The most amount of Marriott points (well any hotel points) come from getting platinum status and getting their seasonal bonuses (e.g. stay 20 nights in these 3 months and get 35k points). As platinum you also get 20 points per dollar spent (10 points as member, 5 points for 50% bonus as platinum, and an additional 5 for the Chase Marriott credit card).

So like last week I spent $800 at a Marriott so I got 16k points. Lets say a Ritz is 80k points a night (category 9 Marriotts are only 40-45k). That would be $4,000 in hotel spend at platinum to get one night at a Ritz (which could easily be worth $800-1000). Which is pretty easy for a business traveler to do in 2 months. The point redemption value is actually pretty good.

I'm staying at a category 9 Marriott in Paris (Renaissance next to the Louve) and it's only 45k points. That was only $2,250 of Marriott hotel spend on my Marriott card for work. That specific hotel is going for 549 euros a night or ~$586. So 586/2260 is a 26% return which ain't too shabby.

If you're not a business traveler or don't frequently stay at hotels than it's a lot harder to rack up points. You can get 3 points per dollar spend on some cards and put that towards a hotel but that would take you almost $27k of credit card spend just to get 80,000 points.

3/10/2015 6:19:16 PM

I swear half the people in this thread must be accountants to want to deal with all the math involved to scheme a free hotel night or airline flight

3/10/2015 6:34:45 PM

Haha how is it scheming? I stay at a hotel or pay for a flight for work. The points automatically pop up in my account. I go book vacation flights and hotels and it tells me how many nights or how far I can fly. I only like doing the math to know how good a deal I'm getting.

My girlfriend and I are going to London and Paris for 10 days in a few weeks and it's entirely paid for with points I earned via work travel.

3/10/2015 6:51:20 PM

Yeah it's not really about the math.

3/10/2015 7:25:27 PM

Plus you are probably talking to a lot of engineers ITT.

3/10/2015 7:54:00 PM

and I am an accountant!

3/10/2015 10:35:52 PM

Don't get me wrong, power to the people determined enough to make the system work for you. Scheming isn't always a bad thing. Work smart not hard, but sometimes it certainly looks like hard work micromanaging all the points.

3/10/2015 10:54:29 PM

I think we make it sound like hard work because we get a kick out of all the nitty gritty details but in reality it's all more or less automatic. Sometimes you do have to be strategic about how you spend the points and I don't cycle through credit cards that often because I just rack up points through work travel. In that sense the system is designed to work for you. If you travel a bunch you get the benefits. I'm certainly going to miss it when I stop traveling so much for work though.

3/10/2015 11:00:21 PM

Quote :

"I think we make it sound like hard work because we get a kick out of all the nitty gritty details but in reality it's all more or less automatic."

Yup. It's not remotely hard, but even if it was, isn't $1000's worth of cash/flights/hotel nights worth a little work?

I put an extra $1000+ yearly towards my mortgage every year from points, and that's just from my 3rd most utilized card.

[Edited on March 10, 2015 at 11:59 PM. Reason : ]

3/10/2015 11:56:45 PM

I do not travel anymore, and have been cashing out my Chase UR points, am I being a moron?

3/11/2015 12:51:20 AM

At 1 cent per point ?!?!?

3/11/2015 2:31:33 AM

Quote :

"I think we make it sound like hard work because we get a kick out of all the nitty gritty details but in reality it's all more or less automatic. "

Yeah, about once ever six months I go does my purchasing line up with the rewards on my card? If yes, business as usual; if not, I'll see if there's a better card.

I don't think it's something most of us are looking into on the daily.

3/11/2015 2:40:28 AM

Quote :

"Don't get me wrong, power to the people determined enough to make the system work for you. Scheming isn't always a bad thing. Work smart not hard, but sometimes it certainly looks like hard work micromanaging all the points."

It's just like any other hobby. Easy to browse at work when there's nothing going on, plus I'm a nerd and like making spreadsheets and researching. I'm not neglecting my wife to apply for credit cards or anything.


What are the odds of getting approved for a SW Premier if I just got the Plus at the end of December?

3/11/2015 7:53:32 AM

Quote :

"At 1 cent per point ?!?!?"

lol i hope not. they're worth at least 1.7 cents/point last time I sold.

