Marriott Bonvoy

Earning Marriott Bonvoy Points

Fortunately, there are many ways to accumulate Marriott Bonvoy points in Canada and the United States.

Canadian Credit Cards

The easiest way to rack up a large number of points is through welcome bonuses and daily spending on co-branded credit cards.

In Canada, there are two co-branded credit cards: the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card and the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card. Both cards come with similar welcome bonuses of up to 110,000–130,000 points at best, while the base offer is typically for around 50,000 points.

Both cards also offer the following benefits:

• 15 elite qualifying nights per calendar year

• An anniversary Free Night Award worth 35,000 points

• Gold Elite status when you spend $30,000 on the card in a calendar year

That said, there are also more valuable potential uses of Amex MR points out there (such as transferring to airline frequent flyer programs), so that’s the tradeoff you'll need to consider. Similarly, the Chase Ritz-Carlton Card still exists, but it's not open to new applicants. It can be obtained by upgrading from one of the Chase Bonvoy cards after holding the card for over a year. It offers some unique perks like unlimited Priority Pass and a 85,000-point Free Night Award every year. 4 points per US dollar spent

• StudioRes

2.5 points per US dollar spent

• Marriott Executive Apartments

From that baseline, elite members earn the following bonus multipliers on top of base points:

• Silver Elite: +10% bonus (11 points per US dollar spent)
• Gold Elite: +25% bonus (12.5 points per US dollar spent)
• Platinum Elite: +50% bonus (15 points per US dollar spent)
• Titanium & Ambassador Elite: +75% bonus (17.5 points per US dollar spent)

Occasionally, Marriott launches a genuinely valuable offer. One of the best examples is the double elite night credit promotion, which helps fast-track elite status (and lifetime elite status).

For instance, if you're holding a Canadian Marriott Bonvoy American Express card that grants 15 elite night credits annually, you’d only need to stay 18 paid nights under a double elite promo to hit Platinum — much more achievable than the usual 35 nights you'd need otherwise.

Some promotions are global, open to all members. Others are targeted, meaning they’re only offered to select individuals — and there’s no clear rhyme or reason behind who gets what. One person might receive a meaningful offer like bonus elite nights, while another gets bonus 1,000 points after a stay.

Regardless of the offer, it’s always smart to register as there’s no penalty if you don’t end up using it.

Host an event at a Marriott hotel

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points by hosting an event at a Marriott hotel. Examples of events can include meetings, weddings, conferences or any other type of happening.

To begin, you’ll earn 2 points per US dollar spent on rooms, food, drinks, and other charges. If you happen to also have elite status, you’ll earn the corresponding bonus on these charges, too.

Additionally, you can earn one elite qualifying night per 20 room nights booked when you host an event. This really only applies to large-scale events; however, it could get you closer to the next status tier, or to qualifying for lifetime elite status.

Redeeming Marriott Bonvoy Points for Hotel Stays

Naturally, as a hotel loyalty program, Marriott Bonvoy points are generally best used towards free nights at one of the program’s 8,500+ participating properties worldwide.

All Marriott hotels are priced dynamically, depending on the season, and even the day of the week. That being said, there are some general ranges you can expect hotels to price at:

Low-end hotels: 5,000 points – 15,000 points per night

Mid-tier hotels: 20,000 points – 60,000 points per night

High-end hotels: 70,000–200,000+ points per night (luxury properties like The Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis can reach 150,000–225,000 points per night during peak periods)

Keep in mind that the "tier" the hotel falls into is also highly dependent on the market it's in, so you can expect the Fairfield Inn and Suites near Disneyland, California to price at mid-tier levels even though it's a limited-service brand.

“No Blackout Dates"

Marriott has a “No Blackout Dates” policy, which means that as long as a hotel has a standard room available on a certain date, then it can be booked using either cash or points. In other words, hotels can’t control points inventory separately from cash bookings – if a standard room is available, then either form of currency must be accepted for it.

This policy works decently well, and means that you generally won’t have too much trouble finding availability for points bookings on your travel dates.

However, keep in mind that each hotel is free to determine what they consider a “standard room”, so once all of its standard rooms are booked up, then any higher-tier room (such as a Deluxe Room, Executive Room, junior suite, and full suites) may be capacity-controlled when it comes to points bookings.

Stay 5, Pay for 4

When you redeem points for five consecutive nights at the same hotel, you can make use of the Fifth Night Free benefit and only pay for four nights. With dynamic pricing, this is less of a "Fifth Night Free" and more of "Cheapest night free when you stay for at least five".

When booking a stay of at least five nights, the cheapest night will be free; when booking for ten nights, the cheapest two will be free, etc.

Along this logic, it may make sense to break longer stays into increments of five nights to increase the value of your free night.

For example, if the cost in points for a five-night stay is 50,000 points per night, you'd only pay 200,000 points for the entirety of the stay with the Fifth Night Free benefit.

Cash + Points

There's also a Cash + Points redemption option, which highly depends on each property and what they choose to offer, and it also won't be available at every hotel. Sometimes, you'll be allowed to use Cash + Points for the base room, while other times, it'll be for premium rooms (i.e. a cash upgrade supplement to an overwater villa).

