I wrote a post earlier today about the Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Visa possibly discontinued. According to my contacts at Marriott International Canada, effective September 5th, 2017, no new customer applications are being accepted into the credit card program, but existing card members will continue to be serviced. Note that this only applies to applications in Canada and does not impact the US program.
I was hoping that this is just a temporary glitch, but all the Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Visa links are broken.
I called Chase Canada customer service to confirm what was going on and they said that they are “no longer offering the Chase Marriott credit card for the moment”. When I asked what she meant by “for the moment”, she said it may or may not come back, but I would need to ask Marriott Rewards to find out.
Marriott Rewards changing its #MRPoints program to #RewardsPoints. I think maybe this is another move towards integrating Ritz-Carleton and SPG into one rewards program. They may not longer want to only refer to their program as Marriott Rewards?
Social Media
The good news is that you can now earn even more points through social media. In the past, the earning potential was 2,500 points per year. The new potential is 45,000 points per year for engaging on social media.
In celebration of Canada’s 150th anniversary, Marriott launched the Epic Canada Adventure Sweepstakes. Enter to win at either MarriottCanada150.dja.com or SPGCanada150.dja.com.
Hotel points has always been a valuable commodity for my travels, as I always prefer to use points to book hotel nights, rather than spending my hard earned cash. The challenge is, how do we earn hotel points without actually staying at hotels?
The quickest way to jump-start your account is with a credit card sign up bonus. Every day spending on that credit card may be the next best way, but it is going to be a slow process.
Today, we feature Jennifer Bryl, Director of Loyalty for Canada, Marriott International, who would like to discuss its new partnership with PlacePass.
Jennifer Bryl, Director of Loyalty for Marriott Canada
1) Please tell us a little bit about yourself.
For Marriott International, I’m a loyalty driver who helps hotels understand the value of enrolling and recognizing new members so they can create exceptional and memorable experiences for our guests. Montreal is my favourite Canadian city (for the foodie in me) and I’m itching to visit Grand Okanagan!
In celebration of Marriott Rewards surpassing 100 million loyalty members (granted, it includes The Ritz-Carlton Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest members), they announced this week that it invested in PlacePass, an activity search and price comparison website that scans hundreds of travel and tour operators to find some of the best prices out there. There are over 100,000 customized travel experiences to choose from in 800 destinations in 177 countries.
Today, we feature Don Cleary of Marriott Hotels Canada. Last time, we did an audio interview with Vice President Global Loyalty Thom Kozik (Marriott) that you can find on YouTube.
This time around, I thought I’d go with a written interview instead. Due to a time sensitive schedule, I was unable to request questions from our readers. However, if you do have any questions, please let us know in the comment section and I will forward them directly to Marriott!
Today, we start with the comparison between the Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Visa and the American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card. Let’s start with the highlights of each respective cards and then breakdown each factor. As promised, I will discuss tangible and intangible factors.
Marriott Rewards, The Ritz-Carlton Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest have teamed up to offer a Double-Points Promotions. You will need to register (between December 15, 2016 and March 15, 2017) with each company respectively to qualify for the promotion.