Marriott Bonvoy Amex – How a Budget Traveller Can Use 65,000 Hotel Points

There was good news in the Canadian points and miles world this week with a new welcome offer from the Marriott Bonvoy Amex. If you do not have a Marriott credit card and would like an idea of how you could stretch the points if you got one, this post has a few suggestions for free nights in Europe along with some important details about the program.

Offer Details

The Marriott Bonvoy Amex has two different sign-up offers depending on whether you use a public link or apply through a Refer-A-Friend link. When you use a referral link you’ll get an extra 5000 points and the person referring you receives 10,000 points.

Currently, the cash back rebates for applying through Great Canadian Rebates are $30 and $50 respectively for the personal and business cards. (They were higher for a brief period recently.)

Marriott Bonvoy Amex

• Earn 60,000 points when you spend $3000 in the first three months (or 65,000 via referral)
• Receive a $120 statement credit when you spend $10,000 in the first 12 months
• $120 annual fee

Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex

• Earn 60,000 points when you spend $5000 in the first three months (or 65,000 via referral)
• Receive a $150 statement credit when you spend $15,000 in the first 12 months
• $150 annual fee

Annual Free Night Certificate

Holders of either version of the Marriott Bonvoy Amex will receive a free night certificate worth up to 35,000 points deposited into their Marriott account a few weeks after the anniversary date of the card. (If you have both cards, you’ll get two free night certificates.) This yearly perk effectively cancels out the annual fee, and if used selectively, will yield a much higher value than $120 or $150. Here in the Maritimes it would get you a free night at the Delta Prince Edward or the Algonquin Resort St. Andrews-by-the-Sea – if you can find availability at the standard reward level.

Another way to help offset the annual fee is to take advantage of occasional Amex offers where cardholders receive a statement credit upon spending a certain amount at a specific merchant or retail category.

Earning Rates

Marriott Bonvoy Amex

5 points per dollar at Marriott properties
2 points per dollar on all other purchases

Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex

5 points per dollar at Marriott properties
3 points per dollar on gas, dining and travel
2 points per dollar on all other purchases

Whether or not you want to use the card for a significant part of your regular spending depends on what other credit cards you have at your disposal. For example, if your preferred supermarket takes Amex you might instead use a Scotiabank Gold Amex or Cobalt Amex that earns 5x the points on groceries. If you don’t mind juggling multiple cards, you can use each one where it works best for you.

Redemption Chart

As hotel loyalty programs go, Marriott is quite user-friendly when it comes to finding hotel info. They have a published Redemption Chart that sets out each category and the point requirements for peak, standard and off peak dates. Once you have a handle on the system, you can search the Hotel Directory to find properties in different categories.

From the Marriott website:

Points + Cash

Some hotels will offer a points + cash rate in addition to the regular reward option. You’ll also occasionally see an upgraded room available for additional points. These don’t show up across the board so they’re just something to be on the lookout for when searching.

PointSavers

Marriott also offers redemption discounts at individual hotels for dates within a specified period as displayed on its Pointsavers page. (Not to be ungrateful but the roster of pointsavers hotels is typically quite limited. If Marriott were to offer something like the now defunct PointBreaks that IHG used to offer, that would be awesome.)

Stay For 5, Pay For 4

A nice feature of the Marriott program is that members get one free night when making a five night reservation on points. That can really help you stretch your balance (but also can make you a little sad when you book a four night stay). If the reward rates vary within the 5 night booking, the free night will be one that requires fewer points.

Points Advance 

Interestingly, it’s possible to book a reward stay even when you don’t yet have sufficient points in your account. I believe this is unique among hotel loyalty programs. The caveat is that until you have enough, the number of points required might change if the date moves from, say, standard to peak or if a category adjustment happens in the interim.

Low Category Hotels

If you’re a budget traveller, you’ll probably zero in on the lower category hotels so you can make those points cover as many free nights as possible. Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to scope these out. Go to the Marriott Hotel Directory and filter by category and geographic area.

Category 1 hotels (7500 standard reward) are relatively scarce with only six in Canada. The Fairfield Inn & Suites Winnipeg stands out if you’re thinking of visiting Manitoba’s capital.

Moving up to Category 2 (12,500 standard reward) will broaden your options a bit both in Canada (44 hotels) and elsewhere. There’s a good one in Ottawa I mentioned previously on the blog.

Obviously not all lower category hotels will be in appealing travel destinations, but there are some interesting possibilities in the bunch. And redeeming at a Category 3 (17,500 standard reward) will open even more doors.

