Earn Marriott Titanium (75 night credits) through co-branded bank cards only

Marriott issues co-branded bank cards in many markets – US, UK, China, India, Japan and UAE to name a few – and one major perk of them is elite night credits which is awarded annually to accelerate your membership tier upgrade progress.

You can hold multiple cards, but some of their night credits stack whilst others don’t. The game has just got more interesting for us who are based in the UK, as Currensea recently introduced two new co-branded debit cards to the market.

Despite being debit cards they are actually quite decent (much better than the Hilton ones), but I’m not going into details. Both cards come with annual night credits:

• Standard: 10 night credits, £55 annual fee
• Premium: up to 20 night credits, £175 annual fee

(If you want to apply, my referral (code KZ2GGP) gives both of us 2,000 Marriott points.)

More importantly, they are compatible with existing UK, US and Chinese products. Once I received and activated my card the credit hit my Marriott account instantaneously:

Here’s what I hold:

• Chase Marriott Boundless (15)
• CITIC Platinum (10)
• Currensea (10)

That adds up to the 35 on my account. I also hold the UK Marriott Amex but it doesn’t combine with Chase and I might cancel it soon.

Can you do better? Definitely and here’s how:

• Amex Marriott Brilliant (25)
• Amex Business Marriott (15)
• CITIC Platinum Premium (15)
• Currensea Premium (20)

So in theory you could get 75 night credits purely by holding the right credit cards and qualify for Titanium already at the beginning of each year.

The trick probably works on the Japanese or Indian cards too but I’m not familiar with them so can’t comment. Getting all these cards however can be rather tricky because of the different issuing countries, let alone the annual fees – I’m happy with my 35 nights.