Staying at the Marriott Marquis in Atlanta this week and wanted to know if people recommended getting the 10 Marriott points per dollar spent or 2 FF miles per dollar spent (on BA, United, etc.). I realize that as with everything, it depends on what your saving points for but if you don't have a particular award in mind, is it better to have 10 Marriott points or 2 united miles?
Well, without any idea what you want to do with them, consider that 10 Marriott points convert to 4 airline miles @ 125k MR to 50k airline. There is better value still in accumulating for a travel package. Also note that with a Marriott Visa you can also add another 5 points per $, as you can with elite status as well.
If you expect to accrue 10,000 points over time, then you can always exchange for 2,000 miles at some later date. Taking 2 miles/$1 now has no miles earn rate advantage.
Under most circumstances the points are more beneficial. As we stay in hotels far more often than we fly...the points benefit us more...we now do very little international travel, so flights aren't that pricey for us. (hotel in NYC for one night costs us more than the airfare to get there....) If you take points and need miles later, you can always redeem a travel package that includes both.....
As a rule of thumb, I always earn any program's "currency" and burn for that rograms products rather than exchanging for another programs points. There are, of course, exceptions.
Hi, To add to this, if you plan to have at least 10 nights in a year, earning points will also kick in the silver elite bonus, getting you 12 points per dollar. Cheers, GenevaFlyer
If you're able to accumulate enough miles to redeem a Marriott Travel Package Award, you can convert up to 120K Marriott Rewards Points at a 1-to-1 ratio with a wide variety of airlines. Even better, if you time this with a conversion bonus promo (such as the 50% ones Delta and USAirways have run in the past couple of years), you could get as many as 1.5 airline miles per MRP. Not everyone can reasonably accumulate enough MRPs to redeem one of these packages, but if you can, then it is an extremely strong factor in favor of taking 10 MRPs versus 2 miles per dollar spent.
If you intend to stay in Marriotts semi-often, or even if you just stay one Category 5 night per year, snag their credit card. Perpetual Silver status...you'll earn 17 pts/$ at full-service hotels and 1 free night certificate per year that roughly offsets the annual fee. Silver's not a rockstar status or anything, but it'll generally ensure that someone else besides you gets the worst room in the hotel. (In other words, it will not ensure an upgrade but they'll probably get your bed/smoke right.)
These travel packages are an outstanding value if you have the MRPs available. Over the years, we have found it easier to earn these points than to earn airline miles, so we have cashed in MRPs for several packages and gained miles to use on first/business seats to Europe and Hawaii. Unfortunately last year Marriott ceased their relationship with American Airlines, our main airline, but we still plan to go for packages with United and possibly other airlines.
10 Marriott Points unless they are running a special for airline miles. A few months ago they were offering 5,000 Delta miles for every stay if you flew Delta. So I earned ~ 5,200 Delta miles for a $ 100/stay! Makes the room almost free.
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