Source: chase.com
Update (9/19): Reddit is reporting three versions of the offer (targeted) depending on your Marriott status.
I was poking around last night at some Marriott hotels for a January trip to New Orleans (specifically, for a hotel I could BRG), and I stumbled upon the following Marriott Premier credit card offer during the booking flow:
Although you could go through the flow and collect the link yourself, it doesn’t seem to be unique so you can access the offer directly here.
This offer is intriguing to me because the normal (and current) high offer is for 80,000 points but without an annual fee waiver. The way the math works out, the offer above offers $235 ($150 statement credit plus $85 annual fee waiver) in exchange for 40,000 fewer points, which is about .59 cents per point.
Given that 40,000 points typically will yield up to a Category 8 redemption, you may be wondering why you would ever opt for this offer. I did too. However, I noticed that despite all the New Orleans hotels I was looking at being Category 8, most could be had for under $200. Granted, I’m looking during the off-season (when prices tend to be a bit under market), but in this case I would get better value out of the offer I received than the standard 80,000 point one. Moreover, because I’m enrolled in the double points promotion, I would earn 20 points/$ spent at Marriott, netting me an additional 4700 points if I spent all $235 on Marriott hotels.
On the other hand, as TravelisFree mentions, one of the best (if not the best) use of Marriott rewards is for a Hotel & Air reward. As my favorite example, you can redeem 270,000 Marriott rewards points for 120,000 Southwest Companion Pass-earning miles AND a certificate good for a 7 night stay at a Category 1-5 hotel. Obviously, if you’re looking to earn a Companion Pass or redeem for any of the Hotel & Air packages (with start at 200,000 points), you’re better off going with the current high offer of 80,000 Marriott points (although it does not come with an annual fee waiver in the first year) and waiting to see if the Ritz Carlton credit card offer of 140,000 points ever resurfaces.
I’m going to sit this one out because I have a few too many Chase applications this year, but thought I’d give you all the heads up.
[…] you’ll see the standard offer of 50,000 points after spending $3000 in 3 months. As Daniel reported, the second offer is available if you go through the booking flow on Marriott’s […]