How to earn Marriott points flying Emirates and Emirates status benefits at Marriott hotels

Marriott Bonvoy and Emirates Skywards have a low profile partnership.

It allows you to double dip with Emirates Skywards miles and Marriott Bonvoy points in the same transaction.

The scheme is designed to encourage Emirates flyers to stay at Marriott Bonvoy hotels and vice versa.  The bottom line is that signing up is a no-brainer if you qualify. 

Do you qualify for the Emirates / Marriott partnership?

‘Qualifying’ means that you have either:

• Gold Elite status or higher in Marriott Bonvoy or

• Silver status or higher in Emirates Skywards

Full details can be found on the Emirates website here and on the Marriott website here.

If you are an Emirates status member staying at a Marriott hotel:

If you are an Emirates Skywards Silver, Gold or Platinum member you will receive 1 Skywards mile for every $1 you spend in a Marriott Bonvoy hotel.

Only spend on the room rate counts – you do not receive Skywards miles for food and beverage spend, spa treatments etc.

Importantly, this is in addition to the Marriott Bonvoy points that you already receive.  It is a genuine extra benefit.

If you are a Gold or Platinum (sorry Silvers!) Skywards member, you will also receive additional Marriott Bonvoy benefits.  These are:

• Priority check-in

• 2pm (Skywards Gold) / 4pm (Skywards Platinum) late check-out subject to availability

• Enhanced (high speed) wi-fi

If you are a Bonvoy member flying with Emirates:

Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite, Platinum Elite, Titanium Elite or Ambassador Elite members will receive 3 Marriott Bonvoy points per $1 spent on Emirates flights.  All Emirates flights count as long as your ticket is under an EK flight code.

You do NOT earn Bonvoy points on taxes, fees and surcharges included in your ticket price. This will have a large impact on your earning if flying in economy, but will not move the needle much on a full fare business class ticket.

This is a very generous deal in my view.  I value Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.5p each.  A £3,000 ($3,750) Emirates business class flight would therefore earn you £55+ of free hotel stays, less an adjustment for the taxes and charges element of the fare.  This is on top of your usual Skywards miles.

Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite, Titanium Elite and Ambassador Elite members will receive priority check-in and priority boarding. Note that the priority boarding benefit is only for the Marriott elite member, with no guests allowed.

How can you get Marriott Gold status quickly to take advantage?

You can obtain Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status for free by signing up for The Platinum Card from American Express credit card.

You also receive Gold status in Hilton Honors, Premium status in Radisson Rewards and Gold status in MeliaRewards.

The Platinum Card comes with a sign-up bonus of 50,000 American Express Membership Rewards points which converts into 75,000 Marriott Bonvoy points or 37,500 Emirates Skywards miles.

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 get Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status via the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card after spending £15,000 in a year:

Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card

20,000 points and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

Click here for a complete guide to getting hotel elite status from UK credit cards.

We published a complete guide to earning Emirates Skywards miles from UK credit cards which you can find here.

How do you register for the Emirates / Marriott partnership?

You need to register for the Emirates Skywards / Marriott Bonvoy partnership – it is not automatic.

You can register via this page on the Emirates website or via this page on the Marriott website.

Those pages also contain more information on the small print behind the partnership.