirm a reservation. Marriott Rewards points cannot be earned with the use of this card. Lost, stolen or damaged cards will be replaced only if previously registered. Value of replaced card will equal balance on card at the time it was reported lost, stolen or damaged. To check card balance and see complete terms and conditions, visit gifts.marriott.com or call +1.800.442.6132. Use of this card confirms acceptance of terms above.

Also note the shipping information:

Shipping Information

• Standard – All packages are shipped using USPS Critical Mail. You will receive a tracking number from U.S. Post Office that will track your package to your delivery address. You should expect your order to arrive in 3-5 business days.

All orders of $250 or more require a signature upon delivery and cannot be shipped to a P.O. Box.

Every 3 months, the Chase Freedom card offers 5X on spend within different categories of merchants.  This quarter (October through December), the 5X categories are hotels, airlines, Best Buy and Kohl’s. 

Here are some terrific ways to spend within those 5X categories:

Buy miles for .8 cents (Wyndham)

Loyalty Traveler summarizes the current bonus opportunities from Wyndham.  The gist is that its possible to book cheap hotel rooms (without showing up to check-in) and earn bonus points, then transfer the points to airline miles.  I really enjoyed this part of Loyalty Traveler’s post:

I found it interesting that Deals We Like linked to View from the Wing today who linked to Deals We Like  August post where she linked Travel by Points and Hack My Trip who linked Travel by Points who in his August post linked Loyalty Traveler for a blog post about the 16,000 points Wyndham Rewards promotion. It is like a genealogy chart of credits.

Maybe now I get get into his next genealogy chart?

Regarding the Freedom card:  Use it to pay for these stays. This way you’ll earn 5 points per dollar while buying miles (or hotel points) very cheaply!  Also, go through BigCrumbs to Wyndham to book your stay for a (possible) additional 2.1% cash back.

UPDATE: According to a post on FlyerTalk, Wyndham may not honor this deal after all.  For details, please see this post from View from the Wing.

Marriott & Southwest

Marriott has a terrific ongoing promotion in which you can earn 12 Southwest points per dollar when buying Marriott gift cards.  Go to www.marriottvacationcardoffer.com/southwest to purchase up to $1000 worth of Marriott gift cards.  If you use those Southwest points for “Wanna Get Away?” fares, then each point is worth 1.67 cents.  In other words, this is like a 20% rebate on Marriott gift cards.  Alternatively, you can trade in those points to get more Marriot gift cards (at a value of 1 cent per point).

Use your Freedom card to buy the Marriott gift cards and you’ll earn 5X on the purchase this quarter!  Thanks goes to Greek2Me who has confirmed that this purchase shows up on the Freedom statement as a hotel 5X purchase.

You can take this further by using your Marriott gift cards to qualify for Marriott’s Megabonus promotion.  Go to Marriott.com to sign up.  Different people are offered different promotions, but most people are offered a free category 1 to 4 night after every two Marriott stays.  You can take it even further by doing a Marriott Platinum Challenge at the same time!  See “Pursuing Platinum @ Marriott” for details.

Radisson Buy One Get One

Radisson has been running yet another great promotion (not as good as their incredible point-earning promotions, but still…) where one stay at any Radisson hotel will result in a voucher for a free night at any Radisson in the US, Canada, or Caribbean.  Unlike the Wyndham promotion, you do need to show up and check in.  Read “Hotel Promo Worthy of a Mattress Run: Radisson Buy One Night, Get One Night” for details.  Pay with your Freedom card for 5X!

Kohl’s 25X triple dip

While this has worked for me in the past, there is no guarantee that this will work every time, but it’s worth a shot.  Here’s how to get 25 points per dollar at Kohl’s:

1. Go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to Kohl’s.  Kohl’s currently offers 10 bonus points per dollar through the mall.  Buy Kohl’s gift cards for yourself.  Pay for the gift cards with your Freedom card.
2. Go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall again to Kohl’s to buy merchandise.  Use the Kohl’s gift card to pay.

If points post for all of the above, you should get 25 points per dollar!  To save even more (potentially, a lot more), check out the tips in this old (but still relevant) post: “Fantastic points and savings at Kohl’s.”

UPDATE: A reader has reported that the double-dip did not work.  They got points for using a Kohl’s gift card, but not for buying one.  You can still get 15X simply by going through the UR mall to Kohl’s to buy items and pay with your Freedom card (10X from the Ultimate Rewards Mall + 5X from the Freedom card this quarter)

Best Buy / Kohl’s gift cards

Both Best Buy and Kohl’s sell gift cards to other merchants (in-store only).  Merchant gift cards come with no taxes or fees, so using your Freedom card to buy gift cards to restaurants, department stores, etc. is a great way to max out your $1500 quarterly 5X spend.  At Best Buy, you can get Amazon Kindle gift cards which can be used for all Amazon purchases (but not for the Amazon Payments service).  Best Buy also sells Visa gift cards, but they charge $5.95 for $200 cards.  This amounts to a 3% fee.  If you don’t think you can otherwise max out your Freedom 5X category, this can be worthwhile (since 5X is worth more than 3%), but I wouldn’t recommend it otherwise.  (Hat Tip to GrahamCC)

Notes

In order to receive 5X for Freedom purchases, you do need to activate the 5X bonus before the end of the quarter. And, don’t forget that the 5X bonus is limited to $1500 of spend per quarter.

Until September 13 (Thursday), FatWallet is offering 6.5% cash back for stays booked at Marriott.com.  This is an excellent cash back rate, and FatWallet is a reliable cash back service (see “FatWallet sets a high bar for cash back portals”).

You do not have to stay at a Marriott before September 13 to get this rebate.  Just book your stay now, and then 6.5% cash back should get tracked to your account after your stay.  I double checked this with FatWallet to be sure.  They answered quickly:

The Cash Back amount for a purchase or a booking is based upon the time of the purchase. So, if you book today and don’t stay until November or December, it would report to your account at the percentage that you booked it at. So, a booking today would be for 6.5% even if the stay is tomorrow or next year.

Platinum Challenge

If, like me, you’re doing the Marriott Platinum (or Gold) Challenge, this can be a great way to save a bit of cash.  All of the cool kids are doing it (or writing about it):

• Points, Miles & Martinis wrote about the challenge here
• Loyalty Traveler wrote about it here
• View from the Wing weighed in here
• New Girl in the Air wrote about it here, and gave us some great ways to save and/or get points here.

Of course, I’ve written a few posts about this too:

• Pursuing Platinum @ Marriott
• Marriott Savings and Status
• Marriott Challenge Checkpoint

My plan is to make some “mattress run” bookings now for near the end of the challenge period.  Hopefully I’ll remember to cancel the ones I end up not needing.

Mo Money

FatWallet will give you $5 for each friend you refer who then earns at least $25 cash back.  Feel free to put your referral links in the comments below.