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REGISTER NOW: Marriott’s new Autumn bonus points promotion is here

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UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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.

Keep up to date with new hotel offers by signing up for our free daily or weekly newsletters.

Marriott Rewards (and Starwood Preferred Guest, since they are technically the same programme now) have launched their first ‘bonus points’ promotion since their 18th August merger.

You can register here.

Here are the key points:

The promotion is called ““MegaBonus in More Places”

It runs from 26th September to 31st January 2019 (registration closes 7th January)

Marriott Rewards Autumn 2018 promotion

You will receive 2,000 bonus points on all paid stays of 2+ nights

You will receive an additional 1,000 bonus points for each different Marriott / Starwood brand you stay at, starting with your second brand

All 6,700 hotels across all 29 hotel brands are taking part

The 29 brands you can stay at to earn bonus points include: AC Hotels, Aloft, Autograph, Courtyard, Delta Hotels, Design Hotels, Edition, Element, Fairfield Inn, Four Points, Gaylord, Le Meridien, Marriott, Protea, Renaissance, Residence Inn, St Regis, Sheraton, The Luxury Collection, The Ritz-Carlton, Springhill Suites, Towneplace Suites, W and Westin.

In addition, between 4th October and 1st November, there will be an online game – 29 Ways To Stay – with some generous prizes.  I will cover this nearer the launch date.  It seems interesting, with a daily chance to win instant prizes, including bonus points and nights. 

The grand prize is a 2-night stay at each of the 29 brands participating in Marriott’s loyalty programs – that’s 58 free hotel nights!  There are also 2,400,000 ‘instant win’ bonus points prizes to be won over the four week period.

What is the bonus worth?

I value a Marriott Rewards point at 0.5p.  Arguably, if you use them for Category 8 hotels which are capped at 60,000 points per night until the end of the year, you can do a lot better, but 0.5p is a fair long term average.

(My room at St Regis New York where I’m typing this is selling for $1100 + tax per night which is over 1.5p per point, but that is an outlier. The suite I was upgraded to was selling for $2700 + tax per night!)

2,000 bonus points means that you are receiving £10 of value for every two night stay.  This is on top of your standard points.

This increases to £15 of bonus points when you are triggering a bonus for your 2nd and subsequent brands.

This promotion obviously works best for cheaper, shorter stays.  £10 of bonus points on a £150 two-night stay at a mid-range property is not a bad return, but it is unlikely to sway anyone planning a major splurge.

What are the other options?

Looking at the other two major chains ….

Hilton Honors is currently offering double points on all stays, with triple points at luxury and resort properties.  You can read our article here and register here.

IHG Rewards Club is offering double points from your 2nd stay on your first $1,500 of spending plus various extra personalised targets.  You can read our article here and register here.

The new Marriott / Starwood offer compares OK with these for shorter stays at cheaper chains, as long as you are staying 2+ nights.  For one night stays you won’t receive any extra bonus with this new Marriott offer.

Accor is also running a generous promotion for stays of 2+ nights, but this has a very tight booking period which ends on 7th October.  I wrote about the Accor offer here.

Register now

It makes sense to register for this new Marriott Rewards offer now.  It runs until the end of January and you never know when a 2+ night Marriott / Starwood stay will turn up.

Click here to visit the registration page on the Marriott website.


How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards

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:

and for small business owners:

The conversion rate from American Express to Marriott Bonvoy points is 2:3.

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.)

Comments (78)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Ian M says:

    Rather disappointing weak promotion in my opinion. Was hoping for something more generous. Hilton definitely has the best current promo as far as I’m concerned. Double points + 2500 Miles & More! Marriott doesn’t come close

  • Daniel says:

    Didn’t work for me. Will try later…

    A Note About This Promotion

    We’re sorry, but there was an error in directing you to this promotion.

    The reason for this error could be:

    You’re trying to access a miles promotion and are a points-earner, or vice versa
    You are not eligible for this promotion
    This promotion has expired

  • Ross says:

    Lol did you read the terms of the promotion! This is only for residents of US.

    • Adam says:

      No. Its open to everyone. Sweepstakes games is restricted to few countries including UK.

      • Adey says:

        Mine failed, with this….

