How Annual Credit Card Benefits Helped Me Save Over $6,400 On My Holiday Vacation – Forbes Advisor


The St. Regis New York is the original St. Regis hotel and the brand’s flagship property. It’s one of the most luxurious and ostentatious New York hotels, with high ceilings, butler service for every room and a luxury house car to take you up to 10 blocks from the hotel for free.

This is a bucket list property for many Marriott points collectors—including me. My family will begin an international trip by flying out of New York (JFK). We used the opportunity to book a stay at this astonishingly expensive hotel, which routinely sells standard rooms for more than $1,200 per night.

Screenshot of St. Regis hotel room cash rate

Screenshot of St. Regis hotel room points rate

Savings Achieved With the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card

The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card (Terms apply, see rates & fees) comes with two key features that can make this stay extremely cheap.

First, it comes with an annual 85,000-point Free Night Award. This allows me to book a night at any eligible Marriott hotel with available standard rooms that cost 85,000 points or less. Marriott also allows you to combine this award with up to 15,000 Marriott points, allowing you to book standard rooms costing up to 100,000 points per night. I used my free night award plus 9,000 Marriott points to save $1,569 on my stay (after taxes and fees).

The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card also confers automatic Marriott Platinum elite status, which offers breakfast privileges at Marriott hotels. Breakfast at the St. Regis New York costs around $46 per person. That means my wife and I will save a total of $92 during our one-night stay.

These two ongoing card perks will give me a total value of $1,661.

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