How I Became A Marriott Platinum Elite Member

I get access to 4pm late checkout. So if I'm going to a conference and I'm going to a little personal trip, I don't have to worry about waking up early. I can sleep in. I get access to room upgrades upon availability, including suites. So if they have suites available they'll bump me up, even if I just booked the regular room. So I went to Fincon and I was in the Sheraton over in New Orleans and I was up on the 42nd floor but views over the entire city of New Orleans and over the ocean.

the views immaculate, like you can't put money on that man, just being able to witness that and experience that the journey to wealth is a long walk and some may walk quicker than others, but what good is sprinting to the finish line if you pass out when you cross it? On Walk to Wealth, we enlighten and empower young adults to build wealthy, abundant lives. They say the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and your first step starts right now. This is Walk to Wealth with your host, John Mendes.

You know that we've been through quite a journey when it comes to credit cards. We just came off with the last one, talking about how I got my Chase Inc cards and how to actually kind of put me in a bad predicament trying to get welcome bonuses that I had no business trying to get after. And so let me tell you now about how I got Marriott Platinum Elite status. You hear that. Does that say Marriott Platinum Elite status? You feel me? The reason why I even wanted to get into hotel status is that a lot of these credit cards have points and they have travel partners that you can transfer out to. So Marriott is one of the Chase travel partners. So if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred card or the Chase Sapphire Reserved so I have the Sapphire Preferred you would actually take the points that you get with Chase and then transfer them over at a one to one ratio to one of their travel partners. Now Marriott, as I said, is one of their travel partners. On top of that, mx also has some partnerships with Marriott as well. So I was like, all right, this is pretty good. And then I started thinking back on all the time that went on like little family, like vacations. I never really traveled too too much. By any time I did travel, I'd always end up staying at some sort of Mariah hotel. I was like, you know, if I'm already staying at these hotels, what does that look like if you know what is their lower to award program? Look like how? What does it look like if I just invested in this and Went only to Mariah hotels? So, as you guys know, and if you didn't know, I went to quantum neeps summit back in 2022 and from there I got six, six sessions of coaching and after the coaching, I got access to two, five thousand dollar scholarships. And so that's in my how. I met a billionaire and he stole my shoe and I made 10k episodes. So you didn't check out that series. Make sure to definitely go check that out. But essentially I got the two thousand five thousand dollar scholarships and I used that money to pay for straight conferences. I didn't buy any courses or classes or workshops about tickets to a bunch of conferences and use the money for the travel, and so I Knew I was going to be traveling a whole lot in 2023. Now I was like, all right, this may be my one chance to actually Get some Mariah Elite night status credits so that I can bump my way up the ranking and get access to all the amazing benefits. So how it started off, though, is I ended up getting the Mariah Bon Voy boundless card and this is a card with Chase, and they do have a small annual fee of 95 dollars but for me, I thought it was well worth it, because, one, it was the first step in this grand master scheme that I had cooking up, but, two, I look at the benefits, so the welcome offer was three free nights Value up to 50k points After 3k spend in three months, so a thousand a month, and this is also a personal card, so if I needed help, you know I had my best friend to help me out with the purchasing of the Meaning the minimum as so, from there, every year that you help hold the car, you also get a free night award and you get automatic silver elite status just for holding the card, and you also get 15 elite night credits. Now, elite night credits essentially, normally, you have to stay one night to get one credit, so, as I said, I'm platinum platinum you need to stay, technically, 50 nights Now. I did not stay 50 nights at a hotel this year, in 2023. I don't live in hotels, I don't even travel that that much to be getting anywhere near close to 50. And so I got 15 elite night credit from there. And Then it goes silver, gold, platinum, titanium and ambassador and I get into the benefits later. And then on top of that I get six points back. Six percent back at Marriott Bonvoy hotels. And then I get another couple percentage back when I book