Marriott Hotels is the biggest hotel chain in the world, with over 7,000 properties, including The Ritz-Carlton. They offer a solid loyalty program called Marriott Bonvoy that features a huge range of airline transfer partners.
Note that peak pricing came into effect in September, meaning that the program has moved from having one price for each hotel category to three (off-peak/standard/peak), depending on your dates.
This guide looks at regular Marriott Bonvoy ‘buy points’ offers and is continuously updated as new offers are announced.
Current offer
Get a 60% bonus when you buy 2,000+ points: deal ↠
While most previous promotions have offered a discount, this one is different in offering a bonus. At this level, this offer has Bonvoy points at their cheapest price yet.
The bonus is tiered as follows:
- 1,000: no bonus
- 2,000-50,000 points: 60% bonus
This yields a cost of 0.78 US cents per point, which is ~1.20 AU cents. That’s right at our valuation of Marriott Bonvoy points of 1.2c per point, meaning this could be a good opportunity to buy points speculatively but best if you have a specific redemption in mind. Remember, they are the most flexible points currency in the game, able to be converted into most frequent flyer programs, including Qantas and Velocity.
The price of 0.83 US cents per point is the same whether you buy 2,000 points or 50,000.
Note also that you can double your annual limit with this offer. The annual maximum for purchased points has been raised from 50,000 points to 100,000 points (excluding bonus points). Note that you’ll just need to make two transactions of 50,000 points each if you want to max it out.
This promotion ends on 30 June US time.
While the current situation with travel worldwide makes points purchases a little risky and speculative, this is the lowest price ever seen on Bonvoy points. This may make it worth purchasing for future use.
Offer history
| Date | Discount (%) | Bonus (%) | Price per point (US cents) |
|---|---|---|---|
| May-July 2020 | 60 | 0.78 | |
| February-March 2020 | 50 | 0.83 | |
| November-December 2019 | 30 | - | 0.88 |
| September-October 2019 | 30 | - | 0.88 |
| March-May 2019 | 25 | - | 0.94 |
| Average | 28.33 | 55.00 | 0.86 |
Important things to keep in mind
- Allow 24-48 hours for the transaction to be completed and the points to land in your account
- A new member may purchase points 30 days after enrolment if their Marriott Bonvoy account has some earn activity; if not, after 90 days from enrolment, a new member is eligible to purchase points regardless of their account activity
Summing up
The Marriott Bonvoy program devalued in 2018. However, the flexibility of their points means that it continues to be a valuable currency, especially if you can grab them during a promotion.
Related articles
The same night costs 35,000 points.
It costs A$419 (USD275 @0.655c) for 35,200 points (22,000 + 13,200 bonus).
What am I missing?
There will be cases, such as your example above, where purchasing the hotel outright is the better option. But the cost-benefit relationship changes based on a number of variables, including the hotel brand, destination, time of year you’re flying and the associated demand, and so forth.
If you transfer from ascent points to Marriot do you still get the bonus?
Yes this is the case unfortunately. Previously, you were able to purchase up to 30,000 SPG points per calendar year as you mentioned, however this has been reduced to 50,000 Bonvoy points, which is equivalent to 16,667 frequent flyer points based on the new 3:1 conversion rate.