I’m a big fan of hotel elite status. Part of the reason I’ve enjoyed it for years has been that it has been relatively effortless to come by meaningful status thanks to credit card benefits. I’ve enjoyed statuses like Hilton Gold, Hilton Diamond, IHG Platinum, IHG Spire Elite, SPG Gold, Marriott Gold, and Marriott Platinum either thanks to direct credit card benefits or as a result of spending on a credit card. I did once hit Hyatt Diamond / Globalist with 25 (mostly one-night) stays, the lone time I earned hotel status based on stay activity. I had never accumulated 50 nights in a single hotel chain in one calendar year before 2019. This year, I hit that mark in the first six months with Marriott. After completing 50 nights, Marriott grants a “choice benefit”. Greg has covered which you should choose before. I thought for sure I was going to choose 5 elite night credits, but Simon Mall has made me reconsider.
Surprise! Making it to 50 nights
As I said, I’ve not been one to previously spend so many nights in a single chain. I was surprised when I realized it was within reach, but between annual free night certificates and award stays booked, it seemed a little easier than I’d have imagined.
Anyone with any of the Marriott credit cards starts off with 15 nights of elite credit — so I actually haven’t (yet) spent 50 nights in Marriott hotels. That meant I needed 35 nights to re-qualify for Platinum status (which I had this year thanks to earning “old Gold” on my Ritz card last year, but that path now requires $75K in spend).
Last year, Greg did a lot of speculation about Marriott Travel Packages and I ended up upgrading one I’d purchased in order to book a 7-night stay at the Domes of Elounda on the island of Crete in Greece. I was actually on the fence about whether or not to take that trip, but after the out-of-control upgrade I scored for the last two nights with a 2-story villa that had this private outdoor pool in addition to a private indoor pool, I’d say I made the right choice (read more about that stay here).
Between my 15 credit card nights and that 7-night stay, I knew I’d be almost half way to the 50 nights required for Platinum status, so I began looking for opportunities to stay at Marriotts. I found a couple of good ones, including the Courtyard Hakuba, Japan that I said might be the nicest Category 4 Marriott in the world (which cost me just over $50 per night before tax thanks to the Citi Prestige 4th night free) and another stay in Zurich, Switzerland (at the Kameha Grand Zurich) where the AAA rate was almost 40% off the member rate (another 4th night free win). I kid you not, the Kameha Grand even upgraded me to a suite for part of my stay, though I wasn’t sure what they were trying to say with this.
After using free night certificates and happening upon a number of 1-night stays where Marriott properties worked well, I found myself at 50 nights in June, knowing that I still had a 5-night stay booked this year at the St. Regis Bora Bora (booked back when the property was 60K points per night — with the 5th night free, that was an average of 48K per night).
The quest for Titanium
Greg has previously written about the wisdom in going for 75-night Marriott status if you have the opportunity. In short, Marriott has in the past been known to offer a “soft landing” to those who don’t requalify for their status level. In other words, they tend to only drop you down one status level if you do not requalify rather than taking away your status altogether.
Once I realized I would make it to 55 nights this year (50 by June + 5 at the St Regis Bora Bora), I decided that I wanted to earn 75 elite nights this year in order to set myself up for a future soft landing. By earning 75 elite nights this year, I would have Titanium status next year (2020), with that status scheduled to end in February 2021 if I do not stay 75 nights next year.
I know I probably won’t stay 75 nights next year. In fact, I imagine I probably won’t stay 50 nights next year. During 2020, I expect I’ll only have enough stays for Silver or Gold status in 2021. However, if Marriott offers a soft landing (as I expect and hope they will), I think it’s at least somewhat likely that they will give me Platinum status in 2021 when I don’t re-qualify for Titanium. If they do, that means I will retain useful status (since having at least Platinum is useful to me) until February 2022 if I can reach 75-night status this year. That’s valuable to me as I enjoy free breakfast / lounge access and 4pm late checkout.
