topic Re: Chase and Marriott in Credit Cards

Chase and Marriott

FutureBillionaire — Tue, 14 May 2013 22:50:24 GMT

Is there a difference if I transfer UR points to Marriott vs booking through the travel site with Chase and using UR points?

Re: Chase and Marriott

Anonymous — Tue, 14 May 2013 23:21:09 GMT

I've never transferred to Marriott, but with Hyatt's Gold Passport, it's a matter of point redemption. For example I have an upcoming stay at Hyatt that's 18,000 points, but a $339 price, not including a $40 resort fee. If I paid using UR points it would've cost me close to 31,000 UR if I paid with points, but its going to be 18,000 points.

I would assume its the same for Marriott.

Re: Chase and Marriott

FocusedAndDetermined — Wed, 15 May 2013 00:23:04 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I've never transferred to Marriott, but with Hyatt's Gold Passport, it's a matter of point redemption. For example I have an upcoming stay at Hyatt that's 18,000 points, but a $339 price, not including a $40 resort fee. If I paid using UR points it would've cost me close to 31,000 UR if I paid with points, but its going to be 18,000 points.

I would assume its the same for Marriott.

I'm still grappling with figuring out how the point systems work. How is it that you will only use 18k points, when it should be 31K points. What accounts for the difference? Also, what the final value of each point? Truly tryng to understand, so I can get the best value from my future cards. Any info you can provide will be appreciated. Thanks!

Re: Chase and Marriott

Anonymous — Wed, 15 May 2013 01:17:53 GMT

I'm no expert, but it seems like this is how it works:

When you book through UR, the number of points required is tied to the price of the room in dollars.

When you transfer to a loyalty program, the number of points required is determined by the hotel category, regardless of the price in dollars.

Thus, if you want to book a room at Hotel X through UR (or Amex Travel, etc.), and the fixed value is 1 cent per point, and the room is $200, then you will have to pay 20,000 points. If the rooms costs $400, then 40,000 points.

Whereas if you transferred the points to the loyalty program at Hotel X, and the category dictates that a room costs 30,000 points, then it will always cost 30,000 points, no matter how much you would pay in dollars.

This is of course subject to availability and can be changed by the hotel (see: recent hotel points devaluations, especially Hilton seasonal award rates.)

Hopefully that makes sense and others will chime in!

Re: Chase and Marriott

Anonymous — Wed, 15 May 2013 02:33:59 GMT

First thing you want to do is to sign up for that hotel's loyalty program and take a look at the different hotels that you're interested to stay at.

Again as I said before I'm a Hyatt person so I search by hotel category for the type of place I want to stay. For Hyatt it normally ranges from category 1 (which for most places is either in a not so high traffic area) up to category 6 which is top of the line. Points range from 5,000 for a cat 1 up to 22,000 for a cat 5.

Each loyalty program uses their own currency, whether its MP for United of Gold Passport points for Hyatt. You take the value of the hotel and divide by the number of points. So say you find a category 6 hotel that would cost you $580 to stay. So using UR points it would cost you 58,000 points or 1 cent per point. (To keep the math simple, I'm disregarding the 25% bonus for CSP). But if you use GP points it would be $580/22,000 points or 2.6 cents per point.

So to get a better value using paying with points the room would have to cost less than $220, which category 6 rooms are almost 99.9% more than $220.

There are a few times though that paying with points, or just paying with cash is better. For instance the cheapest round trip domestic in most cases is 25,000 miles. But a short flight can sometimes be found for $150 or less. So for 15,000 points you can get the flight and save yourself 10,000 UR. Or you can just pay in case and save your miles/UR points.

The beauty of having UR points is the flexibility and not being tied into one type of currency. The only thing I don't like about Hyatt is you can't search by availability online without having enough points in your account, meaning if I wanted to do a search myself I would need a minimum of 5,000 points transferred over.

Re: Chase and Marriott

CreditScholar — Wed, 15 May 2013 06:28:08 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
First thing you want to do is to sign up for that hotel's loyalty program and take a look at the different hotels that you're interested to stay at.

Again as I said before I'm a Hyatt person so I search by hotel category for the type of place I want to stay. For Hyatt it normally ranges from category 1 (which for most places is either in a not so high traffic area) up to category 6 which is top of the line. Points range from 5,000 for a cat 1 up to 22,000 for a cat 5.

Each loyalty program uses their own currency, whether its MP for United of Gold Passport points for Hyatt. You take the value of the hotel and divide by the number of points. So say you find a category 6 hotel that would cost you $580 to stay. So using UR points it would cost you 58,000 points or 1 cent per point. (To keep the math simple, I'm disregarding the 25% bonus for CSP). But if you use GP points it would be $580/22,000 points or 2.6 cents per point.

So to get a better value using paying with points the room would have to cost less than $220, which category 6 rooms are almost 99.9% more than $220.

There are a few times though that paying with points, or just paying with cash is better. For instance the cheapest round trip domestic in most cases is 25,000 miles. But a short flight can sometimes be found for $150 or less. So for 15,000 points you can get the flight and save yourself 10,000 UR. Or you can just pay in case and save your miles/UR points.

The beauty of having UR points is the flexibility and not being tied into one type of currency. The only thing I don't like about Hyatt is you can't search by availability online without having enough points in your account, meaning if I wanted to do a search myself I would need a minimum of 5,000 points transferred over.

+1. Hyatt offers better value for transfers, although there are a few exceptions. Marriott Travel packages definitely come to mind, as is any redemption in which you're short by a few points.