Marriott Credit Card Application & Why I’m Done With Hilton

Hilton Honors has essentially taken part in a clever scheme to devalue their points. Its made them the hotel equivalent of Delta SkyPesos. Because of this, I applied for the Chase Marriott card promotion today. I was instantly approved (a rare thing for me), and I’d say 70,000 points is a good start at my new hotel! If you don’t have many Chase cards or hotel points, this is a great one. The points come after first use, and the annual fee is waived for the first year.

100 More Southwest Miles

As I wrote last week, this is a 6-week contest. The answers for week 5 are:

  1. Both A & B
  2. Courtesy car to the airport
  3. Entire year
  4. True
  5. First suitcase (Boarding, 25%), 2nd suitcase (Boarding, wi-fi, 100%), 3rd suitcase (companion)

US Airways Grand Slam Strategy

OK, we’re into our final 2 weeks of the US Airways Grand Slam promotion. So far, I’m 31 hits in, and they’ve been the following:

  • 2 US Airways card hits (1 credit, 1 debit)
  • 4 Hotel transfer hits 
  • 6 car rental hits 
  • 1-800-Flowers
  • Audience Rewards
  • Biscoff
  • Bought 1,000 miles
  • Dining
  • Dividend Miles Shopping Mall
  • E-Miles
  • E-Rewards
  • ING ShareBuilder
  • Magazines for Miles
  • Network Solutions
  • Office Max
  • Perform 3 searches with Dividend Miles Toolbar
  • Skymall
  • SuperShuttle
  • Swap other miles into Dividend Miles at points.com
  • Thanks Again
  • Twitter sign promotion
  • Vinesse
Here are some stats:
  • After the next hit, I will have spent $308.51 on 80,000 miles
  • I picked up another 11,503 miles from the above hits (Sharebuilder, for example, was an additional 2,500 miles)
  • My cost is .33 cents per mile right now.
  • US Airways normally charges 3.5 cents per mile
  • My Network Solutions hit has not posted yet and could take a few weeks.
  • I called Office Max, Super Shuttle, and Skymall to get those hits posted.
I’m pretty happy with where I stand right now. I just need to figure out if I’m going to stop at 32 hits or if I’ll go all the way to 36. My last hits would probably be FTD, Teleflora, TrackItBack, sharing miles, and a Choice hotel stay. Even at $45 per hit, those extra 20,000 miles would cost me less than one cent per mile. It’s a tough call, but I’ve got a couple weeks to figure it out. I hope you’ve at least gotten the cheap and free hits out of the way. Remember, the promotion ends November 14th!