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Revision as of 13:24, 4 March 2019
Hotel Strategies, Credit Card Reference
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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Marriott Free Night Certificates
Each of the Marriott cards provides a free night certificate every year, but the maximum point values of the certificates can differ.
| Card | Max Points | Point "Value" | Effective Annual Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
In addition, you can earn a 2nd certificate from the business cards, if you spend $60,000 per year.
35,000 point certificates are good enough for solid hotels in most cities, even in New York. However, you are most likely to want to use your certificates during "peak" travel periods. Once Marriott starts charging more for peak season, 35,000 point certificates won't work at Category 5 hotels, making them considerably less valuable.
You should still be able to get more value than the $95-125 annual fee for these cards, as there are thousands of Category 1-4 hotels in every corner of the world. It will just be harder to get $200 or more in value.
50,000 point certificates can be used at nicer hotels—up to Category 6 hotels in standard season, Category 5 hotels in peak season, and Category 7 (out of 8) hotels in off-peak season.
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, but the regular card is subject to the Chase 5/24 rule, so you probably don't want to get that card. Most people will want to pick up the Amex Bonvoy Brilliance card and the Amex Bonvoy Business card (if they can), and hold onto any older versions of the qualifying cards that they may have.
If yo want to receive the signup bonuses on any new cards, you'll need to follow some other rules.
- You can't only collect the Amex card (premium and business) signup bonus once per lifetime.
- You can't collect the signup bonus for the Chase personal card if you already have the Bonvoy Amex Card (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 Brilliance (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 old certificates
Here’s some links to get your imagination going.
- The Best Marriott Category 1-5 Hotels in 2018.
- Top Picks for Marriott Category 1-5 Free Night Certificate.
- Best Use of Your Marriott Category 5 Certificates.
- The Best Marriott Category 5 Hotels for Your Free Night Certificate.
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.
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.
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