Earn Up To 16 Rapid Reward Miles Per $1 Spent @ Marriott

I wrote about here about how you can earn up to 11 United Mileage miles per $1 spent at Marriott. Shortly after posting, a stumbled upon a similar promotion to earn Rapid Reward miles for buying the same Marriott Gift Cards (H/T again to Loyalty Traveler) After thinking about it for a while, I realized that the same tactics used in my United post could be used for the Southwest promotion.

Follow the steps below to earn at least 16 Rapid Reward miles per $1 spent at Marriott

From August 1st until September 26nd, you can earn up to 12 Rapid Reward miles per $1 spent on gift cards through this link. Maximum of 12,000 miles can be earned.

I purchased Marriott Gift Cards for the holidays last year. These are actual gift cards, not e-gift cards. They ship them to you in the mail. The cheapest option for delivery only cost $1 and gets the card to you in less than 10 business days.

My plan is to use the gift cards for future hotel stays. Gift cards can't be used for prepaid nights. However, some people have indicated that they have gotten local hotel staff to reverse prepaid hotel stay charges allowing guests to use a Marriott gift card.

+ 12 Miles Per $1

Pay for the gift cards with your Chase Sapphire Card. Since you are buying directly from Marriott, you will earn 2 Ultimate Reward Points per $1. Ultimate Reward points can be transferred to Rapid Reward miles at a 1:1 ratio

+2 Miles Per $1

When its time to book your Marriott stay, go through the Ultimate Reward Shopping Portal. Currently, you can earn 2 Ultimate Reward Points per $1 spent by going through the Portal. Points are only earned on the base rate of the hotel, not the taxes. You will need to put a credit card down to hold the room. The gift cards won't work to hold the room, but you can pay with the gift card later.

+2 Miles Per $1

Let's put it together now:

 +12 Miles - Purchase Gift Cards (Pay for Future Stays with Cards)
 +2 Miles - Purchase Gift Cards with Chase Sapphire
 +2 Miles - Go Through Ultimate Reward shopping portal to Book Hotel Nights
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+16 Miles per $1

I have earned miles for each of the steps outlined above. The only one I have not tried out is paying for hotel nights with gift cards and earning miles through the Ultimate Reward shopping portal. In theory, it should work.

Unlike the United MileagePlus offer, where you can earn up to 2 miles per $1 spent, stays at all Marriott's earn a flat 600 Rapid Reward miles regardless of hotel brand.

This is a personal choice if you want to earn Rapid Reward miles, instead of Marriott points. Personally, I think it depends upon your travel goals. I have no use for Marriott points, as I almost never stay there except when traveling with CashBack Boy. However, I have a $50 stay coming up, so I might switch to earn 600 Rapid Reward miles rather than 50 United miles.

To earn airline miles for Marriott stays, you have to switch your earning preference. To do this, sign into your Marriott Reward account and go to "My Account Overview."

Click on the Member Profile button:

 Now, click on Earning Preferences:

Finally, choice airline miles, pick your preferred airline and enter you frequent flyer number

From now on, you will earn airlines miles; instead, of Marriott Points.

A few things to remember:

          1) The gift card promotion starts 8/1 and ends 9/26

          2) You need to book your hotel nights through Ultimate Reward Portal

          3) You need to switch your earning preference to airline miles and put in your Rapid Rewards number


I hope that those who prefer Southwest miles over United will take advantage of this offer.
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