Earn Bonus United Miles or Delta SkyMiles for Purchasing Marriott Gift Cards via Promo
0United Airlines and Delta Airlines have both been partners with Marriott Hotels (among other hotel chains). Earlier in August and September, we saw a special bonus Southwest miles for purchasing Marriott gift cards. Now there is a special offer for bonus United Miles or Delta SkyMiles for purchasing Marriott gift cards!
Tuning into Seth over at The Wandering Aramean:
For United the deal is valid from October 15 – November 26, 2012. It maxes out at 5,000 MileagePlus points earnt and the earn rates are:
- 500 MileagePlus Miles with a $150 Marriott Gift Card purchase
- 1,000 MileagePlus Miles with a $250 Marriott Gift Card purchase
- 2,000 MileagePlus Miles with a $400 Marriott Gift Card purchase
To get the full 5,000 bonus points will require buying $1,050 in cards.
For Delta the deal is valid from October 19 – December 15, 2012. The earning rates are not nearly as good as what United is offering but the max number which can be earnt in 10,000 rather than 5,000. Here’s the earn rates for Delta:
- 200 Delta SkyMiles with a $100 Marriott Gift Card purchase
- 500 Delta SkyMiles with a $250 Marriott Gift Card purchase
- 2,000 Delta SkyMiles with a $1,000 Marriott Gift Card purchase
Since the cards seem to be sold directly by Marriott (I haven’t confirmed this), it’s likely that you’ll get bonus base miles if you are also making the purchase using a rewards/miles card that gains you bonus points for travel, such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred card or even the Chase Freedom card for this quarter’s bonus.
For example, if these cards DO show up as Marriott purchases and you make the purchase using your Chase Freedom card (and have activated the quarterly bonus), then you will get 5x points per dollar you spend. That means if you purchase a $400 Marriott gift card through the promotion page link above for United, you would earn the 2,000 promotional United Miles + 2,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points (because 5pts/$ * $400 = 2,000 pts). And since Chase UR points can transfer to United MileagePlus at a 1:1 ratio with no fees, that’s essentially doubling the amount of bonus miles you’ll earn!
Of course, this is all based on the assumption that the gift cards *do* show up as Marriott purchases (not guaranteed or confirmed). Regardless whether or not you get those bonus miles from your credit card, this is still a sweet little bonus for anyone who is planning on a Marriott stay in the near future—or if you just simply know you’ll be back at a Marriott and don’t mind keeping your cash locked up in a gift card.
Again, hat tip to Seth over at The Wandering Aramean for the find. Seth’s blog is also a great travel hacking blog to follow. He writes some great content. I would definitely recommend checking out his blog as well. Cheers