Marriott’s Interesting Promos: Status Night Boosts and Discounted June/July Awards

Marriott has launched a pair of new promotions designed to get you to make whatever hotel nights you are planning in the near term Marriott Bonvoy nights.

Status Night Boosts Based on Last Year’s Earned Status

Marriott already renewed everyone’s status from 2019 through February 2022.

This promotion essentially recognizes that if you are going to earn a higher status this year than last, you’ll need some help. To that end, they are taking the status you earned in 2019 and awarding you additional elite night credits in 2020. These will be deposited in accounts in late July based on the following earned statuses in 2019:

These nights do count towards your lifetime status.

While I’m not convinced this will achieve Marriott’s goals for more butts-in-beds, it will benefit many of us in a pretty sweet (suite?) way.

As an example, I’m Titanium right now, with 75 nights in 2019.  I had 10 nights at Marriott hotels early this year, pre-COVID. I also have both the business and personal Marriott Bonvoy credit cards, which as of recently allow me to earn 15 Marriott Bonvoy elite nights for each credit card (up to one personal and one business) for 30 elite nights from my credit cards.

So I’m at 40 nights this year, with quite possibly no more to come, But this will bump me not only to Platinum re-qualification, but all the way to Titanium and 78 total nights.

Your first thought may be a big huge yawn. Dave, you say, you were already gifted Titanium status through next year. This changes nothing except that you get some more lifetime nights.

Not so! I’ll also now qualify for not one but two Marriott Choice Benefit Awards.

What are Marriott Elite Choice benefits?

At 50 nights (Bonvoy Platinum), you are offered a choice of:

• Five Elite Night Credits
• 40% off your favorite hotel bed
• Marriott Bonvoy™ Silver Elite status for a friend or family member
• US$100 donation to UNICEF
• Five Suite Night Awards™

And at 75 nights (Bonvoy Titanium), you are offered a choice of:

• Five (5) Suite Night Awards™
• 40% off bed
• $100 Charity Donation
• The gift of Gold Elite status for a friend or family member
• Five (5) Elite Night Credits
• One (1) Free Night Award

You can select your benefits here.

I’ll almost certainly take 5 SNA’s for 2021 and then a Free Night Award. These FNAs are good for a room of up to 40,000 Marriott Bonvoy points. I’ll easily get $250 in value from that if not more. The SNAs are very hit or miss and I don’t anticipate a ton of 2021 travel, but they may still come in handy for a nice confirmed upgrade. Maybe I’ll add a night at the Ritz Carlton Santa Barbara and try for a nice confirmed suite before our drive up the California Coast to Big Sur for our massive Ventana Big Sur redemption with Hyatt.

5,500 Properties at Off-Peak Pricing Until July 31st

Marriott will have over 5,500 properties around the world set for Off-Peak redemption rates for bookings made during June 15–30 for stay dates through July 31.

Since Marriott started peak and off peak pricing, we’ve seen both a wide range of pricing at specific hotels (for instance, from 70,000 points all the way to 100,000 points at a Category 8).  If you happen to be able to (and want to) travel before July 31st and are headed to a peak destination, there’s a good chance you can get that Category 8 for 70,000 points a night.

I would like to mention the St Regis Maldives as a great pick, but I don’t believe the Maldives has really sorted out what they are even doing with their July 1st opening. They’d originally had requirements of 14 day stays and extensive testing + a $100 visa fee, then I was advised the Maldives had dropped the 14 day stay requirement and $100 fees but would still have copious testing.

At the end of last week news, Zach Honig at TPG reported that the Maldives would now be “wide open” with zero testing. My source in the Maldives denied that was accurate yet I do not have any official statement on what their plan actually is so I can’t advise beyond to say that if they won’t even be testing as Zach says, I wouldn’t feel safe going….

What are your thoughts on these promotions?

Let me know here, on Twitter, or in the private MilesTalk Facebook group.

You can find credit cards that best match your spending habits and bonus categories at Your Best Credit Cards. 

New to all of this? My “introduction to miles and points” book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available on Amazon and at major booksellers.