New Marriott promo starts tomorrow – one free night with just two Marriott stays

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UPDATE – DECEMBER 2021: This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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 brought back its MegaBonus promotion for the Spring. This time it is a little more generous than we have seen recently.

This promotion is active across all Marriott brands, including Renaissance, Courtyard, Autograph, Edition, JW Marriott, Gaylord, AC Hotels, Protea and the various US ‘extended stay’ chains.

Full details of the promotion can be found here.

However, for some reason neither my wife nor I can register. This is despite the fact that it is clearly advertised on the Marriott Rewards home page!

We both get a message saying that we are not eligible. It is also not showing under ‘My Account’ for either of us. Looking at Flyertalk, this is a known bug which is impacting quite a number of members. In this scenario, you need to call Marriott Rewards to get the offer activated.

See if you can register. The promotional home page is here. This is what most people are offered:

One free night after 2 paid stays during the promotional period
Maximum of 1 free night to be earned
Free night to be redeemed at Category 1-5 properties only
Free night to be redeemed within six months
Promotion runs from 1st February to 15th May
Last date for registration is 15th April

Once you have earned the free night, Marriott will issue you with a new, presumably targetted, challenge to keep you interested for the rest of the promotional period.

Don’t get carried away with the generosity of this offer. Marriott Rewards now has 9 categories of hotels. A typical Category 5 hotel would be Bristol City Centre. Leeds, for example, is out of reach at Category 6. You will struggle to find anything decent in a major European capital city in Category 1-5.

If you are not already a member of Marriott Rewards, you will be able to sign up for the above deal after joining. I can refer you to Marriott Rewards and you will receive an extra 2,000 points on your first stay – email me at rob at headforpoints.com for a link.

Other options for more regular Marriott guests

If you are Marriott elite member, you may receive a different version of this promotion. 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 15th April, 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 May 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 probably more generous than competing promotions from the other big chains – although this depends on what your targetted IHG Accelerate bonus is.

Remember that you will need to find a decent hotel in category 1-5 to redeem your free night over the next six months, which could be a snag.

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.

American Express Marriott Bonvoy credit card

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.)

Category

Marriott Bonvoy

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Brian says:

31 Jan31 January 09:40

The Bristol Royal hotel is a nice Victorian hotel in a much better location than the other Marriott there and it is cat 5 too.
- Rob says:
  
  31 Jan31 January 12:27
  
  Agree, that is nice. Lived in Bristol for a period many years ago.
Me says:

31 Jan31 January 09:53

Slightly OT: I’ve just noticed Marriott are introducing points expiry tomorrow (and i will lose my pittance)
- Fenny says:
  
  31 Jan31 January 10:48
  
  Same here, although I’m down to 750. I think I got those from whatever FB promotion they were running a couple of years ago.
John says:

31 Jan31 January 11:37

This is reasonbly generous but it would mean I need to stay 3 night in a Marriott when I have planned to stay 0 nights (probably the point of the promotion).

My track record with IHG is currently 1 free night for 1 paid night so probably won’t bother until I’ve emptied my IHG account.
- Fenny says:
  
  31 Jan31 January 12:19
  
  The best bit about IHG is that you can spend £30-50 on a paid night and get £200+ value of free night. I stayed 10 nights with IHG last year, of which I think 6 were paid and 4 were rewards. The rewards were worth far more than the paid total. I’ve earned 64K points since November, with another 50K to come from 2 paid stays. That will pretty much sort out any place I want to stay in the summer.
  
  Marriot won’t get a look in.
  - Mark says:
    
    31 Jan31 January 16:46
    
    I am new to this hobby and I am finding it hard to work out / understand how you make more in points then you paid can anyone enlighten me?
    - Clive says:
      
      31 Jan31 January 17:12
      
      Promotions Mark such as the current Accelerate one with IHG
      - Mark says:
        
        31 Jan31 January 17:36
        
        Ok Clive I will have a look at them and put it on paper to see how you work them to your advantage
      - Fenny says:
        
        31 Jan31 January 22:16
        
        My current Accelerate targets are:
        
        5,000 January Bonus Offer Stay once in January and get 5,000 bonus points.
        
