COVID-19: Marriott Bonvoy

Article updated on 26/10/2020

Marriott Bonvoy has taken several actions under COVID-19. In particular on:

• cancellations or modifications of reservations
• various aspects of the loyalty program

There are new features if you have them:

• A free one-night annual certificate (obtained in Canada with the Marriott Bonvoy? American Express^MD Card and the Marriott Bonvoyᵐᶜ Corporate American Express^MD Card)
• a free night’s certificate (obtained with the Titanium status as a benefit choice)
• a travelpackage

These certificates have had their expiration date extended to August 01, 2021. The changes will appear in the Marriott Bonvoy account as of December 11, 2020.

However, certificates that expired prior to 2020 (and have already been extended to January 31, 2021) will not have their expiration date extended.

This applies, for example, to those who had already negotiated with Marriott Bonvoy to extend a certificate expiring in 2019 by one year.

Thank you Prince of Travel for the information.

On April 08, 2020, Marriott Bonvoy announced a 12-month extension of the status earned in 2019 by its members for the entire year of 2021.

So the status you currently have, which was supposed to expire in February 2021, will now expire in February 2022.

However, you will still need to pass the 50-night mark (Platinum) and 75-night mark (Titanium) to gain access to the benefit selection. For example, here is the selection offered to those who spend at least 50 nights per year at Marriott hotels:

• Five free upgrades to a suite (Suite Night Awards™)
• Silver Elite status gift
• 40% off your favourite mattress
• five Elite Night Credits
• a $100 charity donation

Marriott Bonvoy has not yet announced whether these levels will be lower (it is likely that the program will run a promotion as we have seen in the past: 1 night done = 2 nights status)

Marriott Bonvoy points expire when no activity (accumulation or use of points) has occurred on the account for 24 months.

Here, Marriott Bonvoy is pausing this expiration until the end of July 2021.

After this date, the expiration will resume: that is to say that on July 01, 2021, the accounts that have not seen any activity since July 01, 2019 will see their points expire.

It only takes one transaction to keep your account active such as making purchases on the Marriott BonvoyTM American Express^MD Card or transferring Membership Rewards points from one of the 6 cards in the program such as the excellent American Express CobaltTM Card.

Or book a hotel room with your points!

SuiteNight Awards certificates that were set to expire on December 31, 2020 will be extended by one year to December 31, 2021.

Besides, Marriott Bonvoy members who have achieved elite status in 2019 will receive an Elite Nights credits equal to 50% of the elite tier earned in 2019:

These elite nights will be deposited into your account by the end of July.

For guests with reservations made on or after July 6, 2020, for arrival dates up to and including December 30, 2020, changes and cancellations are allowed free of charge up to 24 hours prior to the scheduled arrival date. Reservations made with prepaid rates and other limited exclusions* will be subject to the rules corresponding to the rate communicated at the time of reservation.

Any modification of an existing reservation will be made according to availability and will be subject to possible price differences.

For guests making new reservations for arrival dates on or after December 31, 2020, the cancellation policies of the applicable hotels in effect at the time of booking will apply.

Any changes to the reservation will be made according to availability and will be subject to any price differences.

Conditions are available here.

We have written multiple articles related to COVID-19 that you can find below.

Here are also some useful links to topics covered in the milesopedia community:

• COVID-19 and your travels
• Refund or Credit?

You can also check out our ultimate guide to the Marriott Bonvoy program here.