Secretly, I’m holding out (weak) hope that Marriott will bring back its status buy-back program. Before the merger with SPG, Marriott used to allow members to buy back their status with Marriott points. They unexpectedly took that feature away last year. My totally baseless guess is that it had to do with the IT of merging systems and my (probably overly optimistic) hope is that it will come back in the future. Setting myself up to hopefully have at least Platinum status into early 2022 sets me up to be able to buy back status with points should they ever re-introduce that capability. It’s not what I’d consider likely, but I’m hopeful — so with 20 nights to get to Titanium status, I figured it was worth chasing.
Taking shortcuts
In Greg’s post 11 Shortcuts to Marriott Platinum status (2019 edition), he notes that one shortcut to status can be to host a meeting at a Marriott hotel. As part of the deal, it is possible to get 10 elite night credits. I haven’t done this myself, but I have intended to look into it further and book the cheapest meeting room I can arrange for 10 nights of elite credit. Together with the 50 I’ve already stayed and the 5 from the St. Regis, that will bring me to 65 nights.
The other shortcut I’d presumed I’d take was the the Marriott choice benefit. Once you have stayed 50 nights with Marriott in a calendar year, you get a choice benefit. Options for your choice benefit include:
- 5 Suite Night Awards
- 5 additional nights of elite credit
- 40% off a Marriott mattress
- A charitable donation
Greg digs into those options in this post: Marriott Choice Benefit Valuations. Which to pick?.
Most people will likely choose 5 Suite Night Awards. While these are very different from Hyatt suite night upgrades, they can be highly valuable. The difference in price between a standard room and a suite can be huge in some circumstances and being able to score a suite without having to sweet-talk the front desk could be awesome. Greg has done very well with his. It’s tempting to choose these and try to apply them to my stay at the St. Regis Bora Bora to see if I can get the Royal Overwater Villa as a free upgrade (doubtful).
But then reality set in: I don’t have another 10 nights planned yet this year. However, choosing 5 nights of elite credit as my choice benefit would get me to 70 nights. Then I’d only need to stay 5 more nights this year to get Titanium status and hopefully ensure at least Platinum until early 2022. I’ll definitely have another 5 random nights before the end of 2019, so it seemed reasonable for me to take the 5 nights of elite credit now to set myself up for Titanium
But then came…
The Simon $1K Visa Gift Cards with a $3.95 fee
Since July 17th, Simon Malls have been selling $1,000 Visa Gift Cards with an activation fee of just $3.95 (and they will continue to do so until August 31st). While that’s not actually the lowest-cost MS ever, it’s a reasonably low cost — and, more importantly, it makes huge volume possible very quickly. While any customer can buy up to $10K in cards per day at a Simon Mall, those who have built up a history can purchase up to $25K per day. These $1K cards are exponentially easier for me to liquidate, so I’ve made a few trips to a Simon mall.
In my advice about Mistakes to Avoid on $1K Simon Visa Gift Cards, I noted to be careful about suddenly ramping up too much spend on any one credit card. For those who have not been regularly spending thousands at a time, it makes more sense to go easy and spread the spend around across different cards / issuers.
In that same post, I explained why it didn’t make much sense to put any Simon spend on a Marriott credit card. I suggested instead using a cash back credit card. We did in fact use a number of those. However, Simon provides such bandwidth that I needed another card for diversification purposes. I also needed to replenish some Marriott points and I’d rather not transfer from Ultimate Rewards, which I generally find too valuable to transfer to Marriott. Thus, $5K went on my Ritz card on one visit to the mall. Then, $5K in another visit. Suddenly, I was looking to be 20K Marriott points richer.
As noted, that’s not necessarily a great deal as compared to earning cash back when comparing against paid rates for a single stay.
However, all things considered, I think I’m going to get back to Simon one more time for another $5K on the Ritz card — because that spend is going to enable me to pick Suite Night Upgrade awards as my choice benefit.
Manufacturing elite credit from spend
I’ve chosen to use my Ritz card over my old Marriott Rewards Premier credit card, and in hindsight (that is to say after writing this post) I realize that it was a mistake. Unfortunately, I’m two-thirds into my mistake, so I’ll finish it out — but I’ll explain here my logic and why it was poor.
