Marriott Rewards Points Question

[johnsontrio]

I know I could find this at Flyertalk but they are down until December 1st. I received a targeted email from NWA notifying me of a 25% bonus on all MR points transfered to miles. The offer includes other hotel points as well, Goldpoints, Hyatt, Hilton, and Priority Club and runs until January 31st. I don't participate in any other hotel except Loew's so my question is in regards to MR only.


The MR travel packages are the best use of points handsdown. I am curious if the miles received from the travel packages are eligible for the 25% bonus as well. The NWA email only links it to the MR standard airline mile conversion charts. Has anyone here ever taken advantage of this? What do you think? TIA, Amy

 

[camachinist]

How has your redemption success been with NW of late? I'd suggest doing some sample bookings before committing to any points transfer.

Also, I find RDM's much cheaper to come by in other ways than the normal ~3/1 exchange rate from MRP's.

Using the <70>/25 exchange as an example, typically, one can burn for up to 450-500.00 out of a domestic ticket (25K), whereas one can cherry pick much more than that of the <70>K MRP's. I typically get between 1.2-1.5 per out of the non-package MRP's I burn, so usually over 1K.

I'd suggest doing some more research. I hate it when Randy does forum maintenance

Pat

 

[johnsontrio]

Pat, Unfortunately I am not able to shop around for the best value when it comes to using my airline miles. For example, in October they revised our school schedule to give us the entire week of President's Week off instead of just 2 days. My husband's vacation schedule for next year are drawn by lottery on November 1st. I ended up booking a cruise out of Tampa last week. The airfare was really cost prohibitive for 3 of us, almost $600pp. If I would have had to pay cash we probably wouldn't have gone. I had a coupon for a 6,000 mile reduction for two award tickets so I spent 138,000 miles for 3 tickets for the flight we needed. Arghhh. But I look at it as it will be week of memories made with our daughter (13) and Grandma, that we probably wouldn't have had. And my husband's advice is burn the miles while NW is still in business. They are the only major you can fly out of DTW nonstop to most places. I would rather pay more and go nonstop.

My husband's work schedule is very flexible unless you want a full week, Sunday to Saturday off. Those full weeks are what are drawn in November. He can take almost any week off at the last minute, if it is say Wed-Wed, by front loading and backloading his schedule. This of course makes using a full week of a timeshare difficult. At this time we only own full weeks not points. Vacations that fall later in the year are less difficult because I have more time to plan, but for Feb. and Easter, the good airfares are gone.

I have thought about depositing miles with another program. The only other one we have miles with now is Delta. A trip anywhere on Delta means going through Atlanta or a regional jet to CVG, ugh... What would you suggest I look into? Our main destinations are Florida, Mexico, Texas and the cruise ports that service the Caribbean. TIA, Amy

 

[camachinist]

Regarding NW, I'm sure DaveM could give you better specifics, but my impression from flying two transcons with them in the last month is that they're in better shape and run a tighter ship than UA, which exited BK this year. I wouldn't be burning NW miles for any reason other than availability to where you wish to go.

As I mentioned prior, I suggest making some sample bookings for when and where you wish to go using NW miles to see how availability is. I can dredge up their award buckets and run them through SeatCounter for a somewhat faster read if you wish to post the city pairs and date ranges here.

I'm not familiar with the nuances of the NW system (the tricks), but Dave may be and can advise you how to increase your chances. If DTW is your home airport, NW essentially owns you That said, AA often takes pot shots at NW there, so that may be an option for a legacy airline. I personally like OneWorld (AA's alliance) better than SkyTeam (NW's), but that's just one person's opinion.

Let's just say that my strategy of getting status-matched to NW/DL for 2007-08 is indicative of my perception of the value of their domestic programs and the service I've received for very little money invested.

Good luck!

Pat

 

[johnsontrio]

Pat,

I really don't have anything on the horizon right now. I bought tickets to Cancun for our trip in June already because we wanted nonstop flights and that means NW or Spirit. NW was $250 cheaper for the 3 of us and not much higher than I usually pay, $465 compared to $420. I wanted to lock them in because it's a two week trip and I didn't want to have to arrive late/leave early or stay over in a hotel to get a cheap fare. That time of year NW only flies one nonstop on Saturdays only, so seats are limited. Once they start selling, they'll just go up.

I was figuring that I might transfer the points while we can get the bonus. I can hang on to the hotel certificate to see if we can use it, if not deposit it back. My family really hates staying in a hotel. I could also use points for a stay at an MVCI property (maybe MCV at Easter or something) because my points are all earned not from converting a week.

I'll see if DaveM has anything to add to this. Thanks for your responses. Amy

 

[RLG]

This is the first TUG post about transferring hotel points to an airline where I think the economics make sense.

Usually, when I see that someone transferred their hotel points to an airline, I ask myself "how many more of my miles on that airline would I have been willing to give to get the hotel points they transferred?". The answer is always "a lot".

In your case, the answer was only "a few".

(If you were talking about transferring 75k Marriott to get 25k NW, that would an example that I could beat by a lot.)

Even if you don't use the hotel portion, you are getting 150k NW for 190k Marriott. That's pretty good value. You are, however, locking yourself into the NW program, so you need to be *sure* you will use the NW miles.