STILL ON: Get 250 free Avios for joining Marriott Bonvoy – no stay required

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• Concerto says:

  21 Jul21 July 04:59

  I don’t have a Marriott Bonvoy account and I don’t know about that. Avios have been recently so massively devalued that it might be worth pushing on to get a free hotel night. At least are no taxes on free nights.

  • Rob says:

    21 Jul21 July 07:24

    There are with Marriott. Unlike Hilton and Hyatt it doesn’t waive resort fees on redemptions.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      21 Jul21 July 12:00

      Which is only an issue in the USA

• Gordon says:

  21 Jul21 July 06:55

  A few of my family members signed up for this when it was originally launched, and three months later (well over the 60 days for the Avios to land, still no Avios?) contacted Marriot, with all the account numbers etc, and they said.

  “ I want to let you know that I’ve reviewed the website you shared with us, which advertises “Get 250 free Avios for joining Marriott Bonvoy – no stay required”. This site is not affiliated with our official Marriott Bonvoy website.
  Therefore, I kindly suggest that you reach out to the original source of this offer, as they are the only ones who can assist you in crediting these points to your Marriott Bonvoy account”.

  I emailed Rob this week, who said he would chase it up, but on here it appears he does not have an answer,

  I know it’s only 250 Avios per account, but principles are at play here? Don’t promote something that you can’t honour!

  • BJ says:

    21 Jul21 July 08:13

    It’s not HfPs job to honour third part promotions Gordon. I’m sure these articles are rooted in Bonvoy or BA promotions with associated T&C.

    • Gordon says:

      21 Jul21 July 08:16

      @BJ, yes I’m fully aware of that! that was not intended at hfp? Maybe I should have inserted “Marriot” after honour, to make it clearer who I was venting my frustrations at!

      • BJ says:

        21 Jul21 July 08:45

        Don’t you have a Bonvoy offer page, you could just have replied that back to them? Or try calling the London number, I’ve always found them helpful.

        • Gordon says:

          21 Jul21 July 09:02

          I didn’t have a number, I did look, and found the site frustrating, as no contact numbers at all under the “Contact us page” for UK, just foreign contacts. I had a screenshot which I emailed Marriot, but they are not interested, it would have been satisfying if the points just posted as promised, but there’s not enough hours in a day to chase them, their loss I’ll stick to Hyatt.

  • JDB says:

    21 Jul21 July 09:01

    @Gordon – I’m not sure it’s very apt to use the word ‘principles’ in connection with this promotion in view of previous comments by some posters here telling us how they were opening multiple accounts (and what duplicate type email addresses would pass scrutiny) for themselves and others to get this huge slug of points. Perhaps Marriott is taking some time to sift through all the cheat applications?

    • Gordon says:

      21 Jul21 July 09:06

      @JDB, Not guilty! Well I’m sure I could have used an alternative word to Principles, but Rob would have deleted it?

    • BJ says:

      21 Jul21 July 09:28

      @JDB, and yet some acuse me of abuse even when strictly adhering to T&C 🙂 Not sure if you were a reader at the time but I was one of the few who did not milk the IB 90k offer for all it was worth because I was concerned it would impact seat availability and fares for those with a genuine need. There were also various lucrative OTA promotions people explouted by booking very cheap stays in India and elsewhere in Asia. Avain I cautioned against such exploitation as there was a risk OTA miggt not pay out to the hotels, hostels and guesthouses in the event of no-shows and presentation of vouchers which were widely required at the time.

      • JDB says:

        21 Jul21 July 10:18

        @BJ – I haven’t accused anyone of anything here. I just read the comments from when this promotion was originally launched.

        In respect of abuse while technically complying with T&Cs, society relies on a whole series of mores beyond laws, rules, regulations, T&Cs etc. Credit cards and all sorts of firms offering promotions used to have limited T&Cs and trusted what their customers said and gave them the benefit of the doubt if something went wrong. All that trust has been broken by probably a fairly small number of people to the detriment of everyone else.

        Doing the ‘right thing’ has sadly completely gone out of the window for some people. Whereas it was once the norm across society, now I just have to count myself lucky that I live in a professional and social environment where integrity and trust really matter and is the norm for young and old alike.

        • BJ says:

          21 Jul21 July 11:14

          Trust, abuse and doing the right thing work both ways. That it is stacked in favour of the ‘big guy’ at the expense of the ‘little guy’ is evidenced clearly for here on HfP for the travel industry on an almost daily basis, and for wider industry and society in the mainstream media. That is not to say that abuse by Joe Bloggs is right but it does help to partly explain the ‘if you can’t beat them join them’ mentality.

        • Gordon says:

          21 Jul21 July 11:30

          @BJ – Agree, that was my thought earlier, there’s plenty of very large companies, that hide behind their name, that are not as trustworthy as people think. Also relying on their very well paid legal team to get them off the hook, so to speak, if they are caught out. I thought better to post anything, as I didn’t want to drag this on.

        • JDB says:

          21 Jul21 July 11:35

          Aah! The two wrongs make a right fallacy!

