Paying MF with your Chase Sapphire Reserve

[TXTortoise]

The main other variable I see is the $300 travel reimbursement but with this type of volume I think it'd dramatically unlikely you won't get that in other ways. Of course the old Marriott CC adds nights for the spend so this would be an extra 6 nights added to the total for that year with the potential for additional benefits at 50 & 75 nights total.

Thanks Dean. I’m four days short of 50 so need to verify that on my card, and pay this year, before Nov statement closing I bet.

UPDATE: Just called AMEX. I have the old SPG card, so the card it converted to provides 15 nights up front, but no additional nights for spend.

 

[Luvtoride]

Revisiting this for 2020 MFs... someone check my logic/arithmetic.

Old AMEX Bonvoy - $18K MF generates 5x points for total of 90K Bonvoy Points - PointsGuy.com value @ .08 = $720
- I'm sitting on two 5-Night Cat 4 certificates that expire July 2020 and hope to extend another year, and 350K Bonvoy points.

Chase Sapphire Reserve - $18K generates 3x Ultimate Reward Point for total of 54K points - PointsGuy.com value @ .02 = $1080. (or about $800 in airfare)

I guess if you know how and really leverage your MR/Bonvoy points and/or get 6x on the new AMEX card the choice is Marriott, but for buying business class tickets the Chase card seems to be the way to go for us.

Missing anything obvious here?

TXT, I think this is a good analysis. My only comment from recent experience is that using pure POINTS to purchase airline premium seats i.e. Business Class is sometimes a better bargain than paying cash even with UR 1.5x cash value. The ability to convert MR points to almost any major airline or airline partner program is a nice flexibility to have.

Here is my example. Earlier this year, I used a MR 5 night travel package with a Cat 8 hotel and 80,000 points on Air France Flying Blue program. I supplemented those points with Amex points transferred from my Platinum Amex Rewards account to put 230,000 points into Flying Blue. I used these points to purchase 2 RT business class seats from NY to Paris for the specific dates I had the hotel certificate booked for (pre-Aug '18 program change). Those same tickets on a cash basis would have cost $19,000 (One direction of the flights had a ridiculously high cash price).
So figuring that the MRP portion of the Flying Blue points paid for about 1/3 of the cost of these tickets, that's a bit over $6,000. If I'm doing the math right, I would have needed 400,000 UR points to receive $6,000 of Travel rewards (1.5x points).

I know its not always going to be this type of exchange rate, but if you check enough airlines, you can sometimes find sweet spots for point redemptions that make the math work out pretty well and better than paying cash.

 

[frank808]

Revisiting this for 2020 MFs... someone check my logic/arithmetic.

Old AMEX Bonvoy - $18K MF generates 5x points for total of 90K Bonvoy Points - PointsGuy.com value @ .08 = $720
- I'm sitting on two 5-Night Cat 4 certificates that expire July 2020 and hope to extend another year, and 350K Bonvoy points.

Chase Sapphire Reserve - $18K generates 3x Ultimate Reward Point for total of 54K points - PointsGuy.com value @ .02 = $1080. (or about $800 in airfare)

I guess if you know how and really leverage your MR/Bonvoy points and/or get 6x on the new AMEX card the choice is Marriott, but for buying business class tickets the Chase card seems to be the way to go for us.

Missing anything obvious here?

If you had the new Marriott card that gives 6x on MF you would have 108,000 MRP worth $864. I have gotten great leverage for the travel certificates and airline miles last year. But it not as good deal anymore for TP.

Also each MRP is worth .008 cents. If it was worth .08 cents it would be no brainer on which card to put MF on.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[TXTortoise]

If you had the new Marriott card that gives 6x on MF you would have 108,000 MRP worth $864. I have gotten great leverage for the travel certificates and airline miles last year. But it not as good deal anymore for TP.

