Difference between revisions of "Marriott certificates"

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{{Page|article|Hotel Strategies|Card Strategies}}  
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<blockquote>
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Each of the Marriott credit cards provide a free night certificate every year. There is no spending requirement, but each certificate can only be used for rooms up to maximum points cap.
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</blockquote>
  
Every year you keep the Marriott Rewards credit card, you will receive a free night certificate good at a Category 1-5 (out of 9) hotel. You can also sometimes receive Marriott certificates from different promotions. However, occasionally these are only good at Category 1-4 hotels.
 
  
 
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With the changes from the new unified Marriott / SPG rewards program, you can receive free night certificates from all of he program's credit cards, the certificates are capped based on the points requirement of the hotel room (not the hotel category), and most of the certificates are capped at higher-levels.  
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{{Box|Extended Expiration Dates}}
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Because of the impacts of the Covid pandemic, Marriott has extended the expiration dates of their hotel certificates. Any certificates that would have expired in 2020 or 2021 will be good until June 30th, 2022.  
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=== Quick take on the existing Marriott certificates ===
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=== Marriott Free Night Certificates ===
 
 
The existing Category 1-5 Marriott certificates are probably the least interesting of the credit card “{{Link|Free Night Certificates|free night certificates}}” offers (other than the Radisson certificate).
 
 
 
At Marriott’s current category levels, you can't use these certificate at Marriott branded hotels in most major cities. Instead, you’ll be limited to less expensive locations and brands.
 
  
Just to be clear, other hotels also limit their certificates to only certain categories of hotels, however Hyatt Category 4 hotels still include very nice Hyatt hotels in most cities, and even IHG 40,000 point-per-night certificates will get you a solid hotel in many fairly expensive locations, while Marriott Category 5 hotels would not provide any options.  
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You'll receive your certificate a few weeks after you renew your card. Certificates from different cards have different point caps.  
  
Nevertheless, most people can still get value out of the certificate. There are thousands of available hotels, and it just isn’t that difficult to get more value than the $85 annual fee. Many of these hotels have room rates in the $150 per night range. Sometimes, rates are even higher. There are just better hotel night certificate options out there for most people, and you don’t want to get stuck with too many certificates to use effectively.
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{{Table|Basic|4.75in}}
 
 
=== Quick take on the new Marriott certificates ===
 
 
 
The new Marriott certificates are likely to be more valuable, because they will typically be capped at 35,000 points per night, rather than at the equivalent of 25,000 points per night, and can be used across the entire program, including SPG and Ritz hotels.  However, until Marriott announces what hotels are in each of the new categories, it is possible that most of the hotels that are currently in Marriott Category 6 and 7 will still not be able to be booked with the certificates.
 
 
 
You'll also be able to earn certificates from many more cards, and easily earn multiple certificates per year. The revised Marriott personal card will now provide a 35,000 point certificate, the existing SPG cards will start providing certificates on anniversary dates after August 1st, the new SPG premium card will provide even more valuable annual certificates, and we expect the revised Ritz card to start offering a certificate as well.
 
 
 
{{Table|Basic|5in}}
 
 
!Card
 
!Card
!style="width: 1in;"|Max Points
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!style="width: .75in;"|Max Points
!style="width: .75in;"|Annual Fee
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!style="width: .75in;"|Point "Value"
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!style="width: .75in;"|Effective "Cost"
 
|-
 
|-
|Chase Marriott Premier Plus
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|{{c|4}}Currently available cards
|35,000
 
|$95
 
 
|-
 
|-
|Amex SPG Personal
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|{{Card|Marriott|short}}||35,000||{{Value|Marriott|35000}}||$95
|35,000
 
|$95
 
 
|-
 
|-
|Chase Marriott Business
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|{{Card|SPGBiz|short}}||35,000||{{Value|Marriott|35000}}||$125
|35,000
 
|$95
 
 
|-
 
|-
|Amex SPG Business
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|{{Card|SPGLuxury|short}}||50,000||{{Value|Marriott|50000}}||$150
|35,000
 
|$95
 
 
|-
 
|-
|Amex SPG Luxury
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|{{c|4}}No longer available for new signups
|50,000
 
|$450
 
 
|-
 
|-
|Chase Ritz Carlton Card
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|{{Card|SPGCard|short}}||35,000||{{Value|Marriott|35000}}||$95
|Unknown
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|-
|$450
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|{{Card|Ritz|short}}||50,000||{{Value|Marriott|50000}}||$300
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|-
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|{{Card|MarriottPremier|short}}||25,000||{{Value|Marriott|25000}}||$85
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|-
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|{{Card|MarriottBiz|short}}||35,000||{{Value|Marriott|35000}}||$99
 
{{/Table}}
 
{{/Table}}
  
For most people, with these changes, the Marriott / SPG certificates will probably become more valuable than the Hyatt and IHG certificates.
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You can earn a 2<sup>nd</sup> certificate by spending $60,000 with the Marriott business card. This "benefit" is available for both the current and the older cards. However, the amount of reward points you would miss out on, by using the Marriott Business card instead of a better rewards card, makes spending this a bad deal.
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'''Starting sometime in early 2022, you'll be able to augment your certificate with up to 15,000 extra points to book a more expensive hotel'''. For example, you could use a 35,000 point certificate plus 5,000 extra points to book a hotel that costs 40,000 points. Once this happens certificates will be much easier to use, because you can get value across a wide range of hotels.  
  
