Fiance = baaaad, Husband = gooood

So though I have issues with calling A my fiance, I have no issues using the "husband" card. Especially when the "husband" is a platinum Marriott rewards member. It's a long story but basically I needed to find a place to sleep in Orange County last weekend. So I Pricelined a hotel and got what I thought was a pretty decent deal...$95 for a 4 star hotel which turned out to be an Irvine Marriott.

I'm going to digress for a minute about the supposed deal. After I found out what hotel I got, I went onto Expedia TripAdvisor to read the reviews and find out that it's mainly a business hotel so sometimes even better deals are to be had via Priceline. Other folks got accepted bids of $55-$65. I don't know if they stayed off-season but still, damn that's a good deal!

Anyway, back to why dropping the "H" bomb is good. Though I had prepaid for the hotel room, I had to still give them a card for incidentals. I busted out with my Starwood American Express card because it's the best loyalty program ever! And the hotel clerk nicely gave me a hard time telling me it was bold of me to use a Starwood card at the Marriott. So I countered and said, "Well actually my husband is a Platinum member with Marriott and I was wondering if you could put me on the floor that we normally would stay on." After a couple minutes of chatting about Starwood vs Marriott and how A is at a Marriott as we speak, he gives me my hotel key and says "Don't tell anyone, but I put you on the executive floor". So before he can change his mind, I quickly make my way over to the elevator to see that he gave me the top floor- woo hoo! And I tried to be gracious though I wanted to be smug, when another hotel guest in the elevator with me said "Wow, penthouse. You must be special. I feel like I'm with a celebrity." My room was next to the Presidential Suite - it was huge and the bathroom had a bidet! And because the club lounge was closed on Sunday, I managed to get the hotel to let me eat in the hotel restaurant for free. All this and I didn't even have to give the hotel an actual rewards number.

I highly recommend using the made up husband in small doses - as you can see from my experience, you can be rewarded handsomely.