        • BJ says:

          21 Jul21 July 11:51

          @Gordon, yes, I got that was the main sentiment underlying your frustration from the outset.personally I have always leaned towards @LadyLondon on this as they have always championed the little guy. @JDB to has worked tirelessly to assist readers where they have been wronged or treated shoddily by the big boys but sometimes I feel he makes too many ‘excuses’ for the big guys while holding the little guy to more exacting standards. I am conflicted though, I like that we as individuals should hold ourselves up to such standards but the real wold is grey and compromises and allowances are necessary.

        • BJ says:

          21 Jul21 July 11:55

          🙂 @JDB, we could debate this all day but I think we should draw a line under it as we’re way off topic to the original article.

• BJ says:

  21 Jul21 July 08:07

  I thought HfP did not do pitiful amounts of points or miles anymore? Yet here we have (and not for the first time) a whole article devoted to 250 avios, less than 1% of the sum required for a one-way domestic economy flight on BA 🙂

  • Gordon says:

    21 Jul21 July 08:20

    You would need to spend £250 on the free BA Amex, or £166 on the BAPP, so for free, I’m not complaining! Well I am as I’ve not received them🙄

    • BJ says:

      21 Jul21 July 08:52

      Good points, and the truth is that a huge number of HfP readers still remain excited enough and motivated enough to chase even only 50 avios offers.

      • Steve says:

        22 Jul22 July 16:57

        *waves* I just searched through the BA portal to find the best place to buy a kettle and get a few extra points back on it. It all goes towards the next trip!

  • Rob says:

    21 Jul21 July 08:43

    Rhys is in the Seychelles, I’m in the Lake District, Marriott paid us a substantial sum for the ads it booked for this – a repeat is a win for everyone 🙂

    • BJ says:

      21 Jul21 July 08:49

      Yes, I guessed as much and sorry for being a PITA, enjoy your vacation.

  • Barracough says:

    21 Jul21 July 09:47

    Weekend articles on HfP do often cover out of the ordinary topics or ones perhaps less relevant to some as I think Rob in the past has said there are fewer hits on the website. No problem with that of course.

    I’m a regular reader of HfP but must have missed that “pitiful amounts of points and miles” would no longer be covered. True, some promotions offer tiny rewards but they all count and whilst the HfP readership certainly includes a lot of high end frequent flyers there are too I think quite a lot like me who welcome any opportunity to increase points and miles. Across all reward schemes I have a combined total of about a million mikes/points thanks to credit card churning, paid stays and flights, surveys, and one-off offers such as this Marriott Bonvoy one. The readership I suspect is also diverse with not only business based frequent flyers but also the retired, like me, who now perhaps have a bit more time to follow up even the paltry offers!

    • BJ says:

      21 Jul21 July 11:31

      Not disputing any of that or scorning HfP for covering it or any reader who does want to collect all points going. I’ve read HfP from the very beginning and I think it was around the time Rhys was taken on pernamebtly that Rob explaibedvthe focus would shift a bit to be a bit more travel-focused and a bit less points-focused, at least with respect to the smaller earning opportunities. I think this shift was to reflect the the fact that Rhys was more willing and able to cover much more flight, hotel and lounge reviews than Rob was ever able to due to family commitments and priorities. My comment was lighthearted, not a criticism and I think Rob got that.

  • Londonsteve says:

    21 Jul21 July 15:29

    To me they’re not a pitiful number of Avios. 250 can be boosted x3 to make 1000 in total. That’s one third of what I need to buy an off-peak reward flight to a zone 2 destination. As Avios have become exponentially harder to earn for me since I’m no longer a UK resident and can’t apply for an Avios earning credit card while the earning rate on flights has been drastically cut, I value any earning opportunity that pays at least 100 Avios and I cannot be alone in this!

    I signed up to Bonvoy for the 250 Avios bonus, true, I’ve no immediate plans to stay in a Bonvoy hotel, but I just might in the future now that I’ve got a Bonvoy account and they’re on my radar.

• Sara says:

  21 Jul21 July 08:10

  Hi Rob and Gordon,
  I also joined this and have not had any avios or any other communication!! Many other on another Avios site are also reporting lack of points appearing. Rob we trust what comes from this site, PLEASE can you look into this for all of us that took your advice on this. Thanks

  • Rob says:

    21 Jul21 July 08:41

    They will turn up. Marriott hasn’t spent six figures on this campaign just to annoy all the new members.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      21 Jul21 July 12:08

      Looks like they are though 😂

• CJD says:

  21 Jul21 July 08:17

  Still no sight of the Avios promised after signing up to Marriott Bonvoy in April.

• Neil MacPherson says:

  21 Jul21 July 13:15

  I took joined up and no sign at all of Avios… probably about 5 or 6 weeks since joined……..

• Vicky says:

  21 Jul21 July 15:14

  Myself and many others from the Amex FB page are still waiting.

• Concerto says:

  21 Jul21 July 16:25

  What about the offer in the US offering 10,000 Avios for a subscription to The Motley Fool for USD99? Only place if is getting discussed is on the German blog VFT.

  • Rob says:

    21 Jul21 July 17:14

    Not seen this, will have a look.

    EDIT: Looks dubious, BA has been removing Avios from accounts which don’t have a US account address as this offer is only on the US portal.

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