@K-in-Boston wrote:@SouthJamaica with Marriott it's pretty simple. You get 10 points per dollar spent (except for Element, Residence Inn, and TownePlace Suites which are 5 points per dollar) just for being enrolled in the Bonvoy program. That's all charges to the room (room rate, dining, etc.) except for taxes and parking (rarely, you actually will get credit for parking). Silver gets a 10% bonus, Gold gets a 25% bonus, Platinum gets a 50% bonus, and Titanium and Ambassador get a 75% bonus. All charges at a Marriott property (including restaurants on the property that get coded as Marriott, an example would be the Starbucks at street level at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square) earn 6 points when charged to a Marriott-branded credit card from Chase or Amex. Gold members earn a welcome gift of 250 or 500 points depending on the property, for Platinum through Ambassador you get a choice of points (500/1000) or another welcome gift.
So let's take a single night at a Marriott or Sheraton with a $250 room rate, $50 in taxes, and $50 parking to make it easy. A Platinum member earns 2500 base points, 1000 points as a welcome gift, and 1250 bonus points, for a combined total of 4750 points on the $250 (which works out to 19 points per dollar on that portion at least; that will get diluted with each additional night since that welcome bonus is on the whole stay vs each night). Paying with your Marriott card, you earn 6 points per dollar on the whole $350, or 2100 points. Grand total is 6850 points earned. Even at a very conservative 1 cpp value, that would be $68.50 back.
Marriott also has constant bonus promotions going on, and Marriott can be booked through a shopping portal like SkyMiles Shopping or eBates for even more earning. In addition to the above, almost all of my February-April stays were under a double points promotion (only the 10x base was doubled, but I was earning a total of 25 points per dollar plus welcome gift plus card and portal earnings), a double elite nights credit (going to hit Titanium in the middle of the summer!), and I earned either 4 SkyMiles or 10 Membership Rewards points (via eBates) per dollar on the bookings on top of the 6x on the Marriott card.
@K-in-Boston I'll echo the thanks for the great information here. I like to take advantage of the bonus promotions too, esepcially when they fit within a work trip budget. Based on the information you provided here, it seems like some combination of the Bonvoy Brilliant and CSR/Platinum would provide me with great value.
Using the 21 points per $ that you referenced earlier, I'd be able to earn anywhere between 45,000 and 60,000 Marriott points per work trip. That would be based on base nightly rate, so in theory I'd be able to accrue even more through dining purchases, bonus point promotions, etc.
