@Anonymous wrote:We travel to Vegas and stay in The Cosmopolitan for most of our stays. I understand all 3 can have status match and transfer points between them. So which one would be the best one for us to get to use in The Cosmopolitan?
For marriott stays I used the SPG card. You come out slightly ahead but the difference is not that great between that and the marriott card. SPG points are more flexible and cna be transfered to other travel partners.
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I use my SPG card as a Marriott card for its superior earning power, and my Chase and other Amex cards also have all their rewards points dumping into Marriott either directly or via SPG. You could also alternately add in American Express Platinum card in that list, as well. The Ritz-Carlton comes with a signup bonus with free nights that works only at Ritz-Carlton, and the Marriott Premier card comes with a free night every year; unfortunately it's category 1-5 only and the Cosmopolitan is Marriott's highest Category 9. Of course all of the cards besides the Ritz-Carlton come with signup bonus points that can easily cover 1 to 5 free Marriott nights, even in a Category 9.
Amex Platinum and Ritz-Carlton automatically give you SPG and Marriott gold status when you link your accounts. (You would need to spend $10,000 per year on the Ritz-Carlton card to maintain gold status, or $75,000 to get Platinum status.) SPG will give you Gold Status with $30,000 or more spend per year. The math gets fuzzy with the Marriott card depending on how many nights you stay per year the spend requirements would be different. With 0 nights, you'd need to spend $105,000 to get Gold or $180,000 per year for Platinum status.
As for earning, like I said the SPG wins most battles and paired with the Platinum card is far superior for earning than the Chase offerings. I'll copy and paste from a previous post I made:
SPG points can be transfered to Marriott points 1:3, and Membership Rewards can be transferred to SPG 3:1 making them 1:1 with Marriott.
Ritz-Carlton and Marriott Rewards Premier cards earn 5 Marriott points for Marriott/RC/SPG stays.
Ritz-Carlton and Marriott Rewards Premier cards earns 2 Marriott points for direct airline tickets, direct car rentals, and restaurants.
Ritz-Carlton and Marriott Rewards Premier cards earns 1 Marriott point for all other purchases.
(For the following, assume converting SPG 1:3 or MR 1:1 to Marriott)
Starwood Preferred Guest card earns 6 Marriott points for Marriott/RC/SPG stays and restaurants located in Starwood properties.
Starwood Preferred Guest card earns 3 Marriott points for all other purchases.
Amex Platinum earns 5 Marriott points for direct airline tickets.
Amex Platinum earns 5 Marriott points for hotel bookings on other brands when prepaid through Amex portal.
Amex Platinum also has many Amex Offers that can multiply MRs substantially earning many Marriott points.
I'll add to that copy and paste that Amex Platinum would effectively earn 1 Marriott point for "all other purchases" as the Ritz-Carlton does. The Ritz-Carlton and Amex Platinum certainly have much higher annual fees, but comes with staggeringly more benefits. The Marriott and SPG cards are $85 and $95, with the Marriott at least giving you a free night. The current programs are not expected to change until after 2018, so at least for the foreseeable future going the Amex route is still the best way to earn Marriott points for most people.
You should get all of the Marriott Gold Elite perks when staying at an Autograph Collection property, but I am not sure any reciprocal status matching arrangements are in effect for anything but SPG.
http://www.marriott.com/marriott-rewards/member-benefits/gold.mi
As as for the CSR, there are no specific Marriott or SPG benefits that I am aware of other than being able to transfer UR to Marriott. Many of the perks would overlap with RC and Amex Platinum, though.
@Anonymous wrote:I don't know if this makes a difference but I do have a CSR with Chase. And would being a gold Marriott member make you a Cosmopolitan gold member as well? I know I can transfer Marriott points to Identity points but status wasn't clear.
A few years ago when I was last in vegas I stayed at the Cosmopolitan as a plat elite. I got very little. Think they gave me a pass for the buffet, expedited checkin and I could skip the buffet line. Shortly after my stay they took away even some of the benefits I receieved so I really would not expect much if anything being a marriott gold there. You would likely be treated better at other marriott properties in vegas. That being said I'd avoid the marriott vacation club or whatever it is. That had to be one of the worst marriott stays I had in my entire life and I was there as a plat. I hated that place.
@simplynoir wrote:Thank goodness for the forum search function. Thanks for this informative post.
Glad you found it useful! As the resident Plat/SPG salesman I should just make that post my signature. LOL