IHG Rewards Select / Marriott Rewards Premier / Hyatt CC

[Pistons0]

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@jsucool76 wrote:

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@lg8302ch wrote:

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@jsucool76 wrote:
categories for all the hotels are based on location.

Marriott includes silver status (via 15 elite night credits, and offers another elite night for every 3k spend) silver status will get you free WiFi, and that's about it. 20% bonus points. if you get to gold status the benefits skyrocket.

Hyatt card gives you platinum status, which though it's mid tier is still kind of meh. Hyatt is good because you can upgrade to a better room with points. Marriott kind of let's you do that but not as well.

ihg is meh. they don't have too many nice hotels around, just a few here and there. still a great deal on the card though.


as far as Marriott rooms, 50k points will not get you 5 nights unless you're staying in like... Flint Michigan.

most hotels you see will be category 5+
cat 1 - 7500 points (almost nonexistant)
cat 2 - 10000 (never seen one)
cat 3 - 15000 ^^
cat 4 - 20k you'll see these around, but they won't be in your big destinations like NYC or Disney. at least they won't be near the action
cat 5 - 25k fairly common
cat 6 - 30k
cat 7 - 35k
cat 8 - 40k
cat 9 - 45k



categories 5-9 will be the most common you see if you travel to touristy places. points are pretty easy to come by. 12 points per dollar as a silver, plus the 5 points per dollar from the card on Marriott spend.

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I used my 70K points from the sign up bonus  for a vacation in FL. Used a category 2 Courtyard by Marriott which required 10K points per night in FLL. If you stay 4 nights with points  the 5th night is free. So what I did is used 80K points for 10 nights and the price per night would have been 159$ plus taxes. Basically if I had to pay it would have been 1’590$ plus taxes and like this it was only  80K points. IMO a great redemption value at least or me and the Courtyard is more than decent enough for me. The free night certificate though I use at a category 4 or 5 and both times got excellent value for money on that as well. During an exibition in Düsseldorf the hotel rates were sky rocketing and the room would have been 490$ so that was my first free certificate used. Then just recently stayed at a Marriott Vacation Club which had 2 bedroom villas and they accepted the free certificate with 5K points additional. The rate there would have been 450$ per night. But the best bonus for me from the Marriott card is that I can reach Gold status only because of the bonus nights from the card other wise I would have Silver only which is completely useless. Free WiFi you also get with a normal rewards card and no status.

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I didn't know there was any category 2's in FLL, but I live in boca so I'm not often staying in the miami or ft lauderdale area. 

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Thinking long term (3+ years), the Marriott card just seems like it has more perks, a card I could grow with, only being a student right now, with more hefty monthly spend in the future, the benefits at the higher tiers are hard to beat. Do either of you have this "Gold/ elite Status" and if so what are the perks it brings that you UTILIZE?

[jsucool76]

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@Pistons0 wrote:

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@jsucool76 wrote:

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@lg8302ch wrote:

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@jsucool76 wrote:
categories for all the hotels are based on location.

Marriott includes silver status (via 15 elite night credits, and offers another elite night for every 3k spend) silver status will get you free WiFi, and that's about it. 20% bonus points. if you get to gold status the benefits skyrocket.

Hyatt card gives you platinum status, which though it's mid tier is still kind of meh. Hyatt is good because you can upgrade to a better room with points. Marriott kind of let's you do that but not as well.

ihg is meh. they don't have too many nice hotels around, just a few here and there. still a great deal on the card though.


as far as Marriott rooms, 50k points will not get you 5 nights unless you're staying in like... Flint Michigan.

most hotels you see will be category 5+
cat 1 - 7500 points (almost nonexistant)
cat 2 - 10000 (never seen one)
cat 3 - 15000 ^^
cat 4 - 20k you'll see these around, but they won't be in your big destinations like NYC or Disney. at least they won't be near the action
cat 5 - 25k fairly common
cat 6 - 30k
cat 7 - 35k
cat 8 - 40k
cat 9 - 45k



categories 5-9 will be the most common you see if you travel to touristy places. points are pretty easy to come by. 12 points per dollar as a silver, plus the 5 points per dollar from the card on Marriott spend.

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I used my 70K points from the sign up bonus  for a vacation in FL. Used a category 2 Courtyard by Marriott which required 10K points per night in FLL. If you stay 4 nights with points  the 5th night is free. So what I did is used 80K points for 10 nights and the price per night would have been 159$ plus taxes. Basically if I had to pay it would have been 1’590$ plus taxes and like this it was only  80K points. IMO a great redemption value at least or me and the Courtyard is more than decent enough for me. The free night certificate though I use at a category 4 or 5 and both times got excellent value for money on that as well. During an exibition in Düsseldorf the hotel rates were sky rocketing and the room would have been 490$ so that was my first free certificate used. Then just recently stayed at a Marriott Vacation Club which had 2 bedroom villas and they accepted the free certificate with 5K points additional. The rate there would have been 450$ per night. But the best bonus for me from the Marriott card is that I can reach Gold status only because of the bonus nights from the card other wise I would have Silver only which is completely useless. Free WiFi you also get with a normal rewards card and no status.

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I didn't know there was any category 2's in FLL, but I live in boca so I'm not often staying in the miami or ft lauderdale area. 

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Thinking long term (3+ years), the Marriott card just seems like it has more perks, a card I could grow with, only being a student right now, with more hefty monthly spend in the future, the benefits at the higher tiers are hard to beat. Do either of you have this "Gold/ elite Status" and if so what are the perks it brings that you UTILIZE?

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Gold elite status comes with 50 elite nights total each year. It includes guaranteed executive lounge/concierge lounge access and if the hotel has no lounge, free breakfast or points or a credit at the hotel restaurant. It also includes a 25% bonus on all points earned, as well as a "room upgrade (based on availability). It includes free access to the high tier internet access at hotels (some hotels offer free wifi, some offer paid, either way you get "top tier" internet for free). You also get (one of the most important benefits other than lounge access in my opinion) the room type guarantee. If you get to a hotel and they dont have your room type available, they need to pay you (amount differs based on the hotel brand). 

Full listing of benefits here 

http://www.marriott.com/rewards/member-benefits.mi

[Anonymous]

I have a question. If you eat a restaurant at the hotel does that count for the restaurant category or the marriott category?

[jsucool76]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I have a question. If you eat a restaurant at the hotel does that count for the restaurant category or the marriott category?

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Depends on how the restaurant works. If they're Dba marriott then it will count in marriott category, if they're dba their own entity it will count toward restaurant category. 

Best way to be sure, is to ask if the restaurant will let you charge your bill to your room. Then it is guaranteed as a marriott category spend with 5x points/dollar. 

[Anonymous]

Good to know! Already planning to use my free night, lol.

[jsucool76]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Good to know! Already planning to use my free night, lol.

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I'm about to purchase 39,000 points and use a total of 80,000 for $1900 worth of hotel. so if my math is correct i'll be spending 1.25 cents per point and redeeming for 2.3 cents per point. 

[Anonymous]

You can purchase points?????

[jsucool76]

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@Anonymous wrote:
You can purchase points?????

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@Anonymous to 50,000 a calendar year, @$12.50/1000 points, or 1.25 cents per point. 

[Anonymous]

That's great news!

[Anonymous]

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@jsucool76 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
You can purchase points?????

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@Anonymous to 50,000 a calendar year, @$12.50/1000 points, or 1.25 cents per point. 

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Is that the same thing as something that I came across that said 'pay with cash and points' or something like that? I did some research on the Marriott card last weekend and was sad when I saw that any of the hotels I was looking at were more points/higher tires than the tiers that you get free nights at. Until you build up extra points by spending, that's how you could book at a higher tier then?