Generally, Cash + Points makes sense in two circumstances: when you don’t have enough points to pay for the full points redemption, and when the cash rate is disproportionately high.

Say you’re looking to stay somewhere on New Year’s Eve, or when there’s a major conference or sporting event in town. In these circumstances, redeeming points for the room will be a great deal, but if you don’t have enough points to do so, then Cash + Points represents a way to capture some of that value and save yourself a chunk of change.

However, note that just because a room is available to be booked on points, doesn’t mean that it’s available at the Cash + Points rate. In fact, Cash + Points availability tends to be rather scarce, so the occasions on which you’ll be able to make use of it will be rather limited.

Transferring Marriott Bonvoy Points to Airlines

Besides redeeming Bonvoy points for hotel stays, the other valuable way to use points is to transfer them to one of 38 airline frequent flyer programs, such as Aeroplan, The British Airways Club, Atmos Rewards, and more.

The full list of participating programs can be found on the Marriott website. Basically, if it’s a major frequent flyer program with potential sweet spots, then you’ll likely be able to transfer Marriott Bonvoy points over in order to earn miles with the program.

The transfer ratio is 3:1 for most programs, and Marriott will also give you a bonus of 5,000 airline miles when you transfer in chunks of 60,000 Bonvoy points. This means that the optimal strategy is to transfer 60,000 Bonvoy points into 25,000 airline miles.

The exceptions to the 3:1 ratio are Air New Zealand AirPoints (200:1), and United MileagePlus (60,000 Bonvoy points = 30,000 United MileagePlus miles).

Additionally, American Airlines AAdvantage, Avianca LifeMiles, and Delta SkyMiles are all excluded from the bonus of 5,000 miles when transferring 60,000 Bonvoy points.

Depending on the program, transfers typically take at least three business days to complete, so you’ll want to leave enough buffer time if you’re planning to book an award flight using your airline miles. Additionally, the name and address should match between your Bonvoy account and your airline account, in order to prevent delays in the process.

Transferring points from Marriott Bonvoy represents the easiest way that Canadians can earn miles in “hard-to-reach” programs like Japan Airlines Mileage Bank, and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. They can also be a great way to top-up your earnings in programs like Atmos Rewards or American Airlines AAdvantage if you’re chasing a big flight redemption.

Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status

Lifetime Elite Status

Marriott Bonvoy offers a clear path toward Lifetime Elite Status, with three tiers available: Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Once achieved, lifetime status is valid permanently and does not require ongoing requalification.

To qualify, you must meet both a lifetime elite qualifying night threshold and a minimum number of years holding the relevant status tier:

Lifetime Status	Elite Nights Required	Years at Status Level
Silver Elite	250 nights	5 years at Silver Elite or higher
Gold Elite	400 nights	7 years at Gold Elite or higher
Platinum Elite	600 nights	10 years at Platinum Elite or higher

Members can view their progress toward lifetime status by logging into their Bonvoy account and navigating to the “Activity” section on the website or mobile app.

How to Earn Marriott Bonvoy Lifetime Elite Status

Read more

Tips & Tricks

Like most loyalty programs, there are plenty of little tricks you can keep up your sleeve once you dabble with the program a bit. Here are just a handful…

Maximize the Fifth Night Free: As mentioned above, the Fifth Night Free benefit allows you to book five nights on points for the price of four, and is one of the most valuable perks in the program.

However, even if you only need four nights, you can go ahead and book five nights since it’s the same cost anyway! This effectively gives you late checkout on your fourth day until however late you want, and also an extra elite qualifying night to help you achieve a higher status level.

Sharing Points: You can transfer up to 100,000 Marriott Bonvoy points between members’ accounts per calendar year. This is done by calling Marriott to initiate the transfer process or by doing the transfer yourself online.

It’s a great way to pool points earned by different members of a household into one account; however, the 100,000-point limit is rather strictly enforced, so you’ll want to plan accordingly if, say, you want all the bookings to be done under one household member’s account in order to achieve elite status faster.

Upgrades & Nightly Upgrade Awards: A fancy upgrade can really make the difference between a good hotel stay and a fantastic and unforgettable one. As a Platinum Elite member and above, you’re entitled to the best available upgrade upon check-in, including standard suites.

If you’re a Platinum Elite member or above, you can also use your Nightly Upgrade Awards to “lock in” a suite upgrade up to three days in advance – again, depending on availability.

If you’re only a Gold Elite member, don’t count on receiving a complimentary suite upgrade, but you can still get lucky if you contact your hotel in advance and tell them you’d love to have a suite upgrade if there are any.

RewardsPlus with United Airlines: Marriott and United have a partnership through which each program’s top-tier elite members get reciprocal benefits with the other program.

If you earn Titanium Elite status with Marriott Bonvoy, you’ll automatically be given an upgrade to United MileagePlus Premier Silver status, which is also Star Alliance Silver status.

Marriott & United RewardsPlus Partnership: Points Transfers & Reciprocal Elite Perks

Read more

Conclusion

With many co-branded credit cards available in Canada and the United States, the ability to transfer points from American Express Membership Rewards at a 1:1.2 ratio, as well as from American