The offers in this post have been updated or are no longer available. Please see the issuer site for current product information.
Big changes are coming to how you’ll redeem Marriott Bonvoy points for award nights. Instead of pricing awards based on its current category-based award chart, Marriott award rates “will be more flexible and will more closely align with hotel rates.” That’s likely to be bad news for travelers that currently get outsized value from using Bonvoy points.
However, this week’s news isn’t all bad. Marriott is extending Bonvoy elite status, Free Night Awards, Suite Night Awards and its pause on expiration of Bonvoy points. Plus, Marriott is making Free Night Awards even more flexible.
Here’s what you need to know about all of this Marriott news.
How Marriott Is Changing Award Rates
Marriott will be making changes to its award pricing in stages. For now, Marriott hasn’t made any changes to how award nights price. For awards booked through March 2022, Bonvoy members can continue to use Marriott’s current award chart:
Marriott Then, starting sometime in March 2022, Marriott will remove its published award chart. Award nights will start pricing based on hotel availability, seasonality and cash rates. However, Marriott will put guardrails in place to generally keep award prices within current award pricing bands. That means if a hotel is currently Category 5, award prices will vary between 30,000 and 40,000 Bonvoy points.
However, at 3% of Marriott’s properties, no guardrails will be in place. We don’t have any details of which properties these will be. However, it’s likely that Marriott will apply dynamic pricing at properties with highly-variable cash rates throughout the year — such as at ski resorts — and at ultra-luxury properties.
This hybrid model will stay in place until the end of 2022. Then, as of January 1, 2023, the guardrails will be removed. Going forward, award nights will be completely variable based on the cash rate of the hotel night.
What Marriott Is Keeping the Same
While Marriott is completely changing how award nights price, many other aspects of the Marriott Bonvoy award program are staying the same.
You’ll still have the same flexibility on changing or cancelling award stays. Bonvoy members will continue to be able to cancel awards and get their points or free night certificates back. If you need to change a reservation, you’ll need to pay the award rates in place at the time of the change.
Marriott confirmed to Forbes Advisor that the brand’s fifth-night-free perk will remain in place. Bonvoy members who stay five consecutive nights at a hotel will continue to get the least-expensive night free. However, you may not save as many points under dynamic award pricing. The least-expensive night may be a lot cheaper than the most-expensive nights.
Other Marriott redemption programs will also stay in place — including PointSavers, Cash & Points and premium room redemptions. And you’ll still be able to redeem points for unique properties like all-inclusive resorts and Homes & Villas by Marriott.
Which Travelers Lose With Marriott’s Dynamic Pricing
Marriott’s award pricing changes are probably bad news for travelers that currently get outsized value from Marriott Bonvoy points. Once dynamic pricing is in place, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to book a $1,700+ night stay at the St. Regis Bora Bora for just 70,000 Bonvoy points.
Marriott The change to dynamic pricing is likely to reduce the range in the value of Bonvoy points. Rather than having some redemptions only provide 0.2 cents per point and others yielding over 2 cents per point, the value of Bonvoy points will likely be much more stable.
That change may be good news for travelers that want reliable value from their Bonvoy points. However, savvy travelers lose with this change. Gone will be the opportunity to use cash to book low-value stays and points to book high-value stays.
New Free Night Award Top Off Option
Ever been frustrated that there’s no way to apply a 35,000-point Free Night Award certificate plus 5,000 points for a night costing 40,000 points? Well, Marriott is eliminating this frustration.
Starting in early 2022, you can use Marriott’s new Free Night Award Top Off option to add up to 15,000 Bonvoy points to a Free Night award certificate. That makes Marriott Free Night Awards much more flexible than before.
Say you have a 35,000-point Free Night Award through the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card. You’ll soon be able to use that certificate for an award night costing up to 50,000 points by applying Bonvoy points. Similarly, you’ll be able to use the 85,000-point Free Night Award cardholders receive each year after their card renewal month from the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card for a night costing up to 100,000 points (Terms apply, see rates & fees).
Note that this option is only available for Standard and PointSaver redemptions. You can’t use the Free Night Award Top Off to book upgraded rooms.
Marriott Extends Elite Status, Perks and Points
Marriott is extending elite status through February 2023. Elite status perks like Suite Night Awards and Free Night Awards are being extended through June 30, 2022. And you won’t have to worry about your Bonvoy points expiring until at least December 31, 2022. Here are the details of these extended perks.
Extended Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status
Marriott is extending the Bonvoy elite status that you earned either in 2019 or 2020 through February 2023. In short, you’ll enjoy the highest elite status that you earned in 2019, 2020 or 2021 for travel in 2022 and early 2023.
Elite status earned in 2019 was originally supposed to expire in February 2021. But, Marriott had previously extended this elite status through February 2022 — which is when elite status earned in 2020 would typically expire. Now, whether you earned elite status in 2019 or 2020, you’ll get an extra year of elite status.
However, only members that earn 50 or 75 nights in 2021 will get a chance to select new Annual Choice Rewards. While you won’t get another Annual Choice Rewards, members whose elite status is extended will still enjoy all of the other perks of elite status.
Extended Free Night Awards and Suite Night Awards
In addition to extending Bonvoy elite status, Marriott is also extending any eligible Free Night Awards and eligible Suite Night Awards through June 30, 2022.
Free Night Awards can be earned as a Marriott elite Annual Choice Benefit, as a perk of several credit cards or part of certain Marriott promotions. Marriott previously extended any outstanding Free Night Awards through January 3, 2022. Now, any certificates can be redeemed through June 30, 2022. Note that Marriott says it will update the expiration date “by December.” So, don’t worry if you aren’t seeing the new expiration date in your account quite yet.
Suite Night Awards give Bonvoy elite members a way to get confirmed upgrades at hotels in advance of their stay. These upgrade certificates are typically only valid through December 31 of the year after they were earned. That means some Marriott Bonvoy elites were worried about the upcoming December 31, 2021 expiration date. Now, the validity of Suite Night Awards has been extended through June 30, 2022.
Extended Marriott Bonvoy Expiration Pause
Marriott points typically expire if you don’t have any account activity within 24 months. However, with travel still not back to normal, many hotel and airline loyalty programs have paused the expiration of points and miles. And Marriott is one of those programs.
Marriott previously paused the expiration of Bonvoy points through March 31, 2022. Now, you won’t have to worry about Bonvoy points expiring through at least December 31, 2022.
Bottom Line
Marriott is making a huge change to how it prices award nights. Starting in March 2022, Bonvoy members will start seeing flexible award pricing. But prices will generally fall within current award pricing bands. However, in 2023, the guardrails will be completely removed.
The result of these changes is likely to be a more stable value of Bonvoy points, but a lot less opportunities to use your Bonvoy points for high value. So, if you’re planning to take advantage of any high-value Bonvoy redemptions, now’s the time to do so. After all, you can always cancel and rebook an award in case award rates decrease.
Marriott is blunting the bad news of award changes by extending elite status, Free Night Awards, Suite Night Awards and its pause on the expiration of Bonvoy points.
To view rates and fees of Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card, please visit this page.