As noted, I’ve spent $10K on my Ritz card so far, earning 20K points. Another $5K in spend will yield another 10K points (since the Ritz card earns 2 Marriott points per dollar on unbonused spend). That will be 30K points courtesy of Simon Mall at a reasonable cost:
15 x $1K gift cards at a cost of $3.95 per card = $59.25
Liquidation cost = $15 to $30 (depending on method)
Total cost = $74.25-$94.25
My plan here was to use those points at a Category 1 Marriott property. Marriott Category 1 properties cost 7,500 points per night. Since the 5th night is free on award stays, that means that a 5-night stay costs exactly 30,000 Marriott points
4 x 7.5K points (5th night free on award stays) = 30,000 Marriott points
In other words, by doing $15K spend, I’ll be able to pick up 5 elite night credits (same as what I expected to pick for my choice benefit) — but in this case, I’ll also get to stay in a hotel for those nights. That’ll cost me under a hundred bucks in fees, so it seems like a relative bargain. Of course, there’s opportunity cost — but in this case, I wasn’t putting spend on the Ritz card instead of some other card. I was fairly well tapped out on other cards to use. I’ll further have to find a Category 1 Marriott, but I have one in mind that will work for me.
So in the end, this is what my path to Titanium status should look like:
15 nights from a Marriott credit card (standard benefit)
35 nights from stays by June 2019
5 nights from St. Regis Bora Bora
10 nights from hosting a meeting
5 nights at a Cat 1 by manufacturing 30K Marriott points
70 nights
I’ll surely spend another 5 nights at a Marriott before the end of the year with our coming FM to Go event in the Bay Area and random road trips.
However, that was a mistake in hindsight.
I could have alternatively put that same $15K spend on my old non-upgraded Marriott Rewards Premier card. That’s the old $85 per year card (no longer available) that comes with an annual 25K free night certificate. One of the benefits on that card is earning 1 elite night credit for every $3K spent.
Had I spent $15K on that card instead, I’d have earned 5 elite night credits (one for each $3K spend) plus 15,000 Marriott points (since the card earns 1x on unbonused spend): enough for 2 more free nights.
In other words, spending $15K on that card would have yielded me a total of seven elite nights — five from spend and 2 more from the points. I’d have probably been smarter to use that card.
This point is somewhat debatable as there is one big difference in the 5 elite nights earned: on the Ritz card, I’m earning enough points to spend 5 nights in a hotel, so I’m actually getting a place to sleep where someone else makes the bed and cleans the bathroom for five nights. Spending on the old Marriott card would just yield me credit for the nights and only enough points to spend (at most) 2 actual nights in a hotel.
I’ll probably get slightly more enjoyment out of staying 5 nights at a Category 1 hotel than just getting 5 elite night credits with no stay, but it’s debatable. If I had it to do over again, maybe I’d consider the old Marriott card after all.
Bottom line
Whether I should have used the old Marriott card or the Ritz card, the bottom line is that earning 5 (or more) nights of elite credit will cost me under a hundred bucks thanks to Simon Malls. While I had previously intended to choose 5 elite night credits as my 50-night choice benefit to help me get to 75-night Titanium status, the MS costs (and relative ease) at Simon Mall right now make it so cheap and easy to earn 5 elite nights that I can pick the suite night awards instead. I’ll note that with fee-free Visa Gift Cards at Staples this week, it would be even cheaper to manufacture 30K points (whether at 5x on an Ink Cash card or by using a Marriott card), but the comparative ease of liquidating $1K cards and the ability to easily do the volume I needed make Simon more attractive for a “big spend bonus” like this.
I’m not positive that I’ll use my suite night awards in Bora Bora (nor am I even sure that they can be used at that property), but it will surely be more fun to put those to use somewhere than it would have been to get 5 nights of elite credit, so I’m glad for the opportunity to find an alternate path to 5 elite nights thanks to my good friend Simon.
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50 nights for a road warrior is a 12 week business quarter (4 nights during a M-F business week). One might as well fly out on Saturday morning 5th night free.
