As of March 28, 2023, the Points Advance feature will no longer be available on the Marriott Bonvoy site. All reservations made with Points Advance before this date will be honored.
The Marriott Bonvoy Points Advance was a fairly generous policy put in place, a rarity in hotel industry rewards programs.
Within the Marriott Bonvoy program, it is possible to use a feature called “Points Advance .” With the Points Advance feature, you can make a reservation for an award night at a Marriott Bonvoy hotel without having the necessary number of points in your account. Up to three simultaneous reservations can be made with the Advance Points feature.
Points Advance is convenient, for example, for members who would have signed up for the Marriott Bonvoy® American Express®* Card knowing that within a few weeks they would get a welcome bonus to cover a reservation. For example, you could have transferred Membership Rewards points to Marriott Bonvoy, transferred points from another Marriott Bonvoy account (friend or spouse), and earned the necessary number of points with one of the Marriott Bonvoy credit cards or purchased Marriott Bonvoy points.
Otherwise, without the necessary points in your account 60 days after the date of booking or 14 days before arrival at the hotel, the reservation was automatically cancelled. It was a very generous policy.
Using Points Advance guaranteed your reservation; that is, it ensured that your room would not be available to others. However, the number of points required to confirm your reservation will fluctuate depending on the dynamic pricing.
We can’t speak for Marriott Bonvoy, which has not provided an explanation for the end of the Points Advance feature. However, in 2021, Marriott Bonvoy had explained that the changes they made to the feature were due to bookings made in popular destinations, 25% of which ended up being cancelled.
One can therefore imagine that there were perhaps still too many cancelled stays due to the lack of points needed to confirm the reservation, and that these rooms ended up remaining vacant. This could therefore also affect other Marriott Bonvoy members who wanted to book, but did not see these rooms as available when searching. Even if it was to use their certificate for a free night in a popular hotel!
The Marriott Bonvoy® American Express®* Card is the best credit card for free hotel nights.
With this welcome offer, you can earn 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy points by spending $1,500 in the first 3 months after joining.
It’s a Card we recommend keeping because each year at renewal, you get an Annual Free Night Award (for up to 35,000 points at hotels worldwide) and 15 Elite Night Credits per year, counting towards your Marriott Bonvoy Elite status.
With this Card, you earn 5 points per dollar on all purchases at Marriott Bonvoy properties and 2 points per dollar on all other purchases.
Finally, this Card comes with comprehensive insurance: baggage delay, lost or stolen baggage, $500,000 travel accident, flight delay, hotel or motel burglary, rental car theft and damage, Purchase Security, Purchase Protection.
Like all American Express Canada Cards, there is no minimum income requirement.
It’s not too late to take advantage of the Advance Points feature, you have until March 28, 2023 to make your reservation and then earn the necessary points by following the current policy. However, you’ll need to factor the end of this policy into your Marriott Bonvoy points strategy.
Are you missing some Marriott Bonvoy points for your next reservation? Other options include combining points and cash, or purchasing points through frequent Marriott Bonvoy point purchase promotions.
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