Quote :

"What are the odds of getting approved for a SW Premier if I just got the Plus at the end of December?"

Good. They're different cards. Can probably apply for both on the same day. There are 4 different SW cards.

3/11/2015 9:32:44 AM

Guess I should add it would be my 4th Chase card. One's really old but I got the UA 9/1/14 and the SW Plus 12/30.

3/11/2015 10:31:49 AM

Just keep this in mind when it comes to SW cards: http://www.extrapackofpeanuts.com/southwest-companion-pass/

3/11/2015 10:51:22 AM

Yeah, that's why I want the second.

3/11/2015 10:54:32 AM

Quote :

"I do not travel anymore, and have been cashing out my Chase UR points, am I being a moron?"

3/11/2015 11:31:18 AM

^^ But you'd have to get a third to get the comp pass.

3/11/2015 1:57:26 PM

I'm assuming he's already received a 50k point bonus in CY 2015.

[Edited on March 11, 2015 at 2:03 PM. Reason : ]

3/11/2015 2:02:27 PM

Yeah I got the 50k bonus in January and I've already spent 6-7k on it, plus I actually had real SW miles from a flight in January. 50k from the Premier and the required spend and I should be set. Unless I'm missing something?

3/11/2015 2:05:38 PM

Misread and thought you got the bonus in Dec. Yeah, you should be good to go.

3/11/2015 2:54:50 PM

Quote :

"it certainly looks like hard work micromanaging all the points."

Meh, award wallet keeps track of all my accounts, balances, exp dates, free night certificates, etc
You obv want to obtain certain points for certain trips and I try to diversify my portfolio but I'd hardly consider it micromanaging.
I consider it micromanaging when I see someone who don't churn but has a specific card for gas, another one for groceries, another one for flights, etc etc etc.

3/11/2015 2:58:11 PM

Quote :

"I consider it micromanaging when I see someone who don't churn but has a specific card for gas, another one for groceries, another one for flights, etc etc etc."

Hey now, gas and groceries are the same card for me.

I actually have a card for:
Gas and groceries (Blue Cash Preferred)
Amazon, movies, and restaurants (CitiForward)
Flights (Delta Reserve)
Everything else (Citi DoubleCash)

It's pretty low overhead.

3/11/2015 5:42:56 PM

Gas and groceries (PenFed)
Amazon and restaurants (CitiForward)
Everything else (Southwest)

3/11/2015 5:46:08 PM

That's a lot more work than:

Required spend to get bonus (New card)

[Edited on March 11, 2015 at 6:01 PM. Reason : ha I don't churn quite that much. I usually use the Sapphire if I don't have a new card]

3/11/2015 6:00:43 PM

^But it depends how you earn most of your points. I get way more points from work travel and purchases than I do from sign up bonuses. You may be flipped.

Chase Sapphire I get 2 points for dining and travel so that's my work card but I still use it for everything else. Ideally I'd get a groceries and gas card like an Amex Gold card or something but haven't gotten around to it.

3/11/2015 6:15:34 PM

I much prefer my 10-100% roi

3/12/2015 12:52:08 AM

What would be an example of 100% roi?

3/12/2015 8:37:02 AM

anyone have luck with getting Chase to increase your credit limit (unsolicited or without a hard pull)? I've had the card for 5+ years now; never gotten an unsolicited increase (wtf, all of my other cards have gotten increases without asking). Annoying that you have to call to request it; but I'd prefer to not have another hard inquiry on my report now.

3/12/2015 9:07:30 AM

They used to have an option to do it a long time ago but got rid of it. Annoyed me too when my Freedom card, which is like 8 years old, had a 5k limit and I'm opening new Chase cards and they're giving me 20k+ each time. So I just move a little over every time I close another Chase card.

3/12/2015 10:18:35 AM

an alternative with chase is if you have multiple cards (or just apply for one and get a new one) - they will cancel a card and combine the limits

3/12/2015 10:27:28 AM

Or you can move credit from one Chase card to another Chase card without an inquiry.

3/12/2015 10:41:04 AM

Quote :

"What would be an example of 100% roi?"

The US Air card gives you a free flight with one purchase.
After, that I'd say the Chase Hyatt will give you the best 'return'

3/12/2015 11:02:03 AM

The best return comes from status with a hotel or airline where you get huge bonuses or 15-20+ points per dollar spent. You can only get so much from a credit card...

