Marriott publishes a summary of Platinum welcome benefits from August

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• Rachael says:

  6 Jun6 June 08:30

  We are just about to become platinum members in August and sorry to sound a little green but what is F&B credit / amenity ? Also given the choice which is the best offer, points, breakfast or amenity ?

  • Rob says:

    6 Jun6 June 08:57

    ‘Food and beverage’ so it gets knocked off anything bar or restaurant bill.

    • Rachael says:

      6 Jun6 June 09:18

      Thanks, which is the best perk to pick ?

      • Rob says:

        6 Jun6 June 10:23

        1000 points is worth around £5, a $10 F&B credit is worth around £6-£7 and is ‘real’ cash, so probably better.

      • shd says:

        6 Jun6 June 15:02

        Depends if you would actually be spending time and cash in the on-property bars or restaurants? If I’m travelling on my own I almost never do, so would almost always take the points instead.

• mutley says:

  6 Jun6 June 09:34

  O/T Work takes me to Heathrow area in July/ August. I will be spending approx.20 hotel nights in this period, Any recommendations re; hotels and those to avoid on budget of max £140 nightly?

  • Mark2 says:

    6 Jun6 June 09:58

    I suggest that you consider hotel-hopping to make as many stays as possible to bag status challenges.

  • Rob says:

    6 Jun6 June 10:21

    The new Novotel on Bath Road is meant to be good and would work with the Accor offer covered in the other article today.

    The Hilton, Marriott and SPG offers a bit dull.

    IHG Accelerate is the wild card – you need to look at your personalised offers. It could work well because you could hit any stay-based or brand-based targets easily by jumping around the various IHG properties.

    • mutley says:

      6 Jun6 June 14:10

      Thanks for the replies guys, I will probably hotel hop a bit, ( I have Hilton diamond, Marriot gold, Accor gold) and also an accelerate target. I reckon there are about 25 hotels from the major chains dotted around within a mile and half of the airport. I’ll see if I can get through half of them!

  • roberto says:

    6 Jun6 June 11:09

    And if you looking at saving a few quid the Premier Inn at T4 has rooms from £45 a night on certain days and is mostly less than £80. Covered walkway from T$ plus free buses to T5 ( & onward connections ) and its not a bad place to lay your head.

• Adrian says:

  6 Jun6 June 10:19

  Guys, have any of you recently (in the last week or so) asked Marriott for the platinum challenge? I asked the twitter team this week and was told they “no longer do challenges”. Has anyone been accepted if so how did you do it email/phone? (UK or US?).

  • KBuffett says:

    6 Jun6 June 18:01

    I was rejected on twitter. Ignored by email twice. Succeeded on the third email request

• TripRep says:

  6 Jun6 June 10:45

  Bits O/T

  Any top points deals for Florida car hire, my usual choice of Virgin/Alamo seem expensive, Holiday Autos seem to be offering okay price on a small SUV via Europacar, £450 for 2 weeks.

  Anyone had better recent quotes?

  • roberto says:

    6 Jun6 June 11:15

    I had a cheap(ish) deal with Avis out of Miami airport recently. Was part of the (now expired 6000 miles promo) but about $24 a day for a group 3 car..

    • TripRep says:

      6 Jun6 June 11:20

      thanks, I just tried Avis, sadly v expensive too…

      • Ben says:

        6 Jun6 June 11:36

        Im getting a car for LA in Aug and Sixt seem to be the best…I also hired with this last year and got a nice little upgrade to a convertable 4 series rather than the Mustang

      • TripRep says:

        6 Jun6 June 18:31

        Ben – thanks will try them too…

  • George says:

    6 Jun6 June 15:22

    I’m flying into Orlando in the next few days, got a great price with TripWheels as the intermediary. I’m renting toward the top of the price groups and still sub-£50 a day.

    • TripRep says:

      6 Jun6 June 18:33

      Thanks George not heard of them before.

      This trip is using up my VS PE upgrade vouchers, might be the last time I use them.

      • BLT says:

        6 Jun6 June 22:50

        Not sure when you are travelling but Hertz France seems to have cheaper SUVs at MCO this summer , around the €430 mark for 2 weeks, that includes Amex platinum CDP code and a premium SUV.

  • Chelseafifi says:

    6 Jun6 June 22:36

    If you’re a Costco member, they seemed good for states, book under costtravel.co.uk.

  • Alex W says:

    6 Jun6 June 22:44

    @triprep I use autoslash for cheap car hire eevry time.

• Optimus Prime says:

  6 Jun6 June 11:47

  OT – Is BA likely to have a summer sale for short-haul flights? Or have I missed it already? 🙂

• Ali says:

  6 Jun6 June 15:16

  OT – £140 annual fee just posted to my PRGC:
  – how long should I expect to wait for the 10,000 bonus MRs to post?
  – if I do gold to plat upgrade, will the £140 go towards the plat fee or be pro rata refunded then £450 charged for plat?

  Thanks!

  • the real harry1 says:

    6 Jun6 June 15:26

    Took a bit longer than expected for us last time, at least 3 weeks

    the £140 will be refunded pro rata to your Plat a/c, meaning you’re in credit so will need to spend about £1120 to hit the spend target

    sounds like you need your mind making up about Plat: how about getting it then referring self/ others for a range of Amex cards @ 18,000 per referral before cancelling? SPG, Nectar, BA etc, his ‘n hers and it can soon add up

    • Genghis says:

      6 Jun6 June 15:39

      “the £140 will be refunded pro rata to your Plat a/c, meaning you’re in credit so will need to spend about £1120 to hit the spend target”.

      This is not the case. Fees and refunds thereof do not earn points / count towards target spend etc.

      So assuming a zero balance, the refund would take you say to -£120, you’d spend £1k for the 20k MRs and then have a closing balance of £880.

      • thehornets says:

        6 Jun6 June 16:21

        +1 (just did this)

      • the real harry1 says:

        6 Jun6 June 16:27

        ah right 🙂

    • Darren says:

      6 Jun6 June 18:58

      Thanks TRH1,

      I’ve recently received my Gold to Platinum 20k bonus and will be referring from Platinum, my referees have the BA and PRG, are SPG and Nectar the only options?

• the real harry1 says:

  6 Jun6 June 16:27

  O/T
  BLAZE DRAMA London fire – 15 fire engines and 97 crew scrambled to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge after huge blaze sees smoke billowing over capital

  • KBuffett says:

    6 Jun6 June 18:02

    Less than a week after completion of their new £185m refurb! Ouch. Hope everyone is OK

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.