That said this year we are coming the closest to 50 nights as well, just wish wife had more PTO,. That said still happy with previous trips and award nights.
May plan an layover on an Award trip one year to the ME during the summer because paid rooms can be had for under in $50 I UAE, and few other P. Gulf locations if I recall.
@Nick Reyes, you did get your free Birthday elite night credit as well, that could be one more night credit toward the 75. I had to call in but it posted about 15 min later.
What about spending $75000 on you RC card?…sounds like it’s not to hard with Simon Malls…you get 150000 marriott points, platinum status, (but not suite nights), and one less headache.
I mean, for the years to come. I understand you want to hit Titanium this year, which btw is very, very nice. I scored a 7 night Front ocean junior suite upgrade in Aruba this past february (Marriott), which was amazing. Also a 5 night pool suite in Elounda last week which had one of the best views I have ever had in any hotel in my life. To be fair, the “bonvoyed” people are trying to find problems were at least in my opinion, has not been the case…I should say the opposite. Amazing program with amazing benefits. I agree though that sometimes you have to fight a little for it. But the titanium status is the perfect tool to do it.
Can you please elaborate on the methods to liquidate these $1K Simon cards.
Thank you
See our MS Complete Guide:
https://frequentmiler.com/manufactured-spending-complete-guide/#Buy_liquidate_gift_cards
@Nick Reyes, why haven’t you upgraded from the $85 Marriott CC to the $95 Marriott CC? The free night cert goes up from 25K to 35K, which I think is worth the $10 higher AF.
Mostly because I didn’t last year for the 50K offer and haven’t seen an offer enticing enough since. I didn’t get targeted for the recent 35K nights, otherwise I probably would have. I almost upgraded for the 15K elite nights earlier this year, but it looks like I won’t need those.
I agree that the 35K cert is absolutely worth ten bucks more. But at this point, I’m holding out for a good upgrade offer (and/or maybe I’m going to MS some elite nights :-).
Nick, great post (as usual!). I’m thinking of doing the same but how do you unload the Simon Visa GCs? I know you’ve mentioned WM MOs but I’m in the Bay Area where the WMs don’t work. I actually have a very good use for MOs coming up – real spend on property taxes and college tuitions. Suggestions?
Try grocery stores, paying taxes, maybe you’ll find a bill to overpay somewhere. Otherwise, could be a good excuse for a summertime weekend road trip. I find suburbia and rural areas to be much easier to deal with in terms of MOs.
Nick, I’m brand new to MS and still learning so bear with me/my question. I’d also like to take advantage of the Simon deal and have called a WM in my area (Atlanta suburb) to make sure I could go there to unload, which appears fine. Do you recommend I explain what I’m doing to the WM MO employee/manager or NOT saying anything and instead go to a couple different WMs? Just want to be smart about this!
Explaining that you’re using a GC to buy a MO is 96% likely to result in you being unable to do so.
I recommend starting out purchasing a single MO at a time to get comfortable with the process.
You just want to go to the money center and say you’d like to buy a MO. The fees are usually listed on a board behind the cashier somewhere. It’s $0.88 in most places. Therefore, a MO for $999.12 would come to exactly $1K.
Walmart requires ID for MO transactions of $1K or more. In my experience, most stores interpret that to mean that they need to take your ID if the MO itself is for $1K or more before the fee. However, some places have asked for my ID for an MO for $999.12. If you’re not comfortable with that, you might want to just start with buying a single MO for a lesser amount just to get comfortable with how it works. Definitely a good idea to try a few stores if you live in an area with multiple stores as the experience can certainly vary.
Anyway, the cashier will type in the total. Then you just swipe your card and enter your PIN (and say no when it asks if you want cash back — it wouldn’t work anyway).
The key is just not to telegraph that you’re using a GC. Some places don’t care, others do. I ran into a store over the weekend where I’d bought a week before without issue. This weekend, the cashier just happened to look at my card as I swiped it and saw it was a GC and said they couldn’t accept those even though the same cashier had been fine a week before when he (presumably) hadn’t noticed I was using a GC. YMMV.
