Comprehensive Guide to Marriott/Ritz Carlton Rewards (and Their Credit Cards)

[jsucool76]

Just a heads up. Did a dummy booking online for may 13-14, ocean view was coming up as 60k points plus 300usd a night for the upgrade. Yuck. I'd still recommend calling the hotel to see if you can get anything better, or ask at check in.

[Anonymous]

Thinking maybe Cavallo Point using Arrival + points and Carmel Highlands on free Hyatt nights now. Save HMB for summer.

[jsucool76]

Bump

About 20 marriott rewards members,including myself will be meeting with some Marriott Int'l staff, including Thom Kozik, VP of Global Loyalty - Marriott Rewards, as well as some members of their digital/social media team this weekend in Houston. 

If I hear anything good (especialy anything about SPG )) I'll be sure to post it here.

[jsucool76]

#DoublePost.

Alternatively, if anyone has any questions they want me to ask, let me know.

[wasCB14]

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@jsucool76 wrote:

Bump

About 20 marriott rewards members,including myself will be meeting with some Marriott Int'l staff, including Thom Kozik, VP of Global Loyalty - Marriott Rewards, as well as some members of their digital/social media team. 

If I hear anything good (especialy anything about SPG )) I'll be sure to post it here.

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What sort of Marriott spend/night count did it take to get that invite?

Sorry if you already said, tl;dr.

[jsucool76]

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@wasCB14 wrote:

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@jsucool76 wrote:

Bump

About 20 marriott rewards members,including myself will be meeting with some Marriott Int'l staff, including Thom Kozik, VP of Global Loyalty - Marriott Rewards, as well as some members of their digital/social media team. 

If I hear anything good (especialy anything about SPG )) I'll be sure to post it here.

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What sort of Marriott spend/night count did it take to get that invite?

Sorry if you already said, tl;dr.

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Just takes being a member. We're all meeting up at the JW Marriott Houston Downtown. It was just an event made by other members for members to meet up. (The planning occured over on the Marriott Rewards Insiders forum (which is a public forum, hosted by marriott, with a marriott staff presence). 

The community manager there helped get marriott int'l to host a cocktail reception, and a special discounted/group rate was set up for those attending (about 50% off the AAA rate). Then I guess she contacted her boss and was like "hey, look, lets get some people there" and so now Thom Kozik(VP), the community manager, as well as her boss are all coming. 

[go_FICO_self]

Nice! I'm guessing you might be the youngest person there.

[jsucool76]

I'm pretty sure I will be. L.

[jsucool76]

Quick update as the event here in Houston is closing. I did hear some things!

We were introduced to a new product, that should be launching in about december. I was actually one of the testers of the prototype for it quite a while ago, and they made some great improvements.

It will allow you to make lists of your favorite things to do in certain cities/areas/near hotels, and it will be open to everyone. You can link it with your social media (facebook/twitter/instagram) and when you make a reservation for a hotel, right on your reservation confirmation will be a list that other members, or your friends on social media have made, of a list of things they enjoyed while visiting that city/staying at that hotel.

The way they explained it to us, was, you're more likely to listen to a friend of yours that says "check out this restaurant" than a random review on tripadvisor. Seems like a great idea.


In credit card news, i did ask the VP about the SPG credit card, and about if anything similar to the barclays aviator cards would be happening with amex and SPG. The response I got was "Lovely weather we're having today, isn't it.' We'll see what that means a little bit down the line.


Thom Kozik is also looking to do away with the Tier system, and combining everything into the category system, which means no more separate categorizations for ritz/edition hotels, and the rest of the marriott portfolio.

I was also told they're looking into replacing the pointsavers system, with something more along the lines of seasonal category changes. This way (the example we spoke about was hotels near big football colleges) the hotels won't be a high category in off season, when there (in our example) isn't any football games going on.

He also mentioned a new system, where at Ritz for example, where gold and platinum members do not get free breakfast, there could be some kind of hotel/resort credit given in lieu of that, which would be cumulative that members could then save up for other things.

He did say that was is planned for the SPG merger will be amazing, and that we will all, no doubt, be impressed by what they're doing with the programs.



That's all I've got time to write about for now, but we'll see what happens.

[hardworkrebuilding]

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@jsucool76 wrote:

 Now In marriott rewards you can choose to earn either points and miles, but earnings differ based on hotel brand. 

You earn 10 base points, or 2 miles per dollar on ALL qualifying charges at (room service, hotel restaurant, spa services, and so on)

• JW
• Autograph Collection
• Marriott
• Rennaissance
• MVC

You earn 10 base points, or 2 miles per dollar on room rate ONLY at

• SHS
• FFI
• Protea
• CY
• Moxy
• AC
• Gaylord
• RC

You will earn 5 base points or 1 miles per dollar on room rate ONLY at

• RI
• TPS

You will earn 2.5 points or 1 mile per dollar on 

• MEA (Room Rate Only)
• ES (All Qualifying Charges) 

Recently stayed at Marriott, points were awarded based on room rate.  It's been  several month's since I stayed at a Rennaissance so I can't say to be sure, but Marriotts do not include restaurant, bar, etc in the points calculation for the stay.  (Obviously, does count on the Marriott CC)