Amex Offer: $50 off $200 at Marriott, $22-$34 Moneymaker Per Amex Card

Contents

1 The Offer
2 Cautions
3 The Fine Print
4 Our Verdict

The Offer

Spend $200 at Marriott hotels and get $50 statement credit.

This offer can be found in your Amex login, or you can signup via Twitter by tweeting #AmexMarriott from a connected Twitter account.

Big Caveat: This offer is only valid at “Marriot” hotels, not co-branded locations such as “Courtyard Marriott”, “Residence Inn by Marriott”, etc.

In a past offer, Marriott gift cards did trigger the statement credit. There’s already two data-points (here and here) confirming that gift cards will trigger the Amex confirmation email for this offer as well. This invariably means that it will trigger the statement credit.

Once you buy the Marriott gift card, you can then use the gift card at co-branded locations as well, such as Courtyard, Residence Inn, etc. This is great for Marriott stays.

Another option is to sell the Marriott gift cards to a gift card reseller. They’re paying 86%- 88.5%. If you sell to Cardpool and go through TopCashBack, you may be eligible for an additional 4% for a grand total of 92%.

If you sell it for 92%, you’ll profit $34 per Amex card. If you have 5 registered Amex cards, you’ll profit $170!

Cautions

Caution: I did this successfully with a similar offer a couple months ago, but it wasn’t as simple as it sounds.

Firstly, usually with these kinds of Amex offers, I’ll do a couple gift cards at one register and then hop over to the next register to do a couple more. In this case, there’s only one register (the main front desk of the Marriott) to go to. You may not feel comfortable asking the cashier to buy five (or whatever number) gift cards and check each one out separately.

Secondly, in my past experience, the gift cards don’t seem to be readily available at the Marriott front-desk. One place had them right there, but another place had to go into some back room to get them. Yet a third place needed to call the manager to unlock a safe and get them. Why they’re guarding value-less gift cards in a safe is anyone’s guess.

Thirdly, a lot of the Marriott reps don’t really know how to sell gift cards. If you go during the day, they’ll find someone who knows what to do, but if you try going at night they may tell you to come back by day.

Fourthly, I once called one location (at night) to verify they had gift cards and they claimed they don’t sell them. More likely the cashier simply didn’t know about the gift cards (it doesn’t seem to be a common thing they sell), but you might get such a response if you try calling.

Of course, all of my experiences were with Courtyard locations which were offered in the past Amex Offer, so it’s possible that “Marriott” locations will be easier to buy gift cards from.

The Fine Print

Only valid at “Marriott” locations, not co-branded locations, as mentioned above.
Valid 11/6/2014 – 12/31/2014

Our Verdict

This offer could be a really nice moneymaker. I’d be jumping on this if I had a Marriott nearby. I’d go and buy one $200 gift card to verify that the “Congrats” email comes through and then I’d go back and buy a few $200 gift cards on a few separate cards.

Since I don’t have any “Marriott” locations nearby, I’ll just keep this in mind for any travel that I have in the next couple months, and I’ll see if I can take advantage of this before the December 31 deadline.