3/12/2015 12:14:03 PM

Quote :

"Annoying that you have to call to request it; but I'd prefer to not have another hard inquiry on my report now."

Just call and ask. Depending on the amount, they should be able to do it without a hard pull. Chase auto increased my Ink Plus account after a year. Called in and had them raise my Sapphire Preferred by about 2k without a hard pull.

3/12/2015 12:56:35 PM

Quote :

"anyone have luck with getting Chase to increase your credit limit (unsolicited or without a hard pull)? I've had the card for 5+ years now; never gotten an unsolicited increase (wtf, all of my other cards have gotten increases without asking). Annoying that you have to call to request it; but I'd prefer to not have another hard inquiry on my report now."

Chase has increased my limit twice now on the sapphire preferred. I do travel a lot though and my company allows us to put business expenses on it. So I had a lot of months of 70 to 80% utilization that I would pay off each month. Most recent unsolicited increase was 4 months ago. They upped it from $10K to $12K.

Chase is pretty good about increasing the limit if you call though I believe. I ran into trouble with business expenses once and had them pull 2K from the freedom to increase the limit on my preferred.

[Edited on March 13, 2015 at 12:31 PM. Reason : .]

3/13/2015 12:30:14 PM

There used to be a way to do it through the site, but haven't had to worry about that for quite some time
Credit Card Limit $124,200

3/13/2015 1:21:08 PM

From the 15th-21st, Staples is offering a $20 rebate card for spending $250 or more on visa gift cards. Good if you have an Ink Plus (5x at office supply stores) and a Serve/BB account.

3/13/2015 1:31:22 PM

blarg 1 per household

[Edited on March 13, 2015 at 2:54 PM. Reason : ]

3/13/2015 2:53:12 PM

Tell family members to be expecting a rebate card. Also in-store only.

3/13/2015 3:01:32 PM

Driving to a Staples is more than $20 of my time.

3/13/2015 4:39:20 PM

Looks like Serve Credit Card loads are on the way out for anything besides Amex cards. That $1500/mo was nice while it lasted.

Serve FAQ under Add Money-Debit/Credit Card
https://www.serve.com/help/

Quote :

"Note: Starting April 16, 2015 you will only be able to use an American Express® Card if you want to load your account with a credit card. Discover, MasterCard and Visa credit cards will no longer be supported after April 16. "

Quote :

"Driving to a Staples is more than $20 of my time"

Also have the gift card fees to factor in. $4.95 for $50, $5.95 for $100 and $6.95 for $200.

3/13/2015 4:57:43 PM

anyone have the citi prestige card? Received an offer in the mail for 50K TY points and the new benefits look pretty slick.

3/13/2015 8:17:24 PM

^^ I plan on swinging by Monday since its next to work and I'm a little short on the required spend for this churn.

^ The $450 annual fee was too much for me esp since I wouldn't utilize a lot of the other benefits.

3/15/2015 2:53:36 PM

Round 1 of gift cards acquired. Now to make a Walmart trip. Speaking of which, that walmart money machine is slow as balls.

3/16/2015 1:03:48 PM

I'm looking to change out my main spending card from Southwest to something else...

2% on everything (that I don't get 3-5% for) sounds pretty good. https://www.fidelity.com/cash-management/american-express-cards

Outside of some places not taking Amex, are there any downsides or better "general spending" cards out there?


[Edited on March 16, 2015 at 2:56 PM. Reason : V no fee on this one]

3/16/2015 2:32:49 PM

David, let me know if Staples has any of those promo's in stock B&M, they usually are out by noon the day that promo begins for the $200 VGC's.

^ only thing about 2%er's is they usually have an AF hopefully waived year one and then you beg after year 1 to have it waived or switch to a different one every 12 months. Plenty of 2% cards out there though.

ptty- let me know via Pm which Wally location has a slow Kate.

[Edited on March 16, 2015 at 2:47 PM. Reason : .]

3/16/2015 2:46:47 PM

Just logged into Citi and was pleasantly surprised that you can now redeem for $100 gift cards at 1 cent/point...don't have to put it on your mortgage or student loans to get that rate any more

3/16/2015 3:03:47 PM

Yeah but you're still only getting 1% back.

3/16/2015 3:21:01 PM