Marriott Bonvoy is the loyalty program of more than 8,500 hotels worldwide, a program you absolutely must know to save lots of money on your travels!
With this ultimate guide, you’ll discover how to earn and use Marriott Bonvoy points.
If you prefer the video version, here it is! Otherwise, keep on reading.
To open an account in the Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program, go to this page.
Once a member, you will have access to:
Thanks to this registration, you will be able to give your Marriott Bonvoy membership number when applying for the Marriott Bonvoy® American Express®* Card. By doing this, American Express will not create another account for you.
If you are in a relationship, EACH person should open an individual Marriott Bonvoy account.
Indicate your membership number when applying for the Marriott Bonvoy® American Express®* Card or the Marriott Bonvoy® Business American Express®* Card. It will then be possible to transfer points from one account to another.
Before you get free nights in the Marriott Bonvoy program, you’ll need to earn points!
Let’s discover together all the possibilities of accumulation with the :
In Canada, Marriott Bonvoy has chosen American Express to issue 2 credit cards:
These two credit cards allow you to earn DIRECTLY Marriott Bonvoy points.
Each of these credit cards offers:
If you are self-employed / professional / small business owner, you may wish to apply for the Marriott Bonvoy® Business American Express®* Card. The points earned will accumulate the same way they do from your personal in your Marriott Bonvoy account.
Another way to earn Marriott Bonvoy points is through a partnership with American Express Membership Rewards.
It is possible to transfer 1,000 membership rewards into 1,200 Marriott Bonvoy points. Thus, 10,000 Membership Rewards = 12,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.
In other words, 5 membership rewards = 6 Marriott Bonvoy points.
With the 7 Membership Rewards Cards, you can INDIRECTLY earn Marriott Bonvoy points.
With the American Express Cobalt® Card, you can earn up to 5 Membership Rewards points per dollar on specific purchase categories. That means you indirectly earn 6 Marriott Bonvoy points per dollar!
The primary purpose of a rewards program is to reward your loyalty.
Thus, the more you stay or eat at Marriott Bonvoy establishments,the more points and benefits you will earn (with the statutes).
Thus, whenever :
Give your Marriott Bonvoy membership number! You will earn 10 Marriott Bonvoy points per US dollar spent in the property.
Depending on your status, you will earn more Marriott Bonvoy points for all of these expenses.
Plus, if you use the Marriott Bonvoy® American Express®* Card or Marriott Bonvoy® Business American Express®* Card for these expenses, you’ ll earn 5 points/dollar on your card!
Marriott Bonvoy’s Best Price Guarantee gets you:
It’s up to you to calculate whether it’s best to get 5,000 points or a discount on the room price!
Your room didn’t meet your expectations? Did a problem take place during your stay?
Feel free to make a claim on the Marriott Bonvoy website.
This is a unknown accumulation technique.
Marriott Bonvoy has a cruise booking portal that allows you to earn 3 points for every dollar spent (up to 30,000 points).
After doing several tests, we found that the prices offered by Marriott Bonvoy are very competitive with several advantages:
Don’t hesitate to use this service… to earn Marriott Bonvoy bonus points when you book your next cruise!
It is also possible to earn Marriott Bonvoy points via car rental on the dedicated portal.
Marriott Bonvoy has partnered with Hertz to offer:
We recommend, as usual, you compare rates with other suppliers like Auto Europe or Holiday Autos!
Marriott Bonvoy has a booking portal for activites:
You earn 10 points for every US dollar spent on business.
Prices on Marriott Moments are often the same as those found directly from service providers. It is therefore particularly advantageous to use this service!
Marriott Bonvoy offers promotions throughout the year to earn more points.
For example, you can earn up to 4,000 points per stay.
By regularly reading milesopedia – or by subscribing to our newsletter – you will be aware of these promotions!
Event or meeting organizers can earn 2 points per dollar for any event held at most Marriott Bonvoy establishments.
The maximum per event is 60,000 points (105,000 points maximum for Elite Titanium members).