Here are few of the Category 2 options in Europe:

Courtyard Oxford City Centre
Four Points by Sheraton Siena
Courtyard Brno
Courtyard Pilsen
AC Hotel Riga
AC Hotel Cordoba

And a sampling of some Category 3 hotels:

Moxy Bergen
AC Hotel Bologna
Gewandhaus Dresden, Autograph Collection
Courtyard Hamburg City
AC Hotel Innsbruck
Sheraton Poznan
AC Hotel Wroclaw
Courtyard Vilnius City Center
Moxy York

Join Forces For More Points

If you have a travelling companion and both of you get the Marriott credit card, you’ll end up with more than double the points because one of you will get the 10,000 bonus points for referring the other. Those combined 152,000 points (65,000 x 2 + 10,000 plus 12,000 from the spending requirement on both) would be more than enough for a free five night stay at the standard reward level at a Category 5 (35,000 per night with one night free) because you can transfer up to 100,000 points a year from your account to your companion’s.

When you get to Category 5 it opens up many destinations. And if your trip is over a year away, after you’ve both received the annual 35k free night certificate, you can add those to give you a full week. You just have to keep in mind that categories change so your chosen Cat 5 hotel might be a Cat 6 by the time you’re ready to book. With that in mind, you ought to have a plan B and C to hedge your bets.

If you’re keen on a trip a bit sooner, you could use 150,000 points for 7 nights at a Category 4 hotel at 25,000 points per night including the free night. Or, you could forgo the free 5th night and stay 3 nights in two places instead.

There are Category 4 hotels in the downtown areas of many Canadian cities including St. John’s, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Calgary.

In Europe there are lots of great Category 4 options such as the following:

Imperial Riding School Renaissance Vienna
Sheraton Fuschlsee-Salzburg, Hotel Jagdhof
Courtyard Berlin City Center
Heidelberg Marriott
Schloss Lieser, Autograph Collection
Courtyard Prague City
Renaissance Tuscany II Ciocco Resort & Spa
Grand Universe Lucca, Autograph Collection
Moxy Rapperswil
Hotel Nassau Breda, Autograph Collection
The Slaack Rotterdam, Tribute Portfolio Hotel
Abbey Hotel Bath, Tribute Portfolio Hotel
University Arms Hotel, Autograph Collection
Moxy Dublin City
Sheraton Porto Hotel & Spa
Hotel Katajanokka Helsinki, Tribute Portfolio Collection
Courtyard Stockholm Kungsholmen

According to the website, there are 166 Category 4 hotels and 122 Category 3 hotels in Europe so it shouldn’t be too difficult to plan a trip around your points. Just make sure you’re getting decent value by comparing reward rates to paid rates at various accommodation alternatives. For instance, if there is a terrific points-earning promotion from IHG Rewards or a high value opportunity to buy Choice Privileges points to redeem for a suite, you might be better off using the Marriott points elsewhere. Try to weigh all your options when deciding where to book.

Monitor Your Reservations

As with most hotel reservations, you should keep an eye on them in case something changes. If your dates change from peak to standard or standard to off peak you’ll want to cancel and rebook to save some points.

Other Points Earning Avenues

If you want to accumulate as many hotel points as you can, you might choose to convert Amex Membership Rewards to Marriott Bonvoy points. The Membership Rewards earned with the Gold or Platinum cards and the Select Tier rewards of the Cobalt or Choice cards can all be converted at rate of 5:6. However, the standard MRs may also be transferred to Aeroplan which might yield better value. For the Select Tier points you’ll need to figure out if converting them makes sense in light of other reward options.

You can of course earn Marriott points by staying at hotels on qualifying rates where you’ll earn 10 or 5 points per US dollar depending on the brand. Perhaps you can also capitalize on a good bonus points promotion and maybe even stack that with a great package rate or targeted promo.

And you can also simply buy Marriott points, optimally during a sale, but you really need to do the math very carefully when purchasing any loyalty currency.

Convert to Aeroplan

I should mention that although the best value for Marriott points is generally in the form of free night redemptions, you can also convert them to frequent flyer miles if you wish. The conversion rate is 3:1 but if you transfer 60,000 Marriott points you’ll get a 5000 point bonus resulting in 25,000 Aeroplan, Alaska Mileage Plan etc.

Conclusion

In the Marriott Bonvoy credit card’s previous incarnation as the SPG Amex, I believe the highest welcome offer was 25,000 SPG points which was equivalent to 75,000 Marriott points. So this is not the best ever sign-up deal but it’s definitely the best one we’ve seen since the merger as long as you’re okay with the increased minimum spend requirement.

If you haven’t dabbled much in hotel loyalty points or Marriott points specifically, this Marriott Bonvoy Amex opportunity is a a good way to get a jumpstart as long as you understand how the program works and are confident it will help you reach your future travel aspirations.