@red259 wrote:
@K-in-Boston wrote:
@UpperNwGuy wrote:
@K-in-Boston wrote:
@Anonymous And what happens with the Gold/Plat50/Plat75 tiers, and how one can earn higher elite status through spend will play a massive role in whether I continue with Marriott/Starwood as the cornerstone of my rewards strategy.I have never heard of anyone using Marriott as the cornerstone of their rewards strategy until reading your post just now. I think you need to revisit your entire strategy. My advice would be to base your rewards strategy on MR, UR, airline miles, or cash back. Hotel points just don't cut it.
Over the past year or so, I’ve cashed out about 500,000 Marriott points at an average of about 2.6 cents each. The majority of that was earned using the SPG card with 3 points per dollar (6 for revenue stays) which is effectively 7.8% back, airfare spend I got 5 points per dollar via Amex Plat which is effectively 13% back, and the rest I got 1 or 2 points via URs for 2.6 to 5.2% back. Plus there’s the Freedom spend that was 13% back and lots of Amex Offers, too. I do amass URs and MRs - they get dumped into Marriott.
We almost always travel as a family of four so First Class long hauls aren’t really viable for big miles redemption value and I’d rather do more trips in E+ than save up for the big First flights. If I can do better than 8+% back on average for my spend, please let me know how. If and when the gravy train ends, I will need to revisit my strategy.
I'm curious are you a road warrior and that is how you have all these points or are you just having everyone in the family signing up for credit cards?
I never travel outside of metro Boston for work. It's mostly from spend. We have a lot of household expenses and it all gets charged; it's why I was hoping there would be a spending threshold for Platinum status (like Ritz-Carlton) or at least elite night credit per $x,000 spend (like Marriott Rewards Premier) on whatever the mysterious new super premium Marriott card is from Amex.
@UpperNwGuy wrote:
wrote:
We almost always travel as a family of four so First Class long hauls aren’t really viable for big miles redemption value and I’d rather do more trips in E+ than save up for the big First flights. If I can do better than 8+% back on average for my spend, please let me know how. If and when the gravy train ends, I will need to revisit my strategy.Hey! Don't put words in my mouth! I never suggested you fly first class long hauls. I use my airline miles for international economy fares (against the advice of The Points Guy and One Mile at a Time).
Oh no, I didn't mean to imply that you said that. It's just that generally speaking the crazy 8-15 cent redemption values come when you start using miles to book premium cabins on partner airlines (like Alaskan Airlines for Emirates) but not everyone can (or wants to) splurge hundreds of thousands of points each for multiple travelers for those $8,000 flights. I assume you're like me and would rather hit London, Hong Kong, Sydney, and Rio in economy than just have a better flight experience to London for the same amount of points. 
@K-in-Boston wrote:
@UpperNwGuy wrote:
wrote:
We almost always travel as a family of four so First Class long hauls aren’t really viable for big miles redemption value and I’d rather do more trips in E+ than save up for the big First flights. If I can do better than 8+% back on average for my spend, please let me know how. If and when the gravy train ends, I will need to revisit my strategy.Hey! Don't put words in my mouth! I never suggested you fly first class long hauls. I use my airline miles for international economy fares (against the advice of The Points Guy and One Mile at a Time).
Oh no, I didn't mean to imply that you said that. It's just that generally speaking the crazy 8-15 cent redemption values come when you start using miles to book premium cabins on partner airlines (like Alaskan Airlines for Emirates) but not everyone can (or wants to) splurge hundreds of thousands of points each for multiple travelers for those $8,000 flights. I assume you're like me and would rather hit London, Hong Kong, Sydney, and Rio in economy than just have a better flight experience to London for the same amount of points.
To each their own. I always fly longhaul (anything over 6 or 7 hours) in F and love using points that way and do two large international trips each year. Although I have a NY-Bogota via Atlanta flight in Delta economy for this summer. Not looking forward to it but at least I can check out the Centurion lounge in NY and the skyclub in atlanta. Of course with a family this would hardly be viable. Still I flat out refuse to fly to Asia from the US in economy. Did that once as a student on some cheap chinese airline and it was the worst flight of my entire life. Never again.
;
@Anonymous wrote:
What airline gets you a ticket to japan at 35k points?
AA in economy.
@CreditJim wrote:I used 120k for 5 nights over NYE at the St. Regis Aspen... the cash value with taxes for the same room and nights over that period came to $20,028.44! I've got 155k SPG points left I need to figure out what to do with.
Wow thats around 16.7 cents per point, nice redemption! Think my best redemption was AA miles under the old chart that got me like 21 cents per mile on a CX F flight.
