Tag Archives: Marriott Hotels

Chase Marriott Rewards and Chase Southwest Airlines Premier Credit Card Retention Successes

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Chase Marriott Rewards and Chase Southwest Airlines Premier Credit Card Retention Successes

It’s that time of the year… annual fees start charging, free night certificates start appearing, and bonus points start posting.  Earlier this week, I received the following email from Chase / Marriott about my free night certificate valid at any Marriott hotel category 1-5.  The one thing I don’t like about the Marriott free night certificates is that they are only valid for 6 months from the date they are issued.  If you cannot use them by then, call Chase and they will usually extend the certificate for another 6 months.

Since my free night certificate posted to my Marriott account before the annual fee posted to my Chase Marriott, I was planning on closing the credit card and keeping the free night… for free.

Marriott Free Night Certificate Email

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Random News: AMEX Offers for Courtyard Marriott, Lucille’s BBQ, Whole Foods, and JC Penneys; up to 1,000 Bonus Southwest Airlines Shopping Portal Bonus Points; and New Office Depot / Office Max Rewards Program for 2015

AMEX Offers

Random News: AMEX Offers for Courtyard Marriott, Lucille’s BBQ, Whole Foods, and JC Penneys; up to 1,000 Bonus Southwest Airlines Shopping Portal Bonus Points; and New Office Depot / Office Max Rewards Program for 2015

Good evening everyone, what a long day it has been.  I woke up at 4am so I could get to Oakland Airport and catch my 6:15am flight back to Orange County on Southwest Airlines.  I am happy to report that my first use of my Southwest Companion Pass (since last November) went smoothly.  The only hick-up was when I checked in for my flight, I had TSA Pre Check both ways, but my companion only had it on the outbound flight.  It wasn’t too bad, I breezed thru TSA security and only had to wait for her for 10 minutes :)

My buddy Greg (aka Frequent Miler) was able to buy a physical gift card at his local Courtyard Marriott and receive the $20 statement credit (link).

Courtyard Marriott AMEX Offer

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How to Use a Marriott Free Night Certificate to Make a Free One Night Reservation

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How to Use a Marriott Free Night Certificate to Make a Free One Night Reservation

If you have a Chase Marriott Rewards Credit Card, you get a free night certificate every year you pay the annual fee.  There are two things I dislike about the free night certificates.  Firstly, the free night certificate is only valid for 6 months (can be extended by calling Chase/Marriott during the last month of validity).  Secondly, you can only use the free night certificate at a category 1-5 hotel (Marriott has 8 hotel categories).  To use your free night certificate, log into your Marriott account (link) and click the link titled “You Have 1 Unused Certificate”.  Clicking that link will take you directly to your activity page (link).

Marriott Account

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San Diego Miles and Points Meet Up on Saturday June 7

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San Diego Miles and Points Meet Up on Saturday June 7

One of my close friends lives down in San Diego and she has been telling me to come down and do a miles and points meet up.  After comparing our travel schedules, we finally settled on Saturday June 7.  The location and time has yet to be set.  If no one shows up, I guess it will just be the two of us, sharing millions* of secrets about travel hacking, booking premium class awards, hotel loyalty programs, and sweet cash back deals.

(*slight exaggeration)

I also have a Marriott Category 1-5 Free Night Certificate that expires at the end of July, that I need to use as well.

Unused Marriott Stay Certificate

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What’s Up with Grant? CA Fires, CVS-AMEX, Citi Photo Cards, Update on Checkout51, and Hamburg/Copenhagen Planning

What's On My Mind

What’s Up with Grant? CA Fires, CVS-AMEX, Citi Photo Cards, Update on Checkout51, and Hamburg/Copenhagen Planning

Good morning everyone!  California has a had a rough couple of days deals with several forest fires.  I hope my friends/family/readers in San Diego County are all doing ok.  Thank you for all the hard work from the fire fighters and other respondents.  I am going down to San Diego on Saturday June 7 (3 weeks from today) to meet a friend of mine.  She is a big miles/points aficionado like myself, so I wanted to know if anyone would like to join us, a very casual miles/points meetup.  The time and place has yet to be decided, but it will probably be in the afternoon on Saturday.

Also, I have been a *really bad* blogger this week.  I haven’t posted anything in the last 3-4 days so I apologize for not keeping you up to date on the latest miles/points news:

  • Southwest Airlines credit card now 50,000 mile sign up bonus
  • Barclays Arrival Plus credit card now with chip and pin and the same sign up bonus
  • Chase Ink Bold/Plus credit card now with 60,000 Chase UR Points
  • American Express Daily Deals, maybe I should say “deals”, not too impressive this year
  • Evolve Pay now you can pay with some credit cards (mostly MasterCard)
  • Charlotte Mile Madness reviews
  • Whatever else I missed

Just because I haven’t been writing the last few days doesn’t mean I haven’t been experimenting with different topics/ideas.  I have some pretty good posts in the pipeline.  One post that’s been 1+ month in the making is my headache of a problem dealing with CVS and my American Express Target card.  Have you ever had a situation where neither company could help, but then you decided to do a 3 way conference call and have them speak directly to each other and solve the problem?  Ya, that’s what happened here.  I’m glad to finally have my $503.95 back.  More info to come shortly (P.S. crazy story).

Chargeback

Umm, what the heck is a reversal of chargeback and why do you do this to me AMEX??

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