Starwood and Marriott launch identical Spring promotions

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UPDATE – DECEMBER 2021: This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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.

Starwood Preferred Guest and Marriott Rewards have announced their first set of promotions since the merger between the two companies was concluded.

With both loyalty programmes continuing as separate entities until at least the end of 2017 – although you can now transfer points between the two at an attractive rate – the company is clearly keen to avoid prioritising one scheme over the other when it comes to special offers.

What Marriott and SPG have done is actually quite clever, I think. In order to maximise your earnings this Spring, you will need to stay at both chains.

First, Starwood …..

The Starwood promotion is called ‘SPG Double Take’.

This is what you get:

double base points on your first three stays between 16th January and 15th April

an extra personal target – mine was 5,000 points for an additional 10 nights and then 500 points per night thereafter

You can register for Double Take via this link here. Registration closes on 15th March even though the promo runs for another month after that. Interestingly, Starwood says that it will backdate your bonus for stays already completed from 16th January if you register after that date.

All SPG hotels are participating – there are no exclusions.

And from Marriott …..

The Marriott promotion is called ‘Megabonus’.

It sounds oddly familiar …..

double base points on your first three stays between 16th January and 15th April

an extra personal target for some people – but not me. These are similar to the Starwood offer and give x points for completing an additional y nights.

You can register for Megabonus via this link and clicking on ‘My Account’ in the top right corner once signed in. Registration closes on 15th March (sounds familiar?).

There is no additional bonus for additional stays – or if there is, I wasn’t targetted for it.

ExecuStay and Marriott Executive Apartments are not participating.

For a relatively light stayer, you would maximise your bonus by completing three nights at each chain. This is presumably the Marriott plan, encouraging members to sample the chain where they do not normally stay. As you can now status match from Marriott to Starwood, and vice versa, there is no reason not to do this for the sake of elite treatment.

The only tweak is from multiple room bookings. Starwood allows you to book up to three rooms per night in your name and receive points and elite nights credit on all of them. Marriott only allows you to earn credit for one room per night. This is unlikely to make a difference to most people.

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.

James67 says:

29 Dec29 December 07:01

And if, like me, your partner is not yet a member of SPG then getting them signed up will likely net them a further 4000 welcone bonus for their first two stays.
wally1976 says:

29 Dec29 December 10:18

Slightly OT – I’m trying to transfer some Amex MR points to my SPG account but when I try and add the SPG account details it consistently throws an error. Anyone know any ways around this? Thanks.
- Genghis says:
  
  29 Dec29 December 10:52
  
  I checked my SPG Amex account this morning and SPG points had left the Amex account but had not yet arrived at SPG. Perhaps they are doing some system work?
  - Rob says:
    
    29 Dec29 December 11:15
    
    Takes 2-3 days
- Matthew says:
  
  29 Dec29 December 14:35
  
  I’m pretty sure you need to add 0000 to the beginning of your SPG number for it to work. If not, just phone and they will manually add it as a partner.
  - wally1976 says:
    
    29 Dec29 December 18:20
    
    Thanks a million Matthew; that seems to have done the trick. I knew someone on here would know a trick 🙂
  - Louise says:
    
    29 Dec29 December 20:48
    
    Thanks I needed to do this too, thought I would have to ring Amex to add it!
  - Matthew says:
    
    29 Dec29 December 21:07
    
    No probs! Random I know but I remember the Amex rep telling me a few years ago that’s what they did to make it work too! 🙂
RIcatti says:

29 Dec29 December 10:58

Starting on your fourth stay:

• Achieve 20 nights and you’ll earn 10,000 Starpoints.

This is a ridiculous target for a promo that lasts a quarter. One must practically spend more than month living in a hotel to earn 10K points. (3 stays + 20 nights so min 23 mights).
- Arun T says:
  
  29 Dec29 December 13:45
  
  For the average management consultant that does 4 nights/week expensed to the client….its 6 weeks (and they live in hotels half the week anyway so they may as well do it at a SPG/Marriott property)
  - RIcatti says:
    
    29 Dec29 December 19:29
    
    SPG luxury brands are not as business clients oriented as Marriott. Or take FourPoints for ‘budget’ travellers.
    
    Perhaps that’s winds of new marketing. Marriott promos were stingy and have that “extra points for four stays in the quarter” structure.
    
    Back to the management consultant example — imagine what they will score in an unlimited Club Carlson promotion, or hitting 60,000 in IHG Accelerate for just 5-7 nights. Even if it does mean not earning 10,000 Starpoints.
Martin says:

29 Dec29 December 11:16

My profile is set to earn points, yet I get an error telling me I’m not eligible to register for the Marriott Megabonus.

Since I linked my SPG Platinum, I have had nothing but problems with Marriott. I’ve had two stays, both failed to post. Trying to get Marriott to fix it requires several emails and months to sort out. Their customer service is completely inept.

So sad to see SPG go, where problems were always resolved well in one e-mail and in under 24 hours.
James A says:

29 Dec29 December 12:01

I did my first Marriott stay since linking accounts recently (SPG gold). I have to say, the on property benefits eclipsed even Hilton gold. Upgrade, early and late check in/out, lounge access, breakfast and free mini bar in room! I was all round impressed.
- Will says:
  
  29 Dec29 December 18:15
  
  Very hit and miss regarding marriott status perks in my experience (I say that as a Marriott platinum)
  - James A says:
    
    29 Dec29 December 19:10
    
    Thanks. I’ll do a few more stays before I shift all my business across I guess!
Gblb1030 says:

29 Dec29 December 13:26

This was news…. two weeks ago?
- Rob says:
  
  29 Dec29 December 16:07
  
  SPG promotion articles get very little readership and I only run them for completeness. I write them and they sit in reserve for a quiet day when I am desperate or when the other two articles are very strong. Today is actually both of those things! Not back in the office until tomorrow and on full-time fatherhood duty until then ….
Richard says:

29 Dec29 December 19:51

Although the points have been merged between Marriott and SPG, the nights credit towards status have not. So as SPG platinum I only start to use Marriott once i’m sure i’ll reach the 50nights needed for platinum renewal. Otherwise I could end up with 40nights at SPG and 40 nights at Marriott and not reach platinum in either programme.
- Will says:
  
  29 Dec29 December 20:23
  
  Bear in mind you can renew your Marriott platinum status for 40,000 Marriott points per year, which now links to SPG platinum. That’s “only” 13,334 SPG points. The only possible issue you may have is it won’t help with life status if that interests you at all (wouldn’t remotely bother me as you can buy 13k SPG’s for very sensible money)
  https://headforpoints.com/2016/01/14/buy-back-your-marriott-rewards-status-with-points/
Mariana says:

29 Dec29 December 21:16

Slightly OT, but does anyone know if status matches granted this year from SPG to Marriott will carry on through 2017 until the loyalty programmes are combined?
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  29 Dec29 December 22:00
  
  Will match for as long as your original status is valid
- Rob says:
  
  29 Dec29 December 22:28
  
  I think they will, because it is a logical step towards the full merger.