How Chase customized my Marriott activation.

[jsucool76]

Glad to hear they're still doing the 70k.

The cat 1-4s are decent. There happens to be a cat 4 hotel in Gainesville, Florida, where I go fairly often, so I'll find use for it.

Category doesn't necessarily tell you how nice the hotel is. It's mostly based on location, and how often people travel there, so there is some pretty nice, but low cat, hotels around the world.

[Anonymous]

I stated at a Cat 4 recently. Pretty decent and booking was easy.

[lord_kinbote]

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@jsucool76 wrote:
Glad to hear they're still doing the 70k.

The cat 1-4s are decent. There happens to be a cat 4 hotel in Gainesville, Florida, where I go fairly often, so I'll find use for it.

Category doesn't necessarily tell you how nice the hotel is. It's mostly based on location, and how often people travel there, so there is some pretty nice, but low cat, hotels around the world.

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Well, I was just approved for the Chase Marriott card today and I am using the SM route to try and obtain the 70k points, after I meet the spend requirement.  I tried a bunch of links today, but the only way you could obtain the 70k was if you had an existing Marriott rewards account and your member level was at a min of "Silver".  So, I had to apply using the 50k link.  

[jsucool76]

Yeah the only offer I saw was the elite one as well. Shouldn't be a problem to get it matched by chase though. They just take forever to respond to SMs.

[takeshi74]

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@AintYouADaisy wrote:

Hey MBSS, how does one go about sm'ing them to expedite the new card if I have no account number yet with them?

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Call.

[lord_kinbote]

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@jsucool76 wrote:
Yeah the only offer I saw was the elite one as well. Shouldn't be a problem to get it matched by chase though. They just take forever to respond to SMs.

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The CSR seemed agreeable to Chase honoring the 70k offer.  As a matter of fact, I believe it states that they will honor any potential signup bons within the first 90 days after applying.  Anyway, the rep submitted the request and said I would receive a letter in the mail confirming or denying my request.  I told them I could see the offer now when I login to my Marriott account.  Of course, the reason I am eligible now is because my member level got bumped due to the recent Marriott Rewards app.  I am not sure how that will play out, but it does permit Chase room to balk.  I do not foresee this being an issue, but I have my screenshots saved and ready to go.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

What was your experience redeeming your free night at a Marriott 1-4?  Do you stay at a lot of their hotels?

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I got my approval (after a lengthy fraud verification proccess) I got a bunch of emails about my Silver status and the free reward night had posted.  I go to login to my previous existing Marriott Rewards number and don't see anything.  Hmm, maybe it takes a while to show up.  I try back in a couple days... same thing.  It wasn't until I re-read the email saying the bonus night posted that I saw they generated another Marriott number for me  Bummer.  I was able to get my nights and points from my existing Marriott number to the new account that's engraved on the back of my Marriott CC.

Once I created the account I saw the certificate was there and available for immediate use, despite the warning that it could take 6-8 weeks to post.  My wife and I are travelling to Key West for my brother's wedding in April and we live in the middle of Nowhere Louisiana, so we figured since Key West locations are category 8 at minimum lol, that we'll use the free night for Houston the night before we fly out, and that way we can catch an earlier flight too  There were a couple of nice hotels in Houston very close to the airport that were category 4 but unfortunately "FULL" and out of rooms for reward redemptions lol.  We found a decent looking Marriott Courtyard in Kingwood about 15 minutes from the airport.  The redemption was super easy, book with the option of using Rewards and instead of points it asked if I wanted to use my Certificate for the stay...

Oz