These brands do not participate in this: Marriott Executive Apartments, Residence Inn, TownePlace Suites, Design Hotels, Bulgari Hotels & Resorts, Ritz-Carlton Hidden Boutique Resort, Vistana Hotel and Homes & Villas by Marriott International.
It is also possible to get 1 Elite Night for each block of 20 rooms reserved during your event.
Finally, when all the accumulation techniques have been used and you are missing only a few points to get a free night, it is possible to buy Marriott Bonvoy points.
Some rules about buying points:
Starting in 2024, Marriott Bonvoy members will be able to earn and redeem their points at MGM Resorts.
Several details have yet to be confirmed. Eventually, Marriott Bonvoy members will be able to link their account to MGM Rewards to obtain certain benefits.
In addition, MGM also owns BetMGM, an online sports betting and gaming platform, so it will be possible to earn Marriott Bonvoy points on certain transactions.
Now that we know how to earn many Marriott Bonvoy points, let’s redeem them!
Let’s discover together all the possibilities of use:
This is the main purpose of the program: to get free hotel nights.
Marriott Bonvoy had divided its 8,500+ hotels into eight categories.
As of March 29, 2022, the Marriott Bonvoy program has no longer categories. But we’ll leave this table for the archives.
Within each of these categories, there were 3 levels:
For example, a free night at a Marriott Bonvoy hotel can cost between :
The low or high season is NOT set according to:
In fact, this will be related to the hotel directly.
In the same city, it will be possible to see hotels classified in different seasons (low-standard-high).
When you use Marriott Bonvoy points, for a 5-night stay, you’ll only pay 4!
The cheapest of the 5 nights (in case of a difference in low/high season fare) will be offered!
This represents a saving of almost 20% in points over the entire 5-night stay!
This option allows you to split the payment between :
*This table is for information purposes only, as the hotel categories no longer exist in the Marriott Bonvoy program.
The PointSavers option is a promotion that is offered on select hotels during predefined weeks. The list of Marriott Bonvoy hotels is posted here.
This option allows a saving of up to 33% compared to the normal rate.
To learn about the changes brought about by the abolition of categories and the new dynamic pricing in place since March 29, 2022, read this article.
To book free nights with your points, it’s easy!
Log in with your Marriott Bonvoy account on Marriott’s website and Check “Use Points”in the hotel search box. Then select “Find”.
Hotels available with points will then be displayed in your search. You will be able to sort by number of points required, distance…
If you have enough points in your account, the number of points will be immediately debited at the booking. If you don’t have enough points AND your stay is in more than 14 days, you can use the“Advance Points”option.
For most hotels, it is possible to cancel your reservation up to 48 hours before arrival. Your points will then be credited directly into your account instantly.
Be sure to check the conditions of your reservation: in some hotels, cancellation must be made 14 days or even 30 days before arrival.
There are sweet spots in the Marriott Bonvoy program, i.e. geographic areas where it is particularly interesting to use your points.
As for example in South Africa with many hotels qualified as category 1 and 2 in the past.
Be inspired by this list of the best destination ideas in this article with Marriott Bonvoy points.
We’ve listed over 8,500 hotels worldwide in this exclusive map!
Although Marriott Bonvoy categories are a thing of the past, we have kept the hotel categorization on the map as a reference, to help you get an idea of the price range of hotels in points.
Marriott Bonvoy is a partner with dozens of airline loyalty programs.
Thus, it will be possible to transfer Marriott Bonvoy points into miles of airline loyalty programs. For most programs, the rate is the same: 3 Marriott Bonvoy points = 1 mile.
For every 60,000 points transferred in miles, Marriott Bonvoy offers a 5,000 miles bonus.
So 60,000 points = 20,000 miles + 5,000 bonus miles = 25,000 miles
Here is the partner table and different rates / bonuses and transfer time.
Visit this page to transfer your Marriott Bonvoy points in airline programs miles.
Some airline programs often carry out promotions to convert hotel points into miles (such as Aeroplan or British Airways Executive Club).
