Marriott Bonvoy has been checkered at best, since its launch, but there’s unequivocally positive news today that puts members back at the heart of the program. You’ll need fewer points to book great stays, you’ll need to stay fewer nights to earn great perks and if you do happen to hit some milestones, there’s new perks out there, which you can even share with friends or familiy.
Marriott Temporarily Lowers Points Rates
Marriott came under fire recently for all but abandoning off peak pricing, with its variable peak, off peak and standard tables. That’s changing. For a limited time, from June 15th-June 30th, 2020, all Marriott stays booked for travel up until July 31st will enjoy off peak pricing. Yes, every one of the thousands of global hotels will be off peak.
What about travel later in the year, or next year? It’s safe to assume many hotels will go back to a better balance of off peak, and standard pricing, given the slowdown in global travel which may take years to fully recover. With that in mind, there’s reason to be hopeful for great Marriott Bonvoy Points values for later in the year, they’re just not spelled out at the moment.
Moving Up The Marriott Bonvoy Elite Tiers
Marriott Bonvoy made the right move months back, extending elite status for all members through to February 2022. Basically, your Marriott Bonvoy: Silver, Gold, Platinum, Titanium or Ambassador elite status is secure for the foreseeable future, but Marriott is offering a generous set of benefits to push you to the next tier.
To help members reach a new tier, Marriott is depositing 50% of the nights you’d need to re-earn status, which matters because it helps you get to the next tier. You can also combine these with Marriott credit cards which offer nights toward status.
- Marriott Bonvoy Silver Elite: 5 nights credited toward earning status.
- Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite: 13 nights credited toward earning status.
- Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite: 25 nights credited toward earning status.
- Marriott Bonvoy Titanium Elite: 38 nights credited toward earning status.
- Marriott Bonvoy: Ambassador Elite: 50 nights credited toward earning status.
This is a great gesture to help push people up to the next tier, so they can enjoy a better status for longer. Since you can stack these night “gifts” with whatever nights your credit cards earn you, you can do extremely well. A Bonvoy business credit card and personal credit card combo can yield up to 30 nights, so someone currently holding Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite could get themselves to 43 nights, without leaving the house.
That’s a pretty good reason to then actually leave the house, and go earn Platinum…
OMAAT notes that anyone who reached the lofty heights of Ambassador status in 2019, who manages to secure 100 total nights this year will also be able to gift a Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Status to someone, which is a nice way to reward friends or family.
Looks like they have not yet updated this. Marathon Courtyard Marriott still shows 50,000.
At the risk of being the fly in the ointment here, I’m not sure the status boost is necessarily all that great. While there’s certainly no real down side to this for the customer, the upside is somewhat limited unless you intend to spend a lot of nights with Marriott this year. Using myself as an example, I earned Platinum status last year so with the previously enacted extension that status will end in early 2022. I have both business and personal Marriott cards, so I have 30 nights there. I have zero nights with stays. With this development I’ll have 25 nights more, with 30+25=55 nights which means Platinum status until – early 2022, exactly where I was before. It would take me 20 more nights to hit Titanium again, which pretty much isn’t going to happen. If Marriott offered a soft landing in conjunction with this, I think they would really incentivize people to make more bookings, myself included.
Definitely see your point of view, but I do think for some, 20 nights will be reasonable. I for one am probably good for 10 nights before year end, but understand it’s not always the same for everyone for a variety of reasons. If I’d had a few in the bag from Jan, Feb, etc, the move to Titanium could be meaningful.