Starwood and Marriott launch identical Spring promotions
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UPDATE – APRIL 2024: This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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 Bonvoy is offering 1,000 bonus points per night and double elite night credits on stays between 13th February and 29th April. Click here to read more and click here to register.
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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 (April 2024)
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 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.
Marriott Bonvoy American Express
20,000 points sign-up bonus and 15 elite night credits each year 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 Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status. We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.
The Platinum Card from American Express
40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review
You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points indirectly:
- American Express Gold (20,000 bonus Amex points)
- American Express Rewards Credit Card (10,000 bonus Amex points)
and for small business owners:
- American Express Business Gold (20,000 bonus Amex points)
- American Express Business Platinum (40,000 bonus Amex points)
The conversion rate from American Express to Marriott Bonvoy points is 2:3.
(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.)
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