        3,000 Stay Once Get 3,000
        
        12,000 Stay More, Earn More Stay Get closer to the rewards you want when you stay 8 night(s) and earn 12,000 bonus points.
        
        3,200 Travel with the IHG® App Book 2 stay(s) with the IHG® App and earn 3,200 bonus points. Terms
        
        4,000 A Bonus Weekend Stay Stay with us for the weekend and earn 4,000 bonus points. A Friday and Saturday or Saturday and Sunday night stay required
        
        2,000 Earn More, Faster
        Earn 2,000 bonus points when you book 1 Bonus Points Package stay(s) and get to your next reward faster.
        
        25,800 Your Achievement Bonus
        Complete 4 of the 5 offers above and earn (an additional) 25,800 bonus points (excluding the January Bonus Offer).
        
        I’ve already stayed one night in January, at a cost of £35. I’ve got a weekend in Amsterdam booked with a bonus package. Both booked via the app. So that hits all but one of the targets with 2 stays and a cost of about £150 and gets me 43k points. If I managed another 5 nights before the end of April (unlikely) I’d get another 12k points.
    - Rob says:
      
      31 Jan31 January 22:15
      
      Here is an example. My Accelerate promotion requires me to complete 2 stays to earn 55,000 points. Assuming 0.4p per point value when I redeem, which is roughly what you’ll get after the Feb changes, I will get £220 of hotel stays for those 55,000 points.
      
      If I do the 2 stays required to hit the bonus at a £39 Holiday Inn Express, even if I just walk in, check in and walk out again, I will have spent £78. I am therefore £142 up assuming that I do get £220 of rooms when I redeem those 55,000 points.
Johnnycl says:

31 Jan31 January 21:36

I have one Marriott stay coming up at the end of February but having looked at the list of category 1-5 hotels there’s nothing there remotely tempting to make me put another stay across to Marriott.

Courtyard Gatwick is the only vague possibility for redemption that would at least be useful. Are there any hidden gems that are potential redemptions I have missed?
- Rob says:
  
  31 Jan31 January 22:10
  
  This is the full list of category 5 hotels:
  
  http://www.marriott.co.uk/hotel-search/Category5.hotels/
  
  Change the URL for other categories although logically Cat 5 should be better than the others.
  - Dude26 says:
    
    1 Feb1 February 00:21
    
    Thanks for the link. Two hotels I find quite attractive and good value :
    
    1. Courtyard Seoul Times Square.
    
    2. Courtyard Las Condes – Santiago de chile (I was actually there a few weeks ago, and although it’s a Courtyard – it’s a very good hotel with a great location).
Talay says:

2 Feb2 February 07:21

I am a long time Marriott member and it grates on me that you can earn in a class 1 and redeem in a class 5 (now) whereas if I earn in a class 9 I cannot redeem in the same class.

As I stay almost exclusively in the top end of their bracket, these offers are utterly useless to me and though I personally like Marriott more than others (for my destination locations) I am inclined to start looking at others to add more value.

Still, the UK Marriott Mastercard earns a little here and there to add to the tally.
- Rob says:
  
  2 Feb2 February 09:05
  
  Not available for new applicants.
  
  How do you pay off your Marriott card by the way? 😉
  - Giacomo says:
    
    2 Feb2 February 11:32
    
    Why? I’m missing something?
    - Rob says:
      
      2 Feb2 February 14:12
      
      Seems you are 🙂
Ben says:

20 Feb20 February 22:24

To those struggling to register, Marriott Rewards have advised the following (via their efficient Twitter account):

“Hi again! In order to participate in the 2016 Spring MegaBonus Promotion, you must be earning Marriott Rewards points and it looks like you are currently earning miles with .

If you would like to change your earning preference to participate in this promotion, you may do so online by completing the following steps:

1. Sign in to your Marriott Rewards account at http://MarriottRewards.com by entering your account number or the email address listed on your account and your password in the appropriate fields.

2. Please click on “My Account” and select “Overview” from the dropdown menu. On the next page, please click on the link that reads “Profile.”

3. After locating the “Earning Preferences” heading on the “Profile” page, please click “Edit.”

4. Change your desired earning preference to points or miles and click “Save”. Please note, the name on a frequent flyer account must match the name on the Marriott Rewards account in order for airline credit to be accepted by the airline.”