Difference between revisions of "Marriott certificates"
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| − | + | 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. | |
| − | 35,000 point certificates | + | '''35,000 point Marriott certificates substantially limit your ability to use your certificates at nicer hotels'''. 35,000 point certificates should be good enough to book solid hotels in most cities, and at least some hotels in expensive cities like New York. However, you are most likely to want to use your certificate when hotel rates are high, and Marriott is now increasing the required number of points during each hotel’s peak season. During peak season, 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. |
| − | + | 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 $200 or more. | |
| − | 50,000 point certificates can be used at nicer | + | '''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. |
=== Obtaining multiple certificates each year === | === Obtaining multiple certificates each year === | ||
Revision as of 13:31, 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
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.
35,000 point Marriott certificates substantially limit your ability to use your certificates at nicer hotels. 35,000 point certificates should be good enough to book solid hotels in most cities, and at least some hotels in expensive cities like New York. However, you are most likely to want to use your certificate when hotel rates are high, and Marriott is now increasing the required number of points during each hotel’s peak season. During peak season, 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.
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 $200 or more.
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.
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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