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Marriott Rewards on Maintenance Fees?

R

Robert D

TUG Review Crew
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Wanted to see if anyone knows if you earn Marriott Rewards points when you pay Marriott or Starwood (i.e. Vistana) maintenance fees or for charges at a Marriott timeshare like cleaning fees. From what I can tell, these charges do not qualify for Marriott Rewards points but you do earn points plus bonus points when you pay for them with a Marriott credit card or SPG credit card.
 
Robert D said:
Wanted to see if anyone knows if you earn Marriott Rewards points when you pay Marriott or Starwood (i.e. Vistana) maintenance fees or for charges at a Marriott timeshare like cleaning fees. From what I can tell, these charges do not qualify for Marriott Rewards points but you do earn points plus bonus points when you pay for them with a Marriott credit card or SPG credit card.
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I would think that cleaning fees paid for at the resort and billed to your folio would earn the regular 10 points per dollar for incidental spending.

Marriott maintenance fees paid for on the Chase Marriott will earn the 5 points per dollar multiplier. Paying Vistana MFs on the Chase Marriott credit card will not earn the multiplier, but if you pay Marriott MFs on the SPG Amex, you do earn the 2 points per dollar multiplier.
 
I think you're actually better paying the Marriott maintenance fees with the SPG Amex since it would earn 2X. You could then transfer them to Marriott Rewards at 3X such that you would end up with 6X points for Marriott fees paid vs. 5X if you used a Marriott credit card. But, it sounds like you don't earn rewards points on Marriott timeshare maintenance fees other than what is earned by the credit card.
 
Robert D said:
I think you're actually better paying the Marriott maintenance fees with the SPG Amex since it would earn 2X. You could then transfer them to Marriott Rewards at 3X such that you would end up with 6X points for Marriott fees paid vs. 5X if you used a Marriott credit card. But, it sounds like you don't earn rewards points on Marriott timeshare maintenance fees other than what is earned by the credit card.
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Correct. If you have the SPG Amex, you are better to pay Marriott MFs with that card over the Chase Marriott Rewards card. You end up with an extra point once you convert the SPG points to MR. There are no other ways to earn additional points from MF payments outside of the credit cards. There never has been except a few years ago when you could use the Marriott gift cards for payment.
 
Has anyone actually used the SPG Amex to pay their MF's? I understand the 3:1 logic, but was hesitant to use my SPG Amex and not have it recognized as a "Marriott" charge eligible for 2X.
 
SueDonJ said:
Yep, you can thank Dioxide for testing it out. The details are in this thread: Email/questions re MR and SPG Points, MR Elite Nights, Marriott VISA and SPG Amex, etc.

[Please continue the ongoing discussion in that thread so that we can minimize duplicate posts/threads.]
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It wasn't exactly me that proved this out. I was able to verify that payment of Vistana MFs on the Chase MR Visa don't earn the 5x multiplier. It was really Joe and jeepie that proved you can get 2 SPG points per dollar when paying Marriott MFs on the SPG Amex.
 
Robert D said:
Wanted to see if anyone knows if you earn Marriott Rewards points when you pay Marriott or Starwood (i.e. Vistana) maintenance fees or for charges at a Marriott timeshare like cleaning fees.
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One interesting tidbit on the MR points you get when using your Marriott Rewards cards for paying maintenance fees and anything you charge during your stay, the bank processing fees are paid for by that resorts owners as reflected in the breakdown of your annual fees. So we are effectively paying for the points we get, but it's distributed against all resort owners and trust owners. Interesting. If anyone has a different take on this, please advise...
 
GaryDouglas said:
One interesting tidbit on the MR points you get when using your Marriott Rewards cards for paying maintenance fees and anything you charge during your stay, the bank processing fees are paid for by that resorts owners as reflected in the breakdown of your annual fees. So we are effectively paying for the points we get, but it's distributed against all resort owners and trust owners. Interesting. If anyone has a different take on this, please advise...
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I think the points for MFs are paid for by Chase. However, there is a line item in the budget to cover those that pay by credit card. So paying by credit card certainly isn't free.

As for incidentals, I would expect the MR points to come out of the profit margin of the spend. Points for cash stays would come out of the revenue from the room rate. I don't see a line item in the budget that would cover Marriott Reward points. However, in the end, the customer pays for everything. The points earned is baked in to the cost of everything we pay in the way of a higher price. There really is no free lunch. I have often wondered, if all these points programs and loyalty programs were eliminated, how much cheaper would stuff be. I would expect about 5-10% of the price of everything goes to cover these programs.
 
dioxide45 said:
There really is no free lunch. I have often wondered, if all these points programs and loyalty programs were eliminated, how much cheaper would stuff be. I would expect about 5-10% of the price of everything goes to cover these programs.
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I agree that the cost is significant, but that seems way too high. If a point is one cent per dollar spent, that would be only 1%s even if all purchases earned those points. And a huge number of people, probably a large majority of people, do not play seriously in the points game. TUGGERs are not the average consumer when it comes to these things.
 
BocaBoy said:
I agree that the cost is significant, but that seems way too high. If a point is one cent per dollar spent, that would be only 1%s even if all purchases earned those points. And a huge number of people, probably a large majority of people, do not play seriously in the points game. TUGGERs are not the average consumer when it comes to these things.
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I am referring to rewards programs in general. Buy 10 drinks, get one free. Buy 5 fountain drinks, get your 6th free. The cost of the free items is baked in to the cost of the ones you are paying for. Perhaps the cost of all these programs, double and triple dipping isn't as high as 10%, but it isn't insignificant.
 
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