I’m breaking up today’s Marriott news into 3 bits.
The first post was the bad news: Marriott Removes Award Charts
There’s no way to sugar coat that news. It’s awful.
But Marriott also released two bits of good news today (and yes, sure, I’m sure they very intentionally packages the good news with the bad).
The news release also had this long asked for improvement noted:
Beginning in early 2022, members will be able to combine their FNAs with up to 15,000 points from their accounts, so they’ll have the option to explore even more of our portfolio.
This is GREAT news.
It means that if you have a Marriott Bonvoy credit card which earns an annual free night, you’ll be able to “top off” the value of your certificate.
An example:
You have the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card which comes with an annual free night certificate good on a hotel of up to 35,000 points. But the Category 5 hotel is using peak pricing of 40,000 points. Right now, you just can’t use the certificate.
With this change, you’ll be able to (starting some time next year) add up to 15,000 points from your bank of points. So, once this kicks in, you’d be able to simply pay the 5,000 point difference to upgrade your certificate and use it at the hotel costing 40,000. That’s a huge improvement that would have had more of an amazing feeling if it wasn’t rolling out right as the program goes dynamic.
Now Hyatt took the best approach, tying the cert to the category and not the pricing. But Marriott won’t have categories after March 2022. So I guess they had to take a different approach.
These Marriott Bonvoy credit cards have a 35,000 point certificate issued annually, soon to be “expandable” to up to 50,000 points in value:
- Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card
- Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card
- Bonvoy Amex (only available via downgrade from the Bonvoy Brilliant)
These Marriott Bonvoy credit cards have a 50,000 point certificate issued annually, soon to be expandable to up to 65,000 points in value:
- Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card
- The Ritz Carlton card, only available via upgrade from the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card
Thoughts?
Let me know below in the comments, on Twitter, or in the private MilesTalk Facebook group. And don't forget to follow me on Instagram for all sorts of tips on miles, points, credit cards, and travel.
If this post helped you, please consider sharing it!
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.
