So, I got this offer in my inbox a few minutes ago. Why oh why does it have to be under 5/24, Chase? I'll take 120k for up to $12k spending over 80k or 100k for $x,000 spending any day! Reading through the fine print, I did notice an interesting little addition to the bottom of the terms:
Chase cardmembers who currently have or have had a Chase credit card in any Rewards Program associated with this offer, may not be eligible for a second Chase credit card in the same Rewards Program. Chase cardmembers currently receiving promotional pricing, or Chase cardmembers with a history of only using their current or prior Chase card for promotional pricing offers, are not eligible for a second Chase credit card with promotional pricing.
I'm so tempted to try anyway, but I know if I did that it would just be an absolutely wasted HP or two. Sigh.
Oh yeah, forgot to highlight that this offer also waives the $85 annual fee for the first year, which the public 80k and 100k offers don't. Because of the bar of spending needed to obtain this bonus, it really should be exempt from 5/24. Typically (I know there would be some exceptions), churners and bonus chasers aren't going to commit to $12,000 in spending.
I am 5/24 until April 2019 (got my NFCU Flagship Rewards and PenFed Power Cash Rewards 7 months ago), when I will be 3/24. By then, I'm sure the Marriott landscape will have changed greatly. Hopefully I'll instead be enjoying a nice bonus on an ultra-premium $450 AF Amex Marriott card by then.
@K-in-Boston wrote:
So, I got this offer in my inbox a few minutes ago. Why oh why does it have to be under 5/24, Chase? I'll take 120k for up to $12k spending over 80k or 100k for $x,000 spending any day! Reading through the fine print, I did notice an interesting little addition to the bottom of the terms:
Chase cardmembers who currently have or have had a Chase credit card in any Rewards Program associated with this offer, may not be eligible for a second Chase credit card in the same Rewards Program. Chase cardmembers currently receiving promotional pricing, or Chase cardmembers with a history of only using their current or prior Chase card for promotional pricing offers, are not eligible for a second Chase credit card with promotional pricing.
I'm so tempted to try anyway, but I know if I did that it would just be an absolutely wasted HP or two. Sigh.
Eh, I don't think this is as good as it looks.
If you stay at Marriotts with any frequency (5 nights per month or more), using this card only for Marriotts for the first year at $1,000/month (very doable), you'll walk away with 240k points (120k + 120k) before any MegaBonus/Elite bonuses. With the base offer of 80k for $3000 spend, this same pattern would result in 260k points (80k + 120k + 60k). It gets even less appealing if you stay less or spend less at Marriotts. Taking the baseline 80k point sign-up for $3000 spend, if you get that card and only use it for $3000 at Marriott properties, you'll get at least 125k points (80k + 30k + 15k) before any MegaBonus/Elite bonus points, and still have $9,000 you can use toward miles or something else.
The only use case where I see this being good is for the person who wants Marriott points but rarely spends/stays at Marriott. If this person is looking for a way to accumulate points, this would certainly do it, though after the promotion it will get difficult to generate points at any rate without at least some spend with Marriott.
@iced wrote:Eh, I don't think this is as good as it looks.
If you stay at Marriotts with any frequency (5 nights per month or more), using this card only for Marriotts for the first year at $1,000/month (very doable), you'll walk away with 240k points (120k + 120k) before any MegaBonus/Elite bonuses. With the base offer of 80k for $3000 spend, this same pattern would result in 260k points (80k + 120k + 60k). It gets even less appealing if you stay less or spend less at Marriotts. Taking the baseline 80k point sign-up for $3000 spend, if you get that card and only use it for $3000 at Marriott properties, you'll get at least 125k points (80k + 30k + 15k) before any MegaBonus/Elite bonus points, and still have $9,000 you can use toward miles or something else.
The only use case where I see this being good is for the person who wants Marriott points but rarely spends/stays at Marriott. If this person is looking for a way to accumulate points, this would certainly do it, though after the promotion it will get difficult to generate points at any rate without at least some spend with Marriott.