        A Note About This Promotion
        We’re sorry, but there was an error in directing you to this promotion.
        The reason for this error could be:
        • You’re trying to access a miles promotion and are a points-earner, or vice versa
        • You are not eligible for this promotion
        • This promotion has expired

    • TGLoyalty says:

      Was just about to mention looks like it’s US only reading the terms. I got a registration error

      • Rob says:

        Promo is global and we have some Marriott advertising on here next week to prove it!

        • Nick Burch says:

          Can you ask your Marriott contacts to fix the registration then? I’ve been trying since Thursday, and like many others, after logging in I get the error ” A Note About This Promotion – We’re sorry, but there was an error in directing you to this promotion.” 🙁

        • Rabbit says:

          Im still getting the ‘not eligible’ message when trying to sign up, nor is it in my promotions when I log into Marriott. Keen to sign up as have a stay booked in November. I’ll try contacting Marriott directly to see what the issue is.

    • JJ says:

      Well, my registration has just been accepted (UK). My 2nd stay is not planned until December so I guess I won’t know until after that if it was successful.

      • JJ says:

        Sorry for the late reply. Just followed Rob’s link and logged in on that page. Don’t remember doing anything special.

  • Michael Todd says:

    Really weak promo and after the merger and all the issues that came with it I never expected Marriott to have pretty much the weakest promo I can remember! Hilton it is!

    • Chris Palmer says:

      Well, exactly. After all the problems with the merger, you might have thought they would have offered something better than this. It would be interesting to find out how many customers they have lost as a result of all the recent issues.

    • Alan says:

      Agreed, poor promo from a poor programme. Probably going to go Hilton once IHG Accelerate targets hit.

  • Memesweeper says:

    Do pre-existing bookings count? I read the t&cs and it looks like they are…

  • I A says:

    OT any guidance when existing SPG bookings and SPG card points show up on the merged accounts, everything still blank since the integration

    • ah says:

      supposed to be after the following card cycle.
      My card cycle is the 15th, so should know by early next week

    • Alan says:

      Still nothing from my SPG Amex, annoying paying the monthly fee just waiting for these points to post!

      • Ian M says:

        Same, no points on any spend since 1st July. Starting to think I should stop using the card.

  • Sarah says:

    OT – I have a couple of questions about IHG.
    1) can ihg points no longer be redeemed at intercontinental? Any hotel I check says no reward nights available.
    2) I have Ambassador weekend voucher which doesn’t expire until Feb 2019 but membership expires Nov 18 because it took so long for them to send voucher out. I’ve managed to book an IC for Jan 19 but they said I’ll have to renew Ambassador before staying at the property otherwise voucher won’t be honoured.
    Have to admit, struggling to see benefit of Ambassador apart from the upgrade so not sure if I want to renew? Has anyone managed to stay using AMB voucher even though AMB status has expired?

    • Alex W says:

      I can just about justify AMB even though we only stay at IC a couple of times a year. I paid the $200 renewal fee to get 15,000 pts and a 10% rebate on redemptions – on its own this should recoup the outlay and the benefits on top are a bonus. The weekend voucher has little value for me as it’s not really a 241 when the rate is more expensive than I would otherwise pay.

      • Kipto says:

        The ambassador weekend rate is more expensive as it’s the flexible rate. In addition, you have to pay taxes at check out which in the US can be 16% on top. I have found it cheaper to buy the IHG points when the 100% bonus is on. My previous experience of ambassador upgrades can be a “ higher floor with a better view” . As discussed on here recently ambassador status varies from hotel to hotel with late check out the only guarantee.

    • Craig says:

      Just looked at IC Bali for November, no problems with Reward Nights for me.

      • tom1 says:

        we loved that hotel -make sure you visit the Rock Bar at the Ayana, and Cuca restaurant just down the road.

    • Alan says:

      Re (1), no they’re definitely still fine for that – must just be that property is busy.

  • RussellH says:

    Re Hilton.

    I have always found that Huilton points credit very quickly, but so far no hint of a mention of my stay last Monday.
    And clicking on the ‘Missing Points’ link has just brought up an error message for the last two days, telling me to phone their USA toll free number…

    • BJ says:

      Last month I was surprised to see some post within 48h. On my 6th of 7 stays this month, all posted ok so far but back to the more usual 4 days. My M&M bonuses also posting fine.

    • tom1 says:

      I emailed HH directly about incorrect points (the points posted, but an incorrect amount). I got an email response within 5 minutes, and the full points posted. They also added the M&M points that didn’t post – even though I had LH on my FF set to default, they could not change from BA. This was also rectified without any fuss.

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