and I get food and drinks at any Marriott hotels while I get points back. So I was like, alright, this is definitely worth it. The three free night awards it costs like maybe one fifty, two hundred minimum to stay at a Marriott hotel, depending on where you're staying, but that easily just pays off for the first three years and then after every year you get a free night award. So the card pretty much pays itself off without you having to do anything. You don't have to try and hit all the different spends and hit you get all the different points back. I just holding the card is well worth it. Right on top of that, I mainly wanted it for the 15 elite night credits. So that boom, that put me at silver. And then the next thing I did from there. My master grand scheme is a While later now I'll talk about how against the mx, actually in the next episode. But just know, a while later ended up getting the mx Marriott business card. So the reason I got that one and that another personal card is because supposedly If you get two Marriott cards you can get two Marriott cards. But you can also get two Marriott cards. You can't, and they're both like personal. The 15 elite knight credits cancels each other out, so you only get one. So let's say I got the Marriott Bonn Roy Boundless card and the Marriott Bonn Roy Bold card, which are two chase Marriott cards. They both, if I'm not mistaken, get 15 knight elite credits. I'd only get the 15 knights from one of them. But because the Marriott Bonn Roy Business card is a business card and not a personal, then I can stack the 15 knights At least that's what I've been told. So that's what I did. So the welcome bonus for the card was 125,000 points in $8,000 spend within six months. So if you do it math it's like a little over a thousand a month. But guess what? I guess, supposedly because I had the chase card with Marriott, that I wasn't eligible for the welcome bonus. So I didn't even get the bonus, which kind of sucked, honestly. 125,000 points, that could get you a couple of nice little trips. But anyways, the card gives you like 6% back at Marriott Hotels, 4% back at restaurants, gas stations and wireless phone services and 2% back everything else. Now, the only difference with this card and other cards you only get Marriott points. You can't transfer that out to other travel partners. If I'm not mistaken, you can only use the Marriott points for Marriott stuff, unlike with Chase, I can get the Chase points and then transfer out to wherever. So that's the only thing. That kind of sucks. But also with the MX Business Card I also get access to the best rates. I got a 7% room rate discount on standard guest rooms and just for holding that card I get automatic gold status. So I get automatically upgraded to the second tier in the loyalty program that Marriott has. On top of that I get one free night award every year. I get 15 Elite Night Credits and I get premium internet access just for holding the card. So for me, the little annual fee that I have if I'm not mistaken it's $95 or 125. If I'm not mistaken, double check me. But either way, that easily pays itself off. With all the hotels I'm booking. I'll make that easily back in the discounts that I'm getting on the rooms. On top of that, the 15 Elite Credits and one free night award every year, it easily pays itself off and I get access to premium internet. So now I have gold status just for holding that card. And now I have the additional 15 Elite Knights from the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card and then 15 Elite Knights from this business card that I just got. Now that puts me at 30. So now, instead of having to stay 50 nights at a Marriott hotel, I only have to stay 20. And it could be any of the Marriott chains, or it could be like Rich Carlton, or it could be like the West End, or it could be Residence Inn, or it could be the autograph collection that they have Like. As long as it's part of the Marriott family, I'm pretty sure it counts. And so from there, once I got that card right, I used the money from all my conferences I mean from my scholarship to go to all these conferences. I only stayed at Marriott hotels. So I started racking up nights and then from there I got asked to speak in Atlanta somewhere along the way, and that's another story for another day. But I pretty much I went to Atlanta. I was September 11th to September 15th and that put me at 49. So the hair got back from Atlanta. I just booked the hotel room, literally for the simple fact that I just wanted the extra night. I just wanted one more night. So I just booked the hotel Only. I didn't even need it, I just wanted to get the 50 nights. And so from there, that's when I ended up getting the Marriott Platinum Elite status. That's when I got access to all the amazing benefits. And now let me tell you what you get from that. So when you book Marriott Hotels, you