=== Great places to use your old certificates ===
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'''Until then, 35,000 point Marriott certificates substantially limit your ability to use your certificates at nicer hotels'''. During peak dates, these certificates will only work at Marriott’s category 1-4 hotels, which tends to restrict you to Marriott’s lower tier brands, on the outskirts of cities. During regular and off-peak dates, you could use them for Category 5 hotels, which is enough for Marriott and Sheraton branded hotels in moderately expensive cities, but the cash rates during these dates will be relatively low.
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Nevertheless, you should still be able to get more value than the effective cost of the certificates. Just don’t expect to find many opportunities to use your certificates for hotel rooms that cost much more than $200 or so.
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'''50,000 point certificates can be used at nicer hotels'''—Category 6 hotels during “standard” season, Category 5 hotels during “peak” season, and Category 7 hotels (out of 8) in “off-peak” season. Just don’t expect to use them at luxury hotels and fancy resorts.
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=== Obtaining multiple certificates each year ===
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'''If you have multiple Marriott credit cards, you can get multiple certificates each year'''. There are three currently available cards. However, many people won’t want to use up one of their “Chase 5/24” slots on the regular (Boundless) version of the card. But, if you do, you’ll need to wait 24 months before being able to collect signup bonuses for the two other (Amex-issued) cards. 
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If you want to receive the signup bonuses on any new Marriott cards, you'll need to follow some other rules.
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<ul class="simplelist">
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<li>You can't only collect the Amex card (premium and business) signup bonuses once per lifetime.</li> 
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<li>You can't collect the signup bonus for the Chase personal card if you already have the Bonvoy Amex Card (the old SPG personal card). You can't collect the signup bonus on the Amex Business card if you already have the Marriott Business card. And you can't collect the signup bonus on the Bonvoy Brilliant (premium) card if you already have the Ritz Carlton card. It may be worth cancelling an older Marriott business or Ritz Carlton card to make yourself eligible to earn the signup bonus on one of the currently available cards.</li>
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<li>You can't earn the signup bonus from both Amex and Chase in the same 24 month period. If you want the Marriott personal card, you'll need to wait to be eligible for the bonuses on the business and premium cards and vise versa.</li>
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</ul>
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=== Great places to use your certificates ===
 
   
 
   
 
{{Image|MarriottCat5Photo.jpg|full}}
 
{{Image|MarriottCat5Photo.jpg|full}}
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<ul class="simplelist">
 
<ul class="simplelist">
  
<li>[//mommypoints.boardingarea.com/2018/03/06/best-marriott-category-1-5-hotels-in-2018/ The Best Marriott Category 1-5 Hotels in 2018].</li>
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<li>[//thepointsguy.com/guide/where-to-use-marriott-35k-certificates-families/ 10 Best Uses of Marriott 35,000-Point Certificates for Family Vacations]</li>
 +
 
 +
<li>[//thepointsguy.com/guide/best-family-uses-marriott-50000-point-certificates/ 10 Best Uses of Marriott 50,000-Point Certificates for Family Vacations]</li>
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 +
<li>[//www.doctorofcredit.com/best-uses-chase-marriott-free-night-certificate-category-1-5/ Best Uses of Your Chase Marriott Free Night Certificates]</li>
  
<li>[//awardwallet.com/blog/top-picks-marriott-category-1-5-free-night-certificate/ Top Picks for Marriott Category 1-5 Free Night Certificate].</li>
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<li>[//travelisfree.com/best-use-of-marriott-35000-point-cat-5-free-night-certificate/ Best Use of Marriott 35,000 Point (cat 5) Free Night Certificate]</li>
  
<li>[//travelisfree.com/2013/08/26/category-5-marriott-hotels/ Best Use of Your Marriott Category 5 Certificates].</li>
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<li>[//www.comparecards.com/blog/best-marriott-bonvoy-hotels-for-free-night/ The Best Marriott Bonvoy Hotels For Your Free Night Certificate]</li>
  
<li>[//milecards.com/1588434550/the-best-marriott-category-5-hotels-for-your-free-night-certificate/ The Best Marriott Category 5 Hotels for Your Free Night Certificate].</li>
 
 
</ul>
 
</ul>
  
Since Marriott hasn't released the hotel categories for the new unified program, no one is exactly sure which hotels will fall into each point-level. As a result, no one has written any articles about the best available options.  
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No one has written articles yet that cover the available hotel options once peak pricing goes into affect.
  
