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Get great value for your Marriott Bonvoy hotel points in Oxford

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If you’re looking for somewhere classy for a weekend away, Oxford is never a bad choice.  A brand new Courtyard by Marriott has literally just opened – there are still builders finishing things off inside – and offers great value for Marriott Bonvoy points.

Courtyard Oxford City Centre (website here) is selling at a premium price due its location.  Over 9th – 11th August, to pick a random weekend, rooms start at £213 per night.

Courtyard Oxford City Centre opens

For points, however, it is a different story.  As a Category 2 hotel, it is just 12,500 Bonvoy points per night.  This is roughly 1.75p per point, compared to my standard valuation of 0.5p.

Courtyard Oxford City Centre opens

Reader Nick, who literally lives next door, sent me some photos which I’ve dropped into this article.  He puts it at 2 minutes walk to the castle, 2 minutes from the new shopping centre and 5 minutes from the railway station. 

It was, apparently, scheduled to become a Hotel Indigo before switching to a Courtyard, although £213 looks more like Hotel Indigo pricing to me.

Courtyard Oxford City Centre opens

The property is partly new build and partly restoration of an existing property.  Rooms in the old building, see below, are not yet finished so it is running on reduced capacity.

The Courtyard Oxford website is here if you want to know more.

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

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards (June 2025)

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 15th July 2025, the sign-up bonus on the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card is TRIPLED to 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points. This would convert into 25,000 Avios or into 40 other airline schemes. It would also get you at least £300 of Marriott hotel stays based on our 0.5p per point low-end valuation. Other T&C apply and remain unchanged. Click here for our full card review and click here to apply.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card

60,000 points (to 15th July) 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 The Platinum Card from American Express in detail here and you can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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.

Category

Marriott Bonvoy

Comments (108)

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

  • KBuffett says:
    25 Jul25 July 04:30

    I assume it’s OK to use my SPG AMEX free night voucher here?

  • John says:
    25 Jul25 July 06:12

    Oxford is a day trip kind of place for me and the Oxford tube/LHR/LGW buses run all night in any case.

    • BJ says:
      25 Jul25 July 09:54

      Agree, a pleasant place to while away a few hours but I expected more. Good prices though if somebody is looking for a base to explore the area.

      • Genghis says:
        25 Jul25 July 10:44

        I recommend getting a punt from Cherwell Boathouse for around 4 hours and punting down the Cherwell, around Boathouse island and then back. A very pleasant way to spent a summer’s afternoon.

    • Nick Burch says:
      25 Jul25 July 14:56

      There’s also a Premier Inn being built just round the corner from the Marriott. It’ll be right next to the Westgate shopping centre. Demolition of the old building started last week

  • Matthew says:
    25 Jul25 July 07:41

    O/T as this is bits. We are flying tomorrow – originally 4 avios seats and 2 cash bookings. We cancelled two avios and as the remains two were kids, they split PNR first then linked to the adult cash booking. It won’t let me online check in the kids as it says needs an adult. (I thought it would be ok as PNRs linked). Anything to worry about or just have to check them iin manually at the airport. I can’t get through to BA on phone it says too busy….

    Just didn’t want them bumped off for obvious reasons! Thanks

    • Craig says:
      25 Jul25 July 07:46

      Can’t answer the question but Tweet them, they should reply asking for the PNRs and will private message you with the answer.

    • Spurs Debs says:
      25 Jul25 July 09:22

      I have had this before with linked bookings and child couldn’t check in online had to check in at airport, wasn’t a problem.

      • Matthew says:
        25 Jul25 July 09:53

        OK great, thank you. I know the flight is pretty much full so was worried. I’m sure it’ll all be fine…..thanks everyone.

  • EwanG says:
    25 Jul25 July 08:59

    O/T. This week’s Nectar offers has “Double value when you redeem your points on train travel with LNER.” between 25 July and 14 August.
    Choose either a £5.00, £10.00, £20.00, £40.00 or £100.00 voucher and get 1p of value per Nectar point.

    • Rob says:
      25 Jul25 July 09:51

      Thanks, decent deal.

    • BJ says:
      25 Jul25 July 09:58

      +1, my favourite nectar redemption and can use with railcard for far off bookings so works great for me. Pity I’m down to £40 but I have £15 I can chase up.

    • Sussex Bantam says:
      25 Jul25 July 10:52

      Good stuff – thanks – this worked well last time !

    • BJ says:
      25 Jul25 July 18:26

      A good result,just redeemed done points and vouchers are valid through 31/12/2020 so effectively late March 2021.

  • Marko Gec says:
    25 Jul25 July 09:03

    Sorry for the OT: I have an AMEX Gold and the free BA credit cards. I am thinking about switching to Platinum and keeping just the BA one as back-up.

    Does anyone know if charge cards are treated as credit card by vendors? Often at hotels or when making reservations, they ask specifically for a credit card. So I was wondering if I might have issue using the Platinum for deposits/reservations etc as it is not a credit card.