get 50% point bonus. So let's say I booked in a hotel and it gave me, let me say, 50,000 points. I'd get another 25,000 just because I'm a Platinum Elite member. I get access to 4pm late checkout. So if I'm going to a conference and I'm going to a little personal trip, I don't have to worry about waking up early. I could sleep in. That right there is definitely worthwhile. I get welcome gifts upon arrival at any Marriott Hotels. Depending on the branch It'll vary, but I get points, breakfast or amenities some sort of amenity. I get access to room upgrades upon availability, including sweets. So if they have sweets available, they'll bump me up to a suite, even if I just booked the regular room, which is amazing. I get access to 24-7 Elite Support. I get lounge access and complimentary breakfast at hotels. So let me tell you so. I went to FinCon about a couple weeks ago from me making this video, and I was in the Sheraton over in New Orleans and I was up on the 42nd floor with views over the entire city of New Orleans and over the ocean and eating my breakfast and vlogging and just living life. The views immaculate. You can't put money on that man, just being able to witness that and experience that. It may be a flex for me, because I never really traveled much growing up, but damn, 42nd floor, I've seen over every building. And on top of that I got free food and at conferences it's hard because you never really have time to eat like that. So unless you make time but you feel like you're missing out, so it's always hard. So I was able to get snacks and stuff like that, which came in really handy, and then I get five sweet night awards or access to like a thousand dollar discount on a bed that Marriott offers, so I can buy like a mattress and get a thousand dollars off. So I may be using either the five sweet night awards or the mattress, because I definitely need a new mattress, not going to lie, like when I sleep. My back hurts sometimes, so and it's not either, or it's one or the other. Like you have to get either the sweet night awards or the mattress discount and there's a couple other ones that you could choose from, but I wasn't really interested in. And so that's just some of the beauty, like the benefits of like just being with the Marriott Bonvoy, elite Loyalty Rewards program or whatever. On top of that, most of the time, whenever I go to a hotel and they check my account and they see that I'm a plan, a member, they just treat me so much better. That could be like Exaggerating it, but I just feel like they treat me better. They see like oh, thank you for your loyalty, mr Mendez. And then when I go into my hotels not all the times, but sometimes the TV will be on and they'll say welcome back, john, go to Leet, and Benawa says welcome back, john, platinum Elite, you know. So that's always nice and this is more, just like the experience of being a platinum member and said that the complimentary breakfast is easy, gonna pay itself off, and all my travel in 2024, because I'm still going to be going to conferences and stuff I'm going to be able to get complimentary breakfast as it doesn't save me so much money. I can have more flexibility with my flights because I have late checkout, I get more points back and then, on top of that, just recently, for the month of September, chase was giving a 50% point like bonus for every point that you send. So let's say, I sent out 100,000 points. Chase will match, or Marriott will match, 50% of that, so I got an additional 50,000 points literally just for transferring over. I didn't have to do anything, I just transferred my chase points to my Marriott account and Marriott matched 50% of that. So I got an additional 50,000 points for literally doing nothing. Right. This is the beauty when you start really getting into the points of my house game and I'm not even that deep, deep into it, I'm still, I'll say I'm mid, I'm not the most advanced traveler, but man, these benefits just start to get better and better. So as I start traveling more and more next year it's going to be amazing. And just recently too, I got TSA precheck, so now I can skip the line or at least go to shorter lines. I may be thinking about getting global entry. I'm not too sure. Honestly, I feel like it's kind of intrusive, like they want to take your fingerprint and stuff like that. But honestly, for me, this, like it, saves me the hassle of waiting in line. I hate waiting in line, so that's it. And so that's how I got Marriott Platinum Elite Status. Now the next episode I'm going to be telling you guys I'm sharing with you guys how I got into the AMX ecosystem, because they gave me a very hard time. My first card I got declined and they didn't even really give me a reason why I called the reconsideration line. Still got no reason. So I'm going to tell you guys how I got into AMX in the next episode. So I'll see you in the next one.