One of the other major differences here from the regular signup bonuses is that this offer is 10 points per dollar spent on the first $12,000 of spend. Not an additional 10 points, so your "not as good as it looks" point is well taken and for some people it may not be as good as a standard offer. Also, the fine print for that "Earn up to 120,000 bonus points" is actually misleading since you're not going to get that many bonus points. (There's also a rare targeted 150,000 point offer for $30,000 that is the same as this but 5 points per dollar for the first $30,000 in spend.) From the fine print:
The 10 points will appear on your statement as follows: 5 points plus an additional 5 points on qualifying purchases made at participating Marriott®, The Ritz-Carlton®, and SPG® locations; 2 points plus an additional 8 points on each $1 spent in the following categories: restaurants; airline tickets purchased directly from the airline; and car rental agencies; and 1 point plus an additional 9 points for each $1 spent on all other purchases. After that you’ll earn [insert standard reward structure for this card]...
If I were able to get this offer, it would be great for me because the only spend I would be putting on it would have been 1x spend. I do have spend that is non-category with cases where I cannot use my preferred payment method (Amex SPG). So 80k standard offer + 12k (at 1x, and inflating the annual spend to make the spending even between offers) would be a fantastic 92,000 points but this way I'd be getting 120,000 that normally would have been on something like CSP for only 12,000 Marriott points.
If you stay at Marriotts with any frequency (5 nights per month or more), using this card only for Marriotts for the first year at $1,000/month (very doable), you'll walk away with 240k points (120k + 120k) before any MegaBonus/Elite bonuses. It would actually only be the 120k. With the base offer of 80k for $3000 spend, this same pattern would result in 260k points (80k + 120k + 60k). It's been a long day, so maybe I missed something but you lost me here. Wouldn't it be 80k signup bonus and then with $12k of Marriott spend be 60k points, for a total of 140k points? It gets even less appealing if you stay less or spend less at Marriotts. For my spend, that would be 80k bonus plus 12k in 1x spend. I'm the first to say that under normal circumstances, a Marriott card is a horrible way to earn Marriott points, even if it's all spent at Marriott - SPG is so much better! LOL Taking the baseline 80k point sign-up for $3000 spend, if you get that card and only use it for $3000 at Marriott properties, you'll get at least 125k points (80k + 30k + 15k) I'm lost again; 80k bonus + 15k (5 points x 3k) is 95k - where's the 30k from? before any MegaBonus/Elite bonus points, and still have $9,000 you can use toward miles or something else. With my spend, I'd certainly only put Marriott charges on SPG for the higher earning wherever possible so I would barely eek out any points.
Just want to say that I see where you were going with that (even if I am confused by the actual totals) and I'm not debating your point. My actual spend at Marriott is minimal. I think I'll hit 17 nights this year and that'll likely continue 15-20 or so annually since I don't really travel for business purposes - almost exclusively leisure. For me, using SPG (3x points for everything but Marriott/SPG which is 6x) for everything but flights (Amex Platinum, 5x), non-Marriott hotels (Amex Platinum via Amex Travel, 5x), Freedom categories (5x), or places where I can't use Amex (Freedom or CSP at 1x) is the best way to earn Marriott points, but I would certainbly be willing to switch up my 1x non-Amex spend for an extra 108k points!
@K-in-Boston wrote:
Just want to say that I see where you were going with that (even if I am confused by the actual totals) and I'm not debating your point. My actual spend at Marriott is minimal. I think I'll hit 17 nights this year and that'll likely continue 15-20 or so annually since I don't really travel for business purposes - almost exclusively leisure. For me, using SPG (3x points for everything but Marriott/SPG which is 6x) for everything but flights (Amex Platinum, 5x), non-Marriott hotels (Amex Platinum via Amex Travel, 5x), Freedom categories (5x), or places where I can't use Amex (Freedom or CSP at 1x) is the best way to earn Marriott points, but I would certainbly be willing to switch up my 1x non-Amex spend for an extra 108k points!
Not to change the subject here, but just something I noticed: according to your signature, why do you use the Freedom/CSP at 1x when you can use the FU at 1.5x? Sure the 0.5 is minimal, but I'll argue it's something.
