Excellent Marriott Bonvoy / American Express cashback deals launched

Marriott Bonvoy has launched two generous cashback deals for American Express cardholders. If targeted, you will find these under the ‘Offers’ tab for one or more of your cards on the Amex website or app. You need to register to take advantage.

The two offers are:

• £100 back when you spend £300 at a selection of European hotels

• £75 back when you spend £200 at a selection of European hotels (seems to be exclusive to Marriott Bonvoy American Express cardholders)

Our full review of the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card is here.

The offers seem to be widely available. My wife and I have it four times between us:

• on my American Express Platinum card
• on my wife’s American Express Platinum supplementary card
• on my wife’s American Express Gold card
• on my Marriott Bonvoy American Express card

Oddly it doesn’t appear on either of our British Airways American Express cards. Looking at the comments below this is just bad luck on our part – plenty of others do have it.

The offer is limited to the first 30,000 cardholders to save it. HfP readers could hit this target on their own, especially as many can register multiple cards, so don’t delay in signing up.

What is the small print?

Very little.

The offers run to 30th June. Cumulative spending is OK.

Whilst the rules say that you need to pay at the hotel, this is not the case with Marriott cashback offers. Pre-paid bookings are handled directly by hotels, not centrally, and so trigger the cashback.

It is perfectly acceptable to the hotel to ask, if paying at check out, to split your bill across multiple credit cards. Whether this is acceptable to Amex is a different question, of course.

The rules say that ‘transactions must be made in GBP’. Ignore this, it is complete nonsense. Amex has banned Dynamic Currency Conversion – when a retailer abroad offers you choice of paying in local currency or in £, using a very dodgy exchange rate – so it is impossible to pay in GBP even if you wanted to.

Where can you stay?

The list of participating hotels is here and is very long. It covers hotels in:

• Austria
• Belgium
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom

The reason that certain countries like Portugal and Ireland never appear in these offers is that Amex does not offer directly issued consumer cards there.

This offer stacks with the current Marriott Bonvoy promotion

Interestingly, for the next three weeks this offer runs alongside the current ‘double elite nights’ promotion. As well as making a decent saving on a Marriott stay, you could make a dent into your qualification for Marriott Bonvoy 2024 elite status.

Between 7th February and 23rd April, you will earn 1,000 bonus points per NIGHT and double elite night credits on every cash stay at a Marriott hotel.

I value a Bonvoy point at 0.5p so this is equivalent to a £5 bonus per night.  It is clearly a better deal at a cheap Moxy than an expensive St Regis. For many readers, the double elite night credits will be more important.

Our full article on the current promotion is here. You can register here. Note that registration closes early on 9th April so do it now if you think that this promotion might persuade you to do a stay.

The home page for Marriott Bonvoy bookings is here.

PS. Our last review of the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card is here – we will be updating it next week

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How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards (June 2023)

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.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 13th June, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card is doubled to 60,000 Membership Rewards points (worth 90,000 Marriott Bonvoy points) – and you get £200 to spend at Amex Travel too! Apply here.

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.

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.)