That's a pretty good deal if you want the cash instead of a vacation. I did some math this morning to actually see how many points I earn per $ spent on my Marriott Premiere CC. So I added up all the money spent on the card for 2010 and divided it into the MRPs I got. Turns out I earn 2.49 MRPs per $ spent. I was surprised. I thought it would be higher than that.
So I did some more math and this is what I came up with. The most expensive travel package I found was for seven days in a CAT 8 along with 120,000 FF miles. It's 360,000 MRPs. Figuring backward I would have to spend $148,578 to earn that many points. At 2.5% cash back I would receive $3614.
The 360,000 seven day TP will get me two RT tickets from JFK to FCO (Rome) and seven nights in the Grand Flora in a queen room. According to Orbitz those tickets would cost $1181 each or $2362. The room would cost $3800 for a total of $6162. Of course you would get 2.5% back on that $6162 so that brings the cost down to $6008. An additional $2394 for the same trip. In addition to the cost difference the Marriott card gives me one free night in a CAT 5 every year, 15 nights toward my elite status and because that gives me at least gold status I get a free breakfast at the Grand Flora every day.
I guess the moral of this story is if you want cash back to pay bills get a cash back card. If you want to travel get a travel reward card. I don't know if Marriotts travel card is the best travel card but it's not bad IMO. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who uses the Starwood Amex. I've heard that's about the best travel card.
Hmm, you paint a rosy picture. But I see several problems in the scenario. You say you get 2.5 Marriott rewards points for each dollar spent; then talk about what you could do with 360,000 points. Well, have you REALLY spent $144,000 on your card? I think you're extrapolating from a far lower dollar amount, one which is probably heavily weighted towards Marriott travel. Of course, you earn lots of points for spending Marriott. But, unless you're camping out at there all the time (and some folks do, of course), I suspect you didn't snag 360,000 points this year (or even over several years) on straight purchases.
The way I got a slog of Marriott points originally was to buy a timeshare and then open a Marriott credit card. That felt great, but the points were really a rebate, and in no way represented a renewable total. More recently I opened two black Visas (my wife and me), for a combined 100,000 points. I used them up, and am now left with actually spending money. And, most of what I spend qualifies for 1 point per dollar. I think your surprisingly low 2.5 average reflects this disappointing fact: beyond a certain spending level, you don't accumulate additional points very rapidly at all.
Now, to your Rome scenario. Have you actually succeeded in booking two tickets to Rome for 60,000 frequent flyer miles each? I have tried repeatedly, both domestically and abroad, to find offerings at the minimal levels on many airlines. I have given up in utter frustration. I think you'd need twice the miles, most of the time, to snag those tickets.
I looked at the Grand Flora for seven nights in July, 2012, and saw a price of $2800, $1000 less than the value you ascribe to the package. And that thing about getting 2.5% back on your package? Come on, you're using points. You don't get cash back on points, as opposed to booking on a card. Bottom line, I think your statement that you could save $2400 is far-fetched.
The point about keeping a card is good, of course. I maintain both of ours to snag that free night and work on elite status.