If you do give your ID, keep in mind that Walmart has a limit of $8K in MOs per rolling 24 hours and the payment terminal will allow you to split payment over a maximum of 4 cards, but those are limits I wouldn’t recommend getting anywhere near until you’ve been doing this for a bit.
Thank you so much, Nick. I heard on a podcast recently that you should be upfront about the reason for purchasing the gift cards in high amounts but mistakenly thought the same was the case for the MOs. I will likely just do $1k (before the fee) today and see how it goes, then go from there. I just got my CSP last week and have only spent about $1k so far but I’m working actively to hit my sign up bonus spend and then some. I’m trying to be smart and savvy as I navigate this new landscape. I’ve got travel goals! I appreciate your help.
Honesty is typically the best policy (certainly in terms of buying the GCs), but leading with he fact that you’re using GCs you buy the MO is not advisable. When a cashier recognizes the fact that I’ve been in before and asks why I’m buying the MOs, I’ll explain that I’m doing it for airline miles. I’ve explained before that I’m able to load the debit card with a CC and earn miles and that there is a small fee, but the miles are worth it because I like to travel. That’s all certainly true. But I don’t throw around the term “gift card” because I know that makes some people more suspicious.
You might consider doing less than $1000 before fees, as you’ll have to come up with 88 cents in cash and it might look weird that you have $1000 in your “account” but not a penny more. I usually do some seemingly random amount that sounds like a bill, like $998.68 and then unload the GC the rest of the way at a grocery store or other place that it will autodrain. (Dollar stores can be good.)
The following link details new terms for the legacy card, eff 1.19. No mention of the 1 night credit on $3k spend so may be a non-factor, Nick:
https://static.chasecdn.com/content/dam/card/rulesregulations/en/RPA0513_Web.pdf
“I could have alternatively put that same $15K spend on my old non-upgraded Marriott Rewards Premier card. That’s the old $85 per year card (no longer available) that comes with an annual 25K free night certificate. One of the benefits on that card is earning 1 elite night credit for every $3K spent.”
I also thought that this benefit is gone. Previously, I called Chase regarding this. I could use this benefit, since I will be around 5 nights short of 50. $15,000 MS spend would be easy.
Not gone. See data points here from as recently as May:
https://insiders.marriott.com/thread/57302
And data points from Flyertalk as recently as June:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marriott-marriott-bonvoy/1933848-marriott-rewards-premier-visa-credit-card-13.html
Again, to be clear, this is only if you never upgraded from the $85 fee version to the Premier Plus / Boundless.
Another DP: My elite nights are still posting from spend on the old card. Got two a couple days ago from last cycle’s spend.
Nick, once again, a great article. Do you think Marriott will ever bring back that option to earn individual elite points toward status? I’ve been trying to chalk up 75,000 on my Ritz to keep my platinum status but that is a big chunk of change.
No idea if they will ever let us buy back status with points again, but I hope so.
great logic & details, I’d like to see how you laid out all the info & arrive at a conclusion.
don’t worry about too much info, keep them coming!
Us who read them can decide how/what to absorb. keep up the great work!
Good content but takes you way too long to get to the point.
Mark, for those of us trying to achieve status in the very same ways, every tip is valuable & appreciated. There are a lot of moving parts to this program, & Nick delves in to ALL our benefit.
Great & thorough analysis, Nick. I would appreciate further info on booking a meeting as you look into those options as well.
I have been spending $5k on the Bonvoy Biz card every month for a bonus 7,500/points/month. Over a 6 month (allowable) period, that is 6 extra Cat 1 rooms towards status.
I will definitely hit Plat this yr with this strategy but what you & Greg say makes sense, too, in possibly pursuing Titanium. Will see, but I like your ideas.
Really shaking my head. So many rationalizations to justify spending a ton of money just for Marriott status?
As for this so-called bandwidth rationalization, it should tell you to get more cashback cards so you won’t make such dubious rationalizations in the future. Especially as $1K Simon cards seem likely to be offerred again.
can you expand on this, trying to understand.
Wow!