    Thanks

    • Tom says:
      25 Jul25 July 09:13

      You will have no issue giving them a charge card.

    • Polly says:
      25 Jul25 July 09:14

      Plat is treated same as any card by hotels, if they accept amex.
      If applying for plat, make sure you self refer from gold for Plat Green. Then later, upgrade to Plat. 20k pts. Later on add your 1st supp gets you 5k pts.
      Don’t add supp at application time.
      This way you bag points you wouldn’t otherwise obtain.

  • RakishDriver says:
    25 Jul25 July 09:15

    OT – SPG amex. Renewal date around the corner, unsure if should take the £75 fee hit and continue collecting on spend, or, closing it. Just wondering what the thought process is of others in the same boat. If putting through £20k spend per annum and no 33k sign up bonus, would it still be worth my while? Have there been any recent retention sweeteners offered by amex CS?

    • Freddy says:
      25 Jul25 July 09:59

      Heard some people have got double points for 3 months or something similar. On a 20k spend per year at a minimum 1.5% return (0.5 points per £) you would get £300 less £75 fee equals £225. Similar return on other amex cards really. No real benefits of the card except gold status which is middling. 25k would get a free cheap room for a night

      • Freddy says:
        25 Jul25 July 10:06

        *3 points per £1

        May be worth getting the gold card, free first year with bonus of 10000 points at renewal for spending over 10k

        • RakishDriver says:
          25 Jul25 July 14:50

          Thanks – already MR holder, so that won’t work – and wouldn’t anyway due to the new bonus rules imposed by amex

    • ken says:
      25 Jul25 July 10:08

      £20k spend gives you 30k points which is worth say £150-£180 but you pay £75 card fee.

      £20k would get you £100 back in cash on a 0.5% card.

      Doesn’t really work after year 1

      • ken says:
        25 Jul25 July 10:10

        Oops – 60k points worth £300-£360

        • Freddy says:
          25 Jul25 July 10:18

          The amex c@shback card would net £225 on 20k less £25 fee would get £200.

          Quite borderline, only reason I keep SPG is you can often get more than the 1.5% return

    • Genghis says:
      25 Jul25 July 10:49

      Looking at numbers alone for ongoing spend (I assume you’re not eligible for other sign up bonuses):
      SPG card has 1.5% return (at 0.5p/point valuation) and costs £75p.a. whereas Gold is free for a year and only earns 1% return (at 1p / MR point valuation) – bear in mind that there are more partners with Marriott than Amex if that’s a factor. If not, breakeven is £15k spend on the card, after which the SPG card is better than the Gold. Something to think about anyway…

      • TGLoyalty says:
        25 Jul25 July 12:42

        Also depends if you put a lot of SPG spend through your card as 6 points per £1 then

    • RakishDriver says:
      25 Jul25 July 14:47

      Thanks all for the replies. I’ll ring CS up and see if there is an appetite for my custom and they give me extra points per spend for the next 3 months – or, hopefully an even better deal.
      I’ve seen an improvement in the amex offers on my SPG (all spend on that) vs no decent offers on my Plat (zero spend for the last 3 months) – this might sway me to keep it longer in the second year.
      @Rob any more rumours on when the spg amex will be discontinued/rebranded … and how that +/- affects current amex holders’ chances of getting the new sign-up bonus?

  • Neil Donoghue says:
    25 Jul25 July 09:21

    OT – Amex Business Cards, can these be upgraded to Plat cards and is there an offer that anyone knows about?

  • Craig says:
    25 Jul25 July 09:23

    OT: The latest Amex Spend £x earn xxxx MR points. Has anyone triggered this yet, T&Cs seem to indicate supplementary card spend is included?

    • SimonW says:
      25 Jul25 July 10:24

      Yes, I had spend £5700, get 4000 MR points. Supp card was def included in spend, though I triggered it on the main card, and 4000 points hit the account the next day.

    • Anthony says:
      25 Jul25 July 10:30

      I’d got a spend £6300 get 6000 MR and another spend £6500 get 3000 MR, both of them got triggered with spend from supp cards

    • BlueHorizonuk says:
      25 Jul25 July 10:37

      I did, posted ok

    • Craig says:
      25 Jul25 July 11:21

      Thanks folks.

    • GJB says:
      25 Jul25 July 15:35

      I’ve had trouble with mine which happily seems to have been resolved.
      I hit the £13600 spend for 10K points using a mixture of my main card and supp card. I hit the spend on 19/7 (and settled the bill). When I enquired on online chat when the bonus would be posted, I was told that supp card spend did not count towards the total spend.
      I had to phone up AMEX, they went away to look into it and phoned me back later to confirm that I was correct and that the points would appear within a month.
      I had the new metal card sent last week so i am wondering if this buggered up something on their system.

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