Triangle Trip

Marriott has been offering a promotion (click here for the link to Marriott’s Triple Summer Miles promotion) where you could earn triple miles on Delta or Northwest from June 1, 2009 to August 31, 2009. For those unfamiliar with the standard Marriott reward offering, you can choose to earn either 10 Marriott points or 2 Delta miles for each US dollar spent at a Marriott. If you sign up for this particular deal, you would earn 3x the standard Delta SkyMiles – 6 miles for every dollar spent.

My initial reaction was that this promotion is a no brainer, but, of course, the tradeoff between hotel points and airline miles can be considered more of an art than a science. For instance, a person that uses Marriott points for stays at Marriott hotels would view the trade off differently than a person who is accrues Delta SkyMiles for free flights. I personally avoid Marriott hotels unless there’s truly nothing better in the area where I’m vacationing; I will save the Marriott bashing for a separate post. Nevertheless, in an attempt to determine whether Marriott Points or Delta SkyMiles are more valuable, let’s set aside personal preferences.

To make this decision more of a science, let’s take a common item that can be purchased with points or miles – say an iPod Touch (16GB). Based on a calculated spending level (how much actual cash you need to spend at the Marriott to get the iPod) and an assumed price of the product, a cash back equivalent (CBE) can be determined. The reward offering that results in the highest CBE is the better deal. As you can see from the table below, this methodology suggest that the 3x Delta miles promotion offers the highest CBE at 3.01%. The results also show that without the 3x promotion, the Marriott points are more valuable at a 2.62% vs 1.00% CBE.

When no promotions are involved, you may want to check out Captain G’s perspective on airline miles vs hotel points.

Delta has been sending emails to a selected few Medallion members to extend their Double MQM and bonus miles offer to September 7, 2009.  Similar to the first Double/Triple MQM offer (see previous post), there’s a catch! You will need to book and fly on higher (more expensive) class fares. Classes B and M on economy are almost full fare tickets.

In addition, you will get 50% more bonus miles which is great if you’re only a Silver Medallion. This offer is also available on Northwest.

Here’s the link to register even though you might qualify… but do give it a try.  There’s a fine print at the bottom of the page that reads:  “Only members who receive this communication directly from Delta Air Lines are eligible to participate in this offer.”

Below is a chart showing the potential MQM & Bonus Miles.

I was extremely shocked to see the attached email from Delta on Monday morning, offering me 10,000 MQM (Medallion Qualifying Miles) toward my 2010 status.

I checked my online account statement and noticed it was there!

This is right after the Triple/Double MQM offer ended — which wasn’t really an offer (see previous post). I am guessing Delta is feeling guilty that it actually did not offer or gave anyone real MQM with their previous offer, and this is a way to proactively quiet the future complaints.

After speaking with a few of my associates, I found out this MQM offer was only given to a selected few and not everyone. Some folks only got 5,000 MQM while others got as much as 15,000. I guess it’s dependent on how much you have flown in 2009 — I racked up about 30,000 miles on Delta in 2009.

It is a good consolation prize for the bad MQM offer Delta had from March to June 2009. Kudos to them on this one.