Amazing analysis and thoroughness.
Thank you for a great post.
Nick,
Interesting analysis. Like you I’m about to re-qualify for Platinum (have it this year due to Ritz card, able to close to renew due to double elite night credits earlier in the year). My big question: I do not see the value in going for Titanium status. Slightly higher point bonuses and the same choice benefit options you get for qualifying for Platinum. Do you think it is “worth it?” Since I’m an AA flyer thinking about focusing on Hyatt and doing the status challenge to Explorist (for me needs 10 nights in 90 days).
Like I said, my main motivation is the hope for a future soft landing. You’re right that there isn’t much of an incremental benefit in having Titanium status. The choice benefits for Titanium include a free night up to 40K points. That would probably be my choice at 75 nights because it’s easily possible to get a night that otherwise would have cost a couple hundred bucks out of that certificate. Hopefully Titanium will make me marginally more likely to get upgraded to a suite on ordinary stays, but my main motivation is because I don’t think I’ll hit 50 nights next year and I’m hopeful to keep Platinum status for the following year anyway.
As for Hyatt, you don’t get much for that Explorist status at 10 nights — just bonus points on stays and 2pm check out. You need 20 nights to earn your first 2 club lounge access awards. In my opinion, Hyatt Explorist status isn’t worth much unless you’re going to spend 30+ nights per year at Hyatt — in which case, you should consider using the Hyatt credit card to help you get to 60 for Globalist status, which is far, far more valuable. That said, if the tie-up with AA works better for you, maybe you’ll find more value in it.
The free night up to 40k is probably the winner here for me, but so its 75% bonus on points; I would exactly call that “slightly higher”.
Also, I know you said you AA, but for me I fly united since its the local hub, and Marriott TITANIUM also gets me silver status with united, which I would never get just flying alone, and united silver also gives me hertz five star. Those 3 are the way I have always traveled and they all compliment each other.
Marriott Titanium gets United Silver (not Marriott Platinum). That’s another benefit I look forward to having, especially if I’m able to add my UA # to TK award bookings.
Nick, nice article. This is basically how I roadmap my year to get platinum status again this year, but I still dont do MS, just business and personal travel. However, you mentioned that 3k spend feature:
“I could have alternatively put that same $15K spend on my old non-upgraded Marriott Rewards Premier card. That’s the old $85 per year card (no longer available) that comes with an annual 25K free night certificate. One of the benefits on that card is earning 1 elite night credit for every $3K spent.”
Is this something you are doing now? what card becausee Ive previously called chase and marriot on this and both confirm that but that feature of spending 3k to get 1 elite night is gone from all Marriott cards. This feature used to be my saving grace when I was 5-10 nights short a year, and I had been doing all my spend on the card get the the elite nights for every 3k.
thanks
That feature still exists on the old card — not if you upgraded to the Premier Plus (now called the Boundless).
thats interesting, marriot/chase automatically upgraded my card at the time to premier plus, and I cancelled shortly after that. So you are currently using this feature on the old card with 3k spend for a 1 night credit?
I think you’re likely forgetting clicking somewhere to accept an upgrade. They didn’t automatically upgrade people — they sent out upgrade offers.
I haven’t personally been using it on the old card, but I noted in the post that I probably should have been since I do still have the old card. There is no way to get the old card now to my knowledge.
thanks nick, dont want to beat this side topic up, but going back over a year, they sent me something in the mail that they were upgrading the cards, and then I was sent a new card, sans the $3k for 1 elite night feature, which I thought they took away across the board. So if you actually have a card that has that benefit still thats awesome! thanks
Automatic upgrading was on the Business version of the old card only, not on the personal version. You had to accept an upgrade offer on the old personal Chase Marriott Rewards Premier, which became Premier Plus, which is now the Boundless.
thanks, that was the piece of information I was missing. Makes sense, too bad I close my personal account years ago when I got the business card, but tragically lost the card feature I needed the most (3k spend for 1 night). Thanks guys
okay so the business card was upgraded so it no longer has the 3000 spend = 1 elite night credit?
Correct.