 
=== Expiration rules ===
 
=== Expiration rules ===
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Latest revision as of 23:15, 27 October 2021

  Get Free Hotel Nights with Credit Card CertificatesGuide to the Marriott Bonvoy Reward Program

Each of the Marriott credit cards provide a free night certificate every year. There is no spending requirement, but each certificate can only be used for rooms up to maximum points cap.


Extended Expiration Dates

Because of the impacts of the Covid pandemic, Marriott has extended the expiration dates of their hotel certificates. Any certificates that would have expired in 2020 or 2021 will be good until June 30th, 2022.


Marriott Free Night Certificates

You'll receive your certificate a few weeks after you renew your card. Certificates from different cards have different point caps.

Card Max Points Point "Value" Effective "Cost"
Currently available cards
Marriott Boundless 35,000 $250 $95
Marriott Business 35,000 $250 $125
Marriott Brilliant 50,000 $350 $150
No longer available for new signups
Old SPG Card 35,000 $250 $95
Ritz Carlton 50,000 $350 $300
(Older) Marriott Premier 25,000 $180 $85
Marriott Premier Business 35,000 $250 $99

You can earn a 2nd certificate by spending $60,000 with the Marriott business card. This "benefit" is available for both the current and the older cards. However, the amount of reward points you would miss out on, by using the Marriott Business card instead of a better rewards card, makes spending this a bad deal.

Starting sometime in early 2022, you'll be able to augment your certificate with up to 15,000 extra points to book a more expensive hotel. For example, you could use a 35,000 point certificate plus 5,000 extra points to book a hotel that costs 40,000 points. Once this happens certificates will be much easier to use, because you can get value across a wide range of hotels.

Until then, 35,000 point Marriott certificates substantially limit your ability to use your certificates at nicer hotels. During peak dates, these certificates will only work at Marriott’s category 1-4 hotels, which tends to restrict you to Marriott’s lower tier brands, on the outskirts of cities. During regular and off-peak dates, you could use them for Category 5 hotels, which is enough for Marriott and Sheraton branded hotels in moderately expensive cities, but the cash rates during these dates will be relatively low.

Nevertheless, you should still be able to get more value than the effective cost of the certificates. Just don’t expect to find many opportunities to use your certificates for hotel rooms that cost much more than $200 or so.

50,000 point certificates can be used at nicer hotels—Category 6 hotels during “standard” season, Category 5 hotels during “peak” season, and Category 7 hotels (out of 8) in “off-peak” season. Just don’t expect to use them at luxury hotels and fancy resorts.

Obtaining multiple certificates each year

If you have multiple Marriott credit cards, you can get multiple certificates each year. There are three currently available cards. However, many people won’t want to use up one of their “Chase 5/24” slots on the regular (Boundless) version of the card. But, if you do, you’ll need to wait 24 months before being able to collect signup bonuses for the two other (Amex-issued) cards.

If you want to receive the signup bonuses on any new Marriott cards, you'll need to follow some other rules.

  • You can't only collect the Amex card (premium and business) signup bonuses once per lifetime.
  • You can't collect the signup bonus for the Chase personal card if you already have the Bonvoy Amex Card (the old SPG personal card). You can't collect the signup bonus on the Amex Business card if you already have the Marriott Business card. And you can't collect the signup bonus on the Bonvoy Brilliant (premium) card if you already have the Ritz Carlton card. It may be worth cancelling an older Marriott business or Ritz Carlton card to make yourself eligible to earn the signup bonus on one of the currently available cards.
  • You can't earn the signup bonus from both Amex and Chase in the same 24 month period. If you want the Marriott personal card, you'll need to wait to be eligible for the bonuses on the business and premium cards and vise versa.

Great places to use your certificates

MarriottCat5Photo.jpg

Here’s some links to get your imagination going.

No one has written articles yet that cover the available hotel options once peak pricing goes into affect.

Expiration rules

The stay must be completed within 12 months from the date of issue. Don’t let it expire.

If it looks like it is going to expire, you can try calling customer service to extend the certificate, explaining that you’ve been having trouble finding a stay in the right “category” of hotels. There are many reports of people able to get their certificates re-issued, but we wouldn’t count on it.

Other details

  • If there is a standard room available, it should be bookable with your certificate.



Send comments or suggestions to editor@travelstrategies.com or leave a comment below.



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