For those (like me!) that have been waiting to finally be able to select your extra benefit for having 50 or 75 total nights year to date between your SPG and Marriott accounts, you can now choose your benefits. 

The best awards in my opinion are the 5 Suite Night awards (redeem for a Suite Upgrade in advance (based on availability – the system starts checking 5 days in advance and none are taken if it’s not confirmed) or the Free Night Award for Platinum Premier (up to 40k point value).

If it’s the end of the year and you are close to the next elite level, you might want the 5 elite night credits. I think the rest are a hard pass.

You can login here to choose: 

https://choice-benefit.marriott.com/en-us/marriott-rewards/benefits

These are the 50 night benefits:

Note that the Suite Night Awards and Free Nights can apparently take up to two weeks to be deposited, although it may not take that long in practice.

Here are the Terms and Conditions for the SNAs

After choosing your 50 night award, you can opt to choose the 75 night one (if you have 75 nights so far this year) which are as follows:

Platinum Premier Elite Annual Choice Benefit Options:

  • 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

It appears that SNAs chosen this year expire Dec 31, 2019. At also appears you have until early January 2019 to choose each award, so you can likely strategize a few different ways based on your situation.

I’m taking the SNAs now for 50 nights and will see how easily I can redeem them before deciding between 5 more SNAs, the Free Night, or the 5 elite night credits in early January of 2019.

Something else you may be interested in is what happens if you don’t choose:

What if a Platinum Elite or Platinum Premier Elite Annual Choice Benefit selection is not made?

If a Platinum Elite Annual Choice Benefit or Platinum Premier Elite Annual Choice Benefit is not selected by January 14 of the year after the benefit is earned, 5 Suite Night Awards will be automatically deposited into the Platinum Elite or Platinum Premier Elite Member’s account as his or her Annual Choice Benefit for that year.

HT: CLEguy on FlyerTalk

What is your strategy? Let me know here, on Twitter, or in the private MilesTalk Facebook group.

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

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3 COMMENTS

  1. Has anyone been able to apply one of these new Suite Night Awards to an SPG reservation online? If I have to call in that’s fine, but I just want to know if anyone has had any luck.

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