Marriott brings back MegaBonus for Spring 2014 – buy 2 stays, get a free night

UPDATE – DECEMBER 2021:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.  We produce a monthly summary of the top hotel bonus point offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ menu above.

Marriott Rewards has launched its major promotion for Spring, which will be (yet) another outing for MegaBonus. This promotion is active across all Marriott brands, including Renaissance, Courtyard, Autograph, Edition, JW Marriott, Gaylord and the various US ‘extended stay’ chains.

In a negative move, the ‘free night offer’ that most people receive is now restricted to Category 1-4 hotels, rather than Category 1-5 as it was in the Autumn.  This weakens the offer substantially, since the 2013 ‘revaluation / devaluation’ of the programme moved a lot of hotels out of Category 4.

However, I’m getting ahead of myself ….

Full details of the promotion can be found here.

Marriott targets different offers to different members, based on stay pattern. To see what you have been given, you need to log in to your account.

I very rarely stay at a Marriott group property and if I log into my Marriott Rewards account and click on ‘Promotion Central’, I am offered a fairly generous version:

• One free night for every 2 paid stays during the promotional period
• Maximum of 2 free nights to be earned
• Free nights to be redeemed at Category 1-4 properties only
• Free nights to be redeemed within 1 year
• Promotion runs from February 1st to April 30th
• Last date for registration is March 31st

As I mentioned earlier, Marriott Rewards moved 370 hotels from Category 4 to Category 5 in February 2013. This devalued the free night certificates quite substantially.  You will struggle to find anything decent in a major European capital city in Category 1-4.

Note that stays at Ritz-Carlton hotels will also count towards this bonus.

Other options for more regular Marriott guests

If you are Marriott elite member, you may receive a different version of this promotion.

• Stay 15 nights and get 25,000 bonus points plus an extra 15,000 points if you reach 20 nights
• Stay 20 nights and get 35,000 bonus points plus an extra 15,000 points if you reach 25 nights
• Stay 20 nights and get 35,000 bonus points plus an extra 2,000 per night to a maximum of 30 nights

Some people also received a variant with a free night covering Categories 1-5 instead of 1-4.  There is also a variant on the Category 1-4 offer which gives 1,000 bonus points per stay for every additional one above the basic four.

Anyone whose Marriott account is set up to give airline miles instead of points will receive a different miles promotion instead.

Note that you need to register by 31st March, so it is worth registering even if you are not planning any Marriott stays at present – it would be a shame to be faced with a couple of Marriott nights in April only to find that you can no longer sign up for the MegaBonus.

Whether this promotion works for you will depend on your stay pattern. In hard £ terms, a free night certificate for just 2 stays is far more generous than competing promotions from the other big chains. It just depends on whether you can find a decent hotel in category 1-4 to redeem at.

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards (December 2021)

There are various ways of earning Marriott Bonvoy points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

The official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card usually comes with 20,000 points for signing up, 2 points for every £1 you spend and 15 elite night credits per year.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points sign-up bonus and 15 elite night credits Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points by converting American Express Membership Rewards points at the rate of 2:3.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Marriott Bonvoy Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Hilton Honors Gold, Radisson Rewards Gold and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

You can also earn American Express Membership Rewards points with American Express Gold (20,000 bonus points), the American Express Rewards Credit Card (5,000 bonus points) and – for small business owners – American Express Business Gold (20,000 bonus points) and Business Platinum (40,000 bonus points).

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Marriott Bonvoy points. 

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)