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News: win a trip to Spaceport Cornwall, get a 25% bonus when you buy Marriott points

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News in brief:

Win a trip to Spaceport Cornwall with Virgin Red

Later this year, Virgin Orbit will launch satellites from UK soil. This is not only a first for Virgin Orbit but also the first-ever UK satellite launch.

Virgin Red is giving one member, and three guests, a chance to tour Spaceport Cornwall on a mutually convenient date, as well as two nights stay at the Watergate Bay Hotel, complete with surfing lessons.

To enter, you need to go into the Virgin Red app or visit this this page of its website and answer a question. The closing date is Sunday 21st August. Five runners up will win a goodie bag of merchandise from Spaceport Cornwall and Virgin Orbit. 

Spaceport Cornwall Virgin Orbit

Get a 25% bonus when you buy Marriott Bonvoy points

Marriott Bonvoy has launched a new deal if you buy their hotel points.

Via this page of the website, you will get a 25% bonus on all points purchases.

This is a substantially lower bonus than recent offers, which have tended to be around 40% to 50%. However, with this offer running to 15th September, we are unlikely to see anything better until at least October.

Marriott has now moved to revenue-based redemptions, although almost all hotels will remain inside their existing high and low price caps. The full force of revenue-based redemptions will not be seen until 2023.

The annual purchase cap has now been permanently raised to 100,000 points.  With the bonus, this means that you could pick up 125,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.

At the top end you are paying $1,250 (£1,020) for 125,000 points. My rule of thumb is that a Marriott Bonvoy point is worth 0.5p so this offer is not great at 0.82p per point. 

However, you might find it worthwhile if:

  • you are topping off your account before making a points booking, or
  • you are close to 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points and want to make a transfer into airline miles (you get a bonus of 5,000 airline miles when you transfer 60,000 Bonvoy points into 20,000 airline miles) or
  • you are planning a stay at a property where you know you will get outsized value

The page to buy is here. The offer runs to 15th September.

If you want to learn more about the programme, our full review of Marriott Bonvoy is here.

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.)

Category

Marriott Bonvoy, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (19)

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

  • Steve says:
    13 Aug13 August 06:56

    Bonvoy expiry date. Does anyone have any insight into what happens if I transfer my points to another account before the 24m expiry, then the receivers account buys some points to qualify as an activity, to extend the expiry a further 24m? Marriott won’t give me a definitive answer on whether the transferred points will still expire, has anyone had any experience with this ?

  • Charles says:
    13 Aug13 August 07:18

    Anyone considering this should note that Bonvoy points have become vastly less attractive since the shift to revenue based pricing earlier this year. There are no bargains to be had any more. Save yourself some money.

  • polly says:
    13 Aug13 August 08:07

    We will collect them purely for an annual visit to the W on Sentosa. If we book far enough in advance, we should get some good value. And would top up in a sale, if ness. Used the Amex cash back £75 recently in Paris. Was better value. Not posted yet though.

  • Gordon says:
    13 Aug13 August 08:24

    Slightly OT, But for anyone that is not aware. BA has reduced the points threshold for obtaining silver status again. 50% reduction To 300 points. But the catch is you need to already hold silver status to secure it again this way, I am securing silver status from bronze in oct with a tier point run to AMS.

    Hi polly, How did you get on with your Avios Barclaycard application, All good I hope?.
    I achieved the 50k bonus in a month so cost just £20 😊

    • Rob says:
      13 Aug13 August 08:28

      This was announced many, many months ago, and only applies to people whose renewal date is up to 8 September. You should only get your information from authoritative websites 🙂

      • yonasl says:
        13 Aug13 August 09:57

        I keep seeing the 8th Sept date mentioned but BA’s website says:

        “ We have automatically applied the reduced threshold to Silver Members with Tier Point Collection Year end dates in July, August and September 2022. If you collect 300 Tier Points by the end of your current Tier Point Collection Year, or fly with us on 25 eligible flights, your Silver status will automatically renew.”

        All of Sept. seems to be included.

        • gordon says:
          13 Aug13 August 10:16

          I’m guessing they mean the 8th of each month inc September as everyone’s tier point renewal dates are on the 8th of the month.

  • gordon says:
    13 Aug13 August 08:30

    Well I missed that one then 😏

  • yorkieflyer says:
    13 Aug13 August 10:31

    Loved to see a recycled Virgin jumbo

  • Mikeact says:
    13 Aug13 August 10:53

    ‘The people who can really maximise this know who they are.’ !!

  • Concerto says:
    13 Aug13 August 12:43

    Even at 100% bonus, buying Flying Blue miles is a bad deal.

    • Jan M says:
      13 Aug13 August 23:36

      Yeah. It’s silly. It’s fairly easy to gain status with them, but really hard to earn flights. It’s odd how much more generous booking KLM with Virgin miles is.

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

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