Also each MRP is worth .008 cents. If it was worth .08 cents it would be no brainer on which card to put MF on.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Good catch, corrected original post. The numbers better reflect what I was expecting to see. ;-)

 

[Pathways]

Old AMEX Bonvoy - $18K MF generates 5x points for total of 90K Bonvoy Points - PointsGuy.com value @ .008 = $144 (Corrected)

Isn't that $720?

 

[Steve Fatula]

So using your Marriott Bonvoy Premier card at 6x points would be 24,000 MRP. How would you value those vs. the $180?

$192
Well, according to the points guy valuation he noted... .8 cents/point * 24,000 = $192 value if used in a decent manner. Yes, hard to get that by using just those points, but when piled up a bit, you can certainly get .8 cents/point.

 

[TXTortoise]

Isn't that $720?

Duh... corrected, again. Decimals and rushing don't mix...

 

[BJRSanDiego]

Revisiting this for 2020 MFs... someone check my logic/arithmetic.


... - I'm sitting on two 5-Night Cat 4 certificates that expire July 2020 and hope to extend another year, and 350K Bonvoy points. ...

I have a Bonvoy "Premier Plus Free Night Award up to 35,000 points". It will expire in about 10 days. How could I extend the expiration date?

 

[Dean]

Thanks Dean. I’m four days short of 50 so need to verify that on my card, and pay this year, before Nov statement closing I bet.

UPDATE: Just called AMEX. I have the old SPG card, so the card it converted to provides 15 nights up front, but no additional nights for spend.

Yes, I think this would only apply to the old Chase Marriott CC.

 

[MOXJO7282]

$192
Well, according to the points guy valuation he noted... .8 cents/point * 24,000 = $192 value if used in a decent manner. Yes, hard to get that by using just those points, but when piled up a bit, you can certainly get .8 cents/point.

This is the key, if you accumulate a significant amount MR points you can really max your value. Especially if you have status where a standard hotel room certificate can lead to a big value when upgraded.

 

[Seaport104]

sounds reasonable. I’m using Citi Prestige this year, that gets you 5 TYP per dollar spent. Not as valuable as UR points but also can be leveraged for air travel.

I thought Citi Prestige gets you 5 TYP per $1 for air and restaurants only and hotels/timeshares 3 TYP?

 

[CPNY]

Has anyone paid MF with CSR; does it post as travel category, i.e. x3 points per dollar?

Many thanks!

I’ve paid my vistana Maint fees and have received the chase bonus

 

[brianfox]

Has anyone paid MF with CSR; does it post as travel category, i.e. x3 points per dollar?

Many thanks!

Yes, it does.

If you are still wary, you can always just pay, say, $100 now as a test and wait for it to post.

 

[rrazzorr]

I thought Citi Prestige gets you 5 TYP per $1 for air and restaurants only and hotels/timeshares 3 TYP?

Yep, checked earlier, my mistake, it is 3 points, not 5.

 

[SMH1968]

sounds reasonable. I’m using Citi Prestige this year, that gets you 5 TYP per dollar spent. Not as valuable as UR points but also can be leveraged for air travel.

I'm curious if the Vistana charge on your Citi Prestige counted toward the $250 travel credit?

 

[rrazzorr]

I'm curious if the Vistana charge on your Citi Prestige counted toward the $250 travel credit?

sorry, no input here, ended up paying MF with CSR.

 

[SMH1968]

I'm curious if the Vistana charge on your Citi Prestige counted toward the $250 travel credit?

If anyone is interested how Citi Prestige processes the payment I paid $1 to Vistana Villages and it coded as "Other" for 1 point per dollar. So it is highly doubtful that the $250 annual travel credit would apply to maintenance payments. :-(

 

[RoverJohn]

Marriott Bonvoy played and is playing games with points. My Starwood points were ELEVATED to 3 times the value, but now when Marriott Bonvoy offerss two time the points, the value is obscured or demoted. Just can't trust Marriott Bonvoy's offers of points.