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UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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

  • Alex W says:

    Another weak promo from Marriott. I’ll be sticking with IHG – both me and Mrs W got excellent offers and between us we should get a total of around 130k points for around £1100 spend – so about a 60% rebate!

  • hdagz says:

    Any news on the Marriott creation credit card? Last I heard this was going to be relaunched in August after the merger… the 10 nights would come in handy!

    • Rob says:

      No, has gone very quiet despite my specific requests to both Marriott and Creation. I am seeing Marriott’s European loyalty head next week so I will ask him then.

      • Craig says:

        +1 for waiting. I need 19175 points between now and mid Jan, I have enough in my wife’s Amex MR account. But she would have to transfer the points to herself, then to me and we’d end up with odds and ends of points unused because of the 2:3 and minimum transfer amounts.

  • Jimbob says:

    No more fee free £200 cash withdrawals from your credit card then.
    Thought they would have publicised this rather more, given the extra fees people might accrue
    Thanks for the link

  • Adam says:

    This is very important. Thank you!

    • Rob says:

      That is not what the article says!

      • Dillo says:

        @Rob – from the article:

        “Some transactions may result in charges being levied by certain issuers, dependent on their own terms of service. For example, your card issuer will be able to identify cash withdrawals from your payment card, therefore withdrawing cash from a credit card is not recommended.”

        • Rob says:

          Yes, card companies can now do it. Doesn’t mean they all will. We need to wait and see.

          There is a big Curve product shift coming up – Curve giveth and Curve taketh away ….

      • Sussex Bantam says:

        Hmm – wondered if it might have been to do with that Rob. Appreciate you can’t tell us yet !

      • BJ says:

        I’m happy to try £200 linked to my Hilton card and will report back. However, I will leave ut a few days for the change to bed in first. Rob obvioydkg seems to remain upbeat on Curve so I see little cause for alarm.

      • Alan says:

        It’s what their staff say in the beta forums – email due out soon to warn customers. Will carry by CC company though as to what happens (which makes it more rather than less transparent TBH!)

  • Peter K says:

    Thank you so much for this! I can’t believe they have not told anyone about this more publicly. What happened to giving 60 days warning if it was a negative change to the t’s & c’s?
    Basically for me the USP of curve has just gone. There is no advantage to me now of using them in the UK, unless paying HMRC is counted as a normal payment.

    • Rob says:

      That’s not what it says.

      It says your card company CAN choose to do this if it wants. It doesn’t mean it WILL.

      In the same way that Tesco now treat Revolut top-ups as cash withdrawals but other cards have chosen not to ….

      • Peter K says:

        That may be but the way it had been “announced” is poor, plus this section fun the article has to be a concern surely:
        “For example, your card issuer will be able to identify cash withdrawals from your payment card, therefore withdrawing cash from a credit card is not recommended.”

      • Craig says:

        I think the big issue is knowing in advance how your CC company will treat a curve cash withdrawal. I don’t use much cash but I do withdraw about £100 a month through curve linked to HSBC WE. It’s whether it’s worth the risk now knowing that at any point they could start to treat it like a cash advance.

      • John says:

        Someone will have to take one for the team!

        Curve says they sent me a new debit card but I haven’t received it, and they say the old (corp) card is going to be deactivated soon… when it stops working, I think I won’t bother chasing them for a debit card unless someone comes up with a new reason (paying 1% forex fee to earn points on IHG/Hilton stays with their card etc. doesn’t cut it for me and I don’t have large tax bills)

      • Anna says:

        I can’t believe a credit card company would miss a chance to make money. I might withdraw £10 or so near to my linked card payment date to see what happens (as I recall, until the full statement balance is paid off you’ll be charged interest on any cash withdrawals).

      • the_real_a says:

        What is being said is that the MCC of the original transaction will be passed through to your credit card so the transaction will be treat exactly like making the card transaction with the underlying card. Go stick your credit card in the ATM and see what happens…

        Reward credit cards do not give points on cash-like transactions. So even if you get hit with a cash advance fee you wont get the points. People are going to get a very, very nasty surprise at statement time.

        This is a massive development – I think this does deserve its own article Rob!

      • Crafty says:

        Strange to choose a Bon Vivant rehash over covering a potentially major change to Curve, Cathay PE sale, LH PE sale…

        • Rob says:

          I am speaking with the Curve CEO on Monday.

          Bon Vivant articles need to be scheduled around Emyr’s availability to reply quickly. And I’m in New York, so I didn’t fancy writing another full article 🙂

      • BJ says:

        @Crafty, Bon Vivant is timely given the amex Penindula offer and the Halifax Conrad/WA offer.

      • John says:

        @Anna, if you want to withdraw GBP cash on a UK credit card it is best to do it when there is no balance at all, and pay it off ASAP.

        Withdrawing cash near to a direct debit date means that it will be 1-2 weeks before the next statement, and the DD will only pay off the previous statement. Though at 18.9% APR it’s only £1.50 or so (plus any fees)

      • Shoe string says:

        You might have the decimal point in the wrong place! Anna said £10.

        Wife took out £300 @ATM abroad on the Clarity card & I forgot to fund it – 6 weeks later the interest was only a couple of quid.

  • Al says:

    Would a 4 night stay starting on 25/9 qualify?

  • Rob says:

    Thanks. LH (and indeed SWISS) have sent me details on this, I’m just waiting for a slot.

  • James says:

    Totally Off Topic.

    Anyone know of any Spanish websites, forums or blogs which spend a lot of time looking at Iberia in terms of redemption options, sweet spots etc…. ?

    • Rob says:

      Avios once offered to pay me to launch one, but I said no!

      • BJ says:

        Any progress on your efforts to get somebody to provide FlyingBlue coverage for HFP?

        • Rob says:

          No, we couldn’t find something with appropriate FB and blogging experience. What I really wanted was a Dutch blogger who might want to sell us English translations.

    • Ryan says:

      James

      What exactly are you looking for with IB?

      I did a bit on them when covering multi-city awards for another Blog (I wouldn’t recommend IB multi-city FYI).

      Chicago in J is the obvious as it’s a band lower than it technically should be. There is an article on here from 2017 about the current reward chart.

      Also, if you have a flight in say Band 6 (4,000 to 5,500km) If you have a 4,200km flight, adding connecting legs in Economy will bring down the Avios requirement as they pro-rata the award.

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

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