Marriott Rewards 80K offer

[icyhot]

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@negg wrote:

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@jsucool76 wrote:
I put almost NO spend on my marriott card (Few things here and there to keep it active) but the annual free night gets rid of the "useless" factor for me.

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  And this has become a joke all in itself.  About the only the hotels left in the cat 5 or lower are Fairfield and springfield hotels or w/e they call them.  I'll will say if you stay exclusively with Marriott the 5 points per $1 add up nicely.   Just put my family up in the Waikiki Marriott, one week later 12,750 points.   Not bad. 

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Can't really say that definitively because the category a brand is in depends heavily on the area. There are some Cat4 Courtyards by me 

[Anonymous]

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@icyhot wrote:

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@negg wrote:

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@jsucool76 wrote:
I put almost NO spend on my marriott card (Few things here and there to keep it active) but the annual free night gets rid of the "useless" factor for me.

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  And this has become a joke all in itself.  About the only the hotels left in the cat 5 or lower are Fairfield and springfield hotels or w/e they call them.  I'll will say if you stay exclusively with Marriott the 5 points per $1 add up nicely.   Just put my family up in the Waikiki Marriott, one week later 12,750 points.   Not bad. 

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Can't really say that definitively because the category a brand is in depends heavily on the area. There are some Cat4 Courtyards by me 

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Same here...location is key.

[Anonymous]

Current offer is a little on the blah side. 1 month with no new trades honestly isn't enough "incubation" time after a round of bonus collections.

[jsucool76]

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@negg wrote:

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@jsucool76 wrote:
I put almost NO spend on my marriott card (Few things here and there to keep it active) but the annual free night gets rid of the "useless" factor for me.

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  And this has become a joke all in itself.  About the only the hotels left in the cat 5 or lower are Fairfield and springfield hotels or w/e they call them.  I'll will say if you stay exclusively with Marriott the 5 points per $1 add up nicely.   Just put my family up in the Waikiki Marriott, one week later 12,750 points.   Not bad. 

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A) This is entirely innacurate. There are cat 1-5 properties in almost ALL brands (excluding Ritz and Edition as they operate on the tier system)

B) The category is not based on brand, it is based on location

C) There is NOTHING wrong with fairfield and springhill suites. Definitely acceptable hotels. Some are actually quite nice. 

[negg]

Granted there's a cat 4 courtyard in Bismarck ND. Not exactly a place where people go. Where people actually go cat 5 hotels are trying up. I know of at least 3 courtyards that where cat 4 now are cat 6.  This is my point.  

[someone379]

Just stayed at a Cat 4 Courtyard in Bloomington, MN down the street from the Mall of America, there were quite a few CAT 4 options there, and it is hardly Fargo.

There are still options out there, but overall the points really are not worth much and only really worth it if you are using the card to get 5x points at their hotels, IMO.

I am not disappointed with opening the card, I did it because I wanted it, but was just pointing out that it really is not worth much in everyday spending.

[Anonymous]

Gonna have to agree with Jsu, maybe it's because we live in the same state but there a good number of category 5 and lower marriotts here. I certainly have had no trouble finding any..

[onstar]

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@jsucool76 wrote:

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@negg wrote:

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@jsucool76 wrote:
I put almost NO spend on my marriott card (Few things here and there to keep it active) but the annual free night gets rid of the "useless" factor for me.

---

  And this has become a joke all in itself.  About the only the hotels left in the cat 5 or lower are Fairfield and springfield hotels or w/e they call them.  I'll will say if you stay exclusively with Marriott the 5 points per $1 add up nicely.   Just put my family up in the Waikiki Marriott, one week later 12,750 points.   Not bad. 

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A) This is entirely innacurate. There are cat 1-5 properties in almost ALL brands (excluding Ritz and Edition as they operate on the tier system)

B) The category is not based on brand, it is based on location

C) There is NOTHING wrong with fairfield and springhill suites. Definitely acceptable hotels. Some are actually quite nice. 

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A) Yup. For cat 5, there are at least 3 Marriotts to choose from in southern California: Fullerton, Irvine, Long Beach. Can't speak for Fullerton, but the other 2 are really nice. And the Residence Inn in San Diego (La Jolla) and the one in Irvine (John Wayne Airport) are super nice; nicer than many Marriotts.

B) Well, it's based on both the brand and the location. Within the same locale, the higher end hotels will generally be in a higher category.

C) True. Within the same brand, some locations are so much nicer than others. You will find many Springhill Suites that are on par with the Marriotts in quality.

[onstar]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@someone379 wrote:

I like the bonus on this card, I have it and got it for 70k points, and it's metal so it's a cool card, but I have found that except for that bonus  and the metal cool factor, my card is pretty much useless.   I charge a few things to it to keep it active, but the rewards outside of the bonus are meh.  Not a bad deal on the free room each year I guess even with the AF.

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Is that necessary? I always assumed AF was enough activity to keep AF cards active. Any datapoints on this?

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Probably not necessary. But I do it anyway. I try to charge at least one thing every other month, on all my cards that I care about.

[jsucool76]

tons of cat 5 and lower hotels right near Disney and universal. can't say no one goes there.