Finally, Marriott Bonvoy points can be used to book unique activities with Marriott Bonvoy Moments :
And share your beautiful memories on Instagram using #marriottbonvoymoments or #mercimilesopedia!
For sports fans, it’s an opportunity to participate in events in Marriott Bonvoy’s VIP boxes. There are often good deals!
Do you know how earn and redeem your Marriott Bonvoy points?
Now let’s see how to manage them… every day!
The value of 1 Marriott Bonvoy point is estimated between 0.5 and 1.5 cents per point depending on the use. So we decided to rate the point at 0.9 cents per dollar.
This means that the welcome bonus for the Marriott Bonvoy® American Express®* Card or the Marriott Bonvoy® Business American Express®* Card is worth around $500.
Marriott Bonvoy points expire after 24 months if your account is inactive.
To keep your account active, you just need to:
A transfer of American Express membership rewards to Marriott Bonvoy Points counts as an activity! All you need to do is transfer 1,000 membership rewards into 1,200 Marriott Bonvoy points to delay the expiry by 24 months.
Each calendar year, you can transfer 100,000 points to another member. You can transfer your points online.
It’s an excellent opportunity for spouses or friends to combine the points earned on each of their credit cards into one account, including the Marriott Bonvoy® American Express®* Card welcome bonus or the Marriott Bonvoy® Business American Express®* Card welcome bonus.
All points earned with your purchases on the Marriott Bonvoy® American Express®* Card or the Marriott Bonvoy® Business American Express®* Card are transferred automatically, into your Marriott Bonvoy account, 48-72 hours after your monthly statement is issued.
In the above case, I have accumulated :
With the Marriott Bonvoy® Business American Express®* Card, you can earn 3 points per dollar for:
There are 6 status levels in the Marriott Bonvoy program:
There are two ways to reach a higher status:
As soon as you earn a status level, it is valid until February, 2 years later.
For example, if you qualified for Gold Elite status in August 2023, that status will be valid until February 2025.
In summary, once you have obtained the status, you will be able to enjoy it:
Each Marriott Bonvoy status has distinct advantages:
To move to a higher status, it is necessary to have obtained a certain number of “Elite Nights” in the calendar year.
It is possible to have 15 elite nights easily by getting the :
Each of these cards offers 15 Elite Nights per year.
(If you have both card unfortunately it’s NOT cumulative).
This status is awarded to those who have spent between 10 and 25 nights per year.
The holder of these cards immediately obtains Silver Elite status:
This adds to the member level:
Getting Silver Elite status is easily attainable for anyone, without even staying a single night at a Marriott hotel. Just sign up for the Marriott BonvoyTM American ExpressMD Card or the Marriott Bonvoyᵐᶜ Corporate American ExpressMD Card.
This status is granted to those who have spent between 25 and 49 nights per year.
The holder of these cards immediately gets 15 Elite-nights:
That means only 10 Elite Nights are missing to get Gold Elite status.
There are two cards that directly earn Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status:
This status is part of their advantages.
It is also possible to earn Gold Elite status by charging $30,000 in purchases per year on one of two credit cards, including the Marriott Bonvoy® American Express®* Card.
This status adds to the Elite Silver level:
This status is the most coveted by Marriott Bonvoy members. It is awarded to those who have spent between 50 and 74 nights a year.
But the holder of these cards gets 15 Elite-nights immediately:
This means that 35 Elite Nights are needed to obtain Platinum Elite status.
These benefits are added on top of the Gold Elite benefits:
It is also possible, once in a lifetime, to participate in achallenge in order to obtain the Gold Elite or Platinum Elite status. ***This option has been suspended since the Covid-19 period.
This challenge requires you to complete, within a period of 90 days :
These must be paid nights (i.e. without using points).
You’ll need to ask by phone at 1-801-468-4000.
The 90 days start the following month of your application, which allows you to get more time! Ask the agent over the phone for the deadline to complete your challenge.
Marriott Bonvoy is a particularly interesting program thanks to :
Enough to stay for free (or almost …) almost anywhere in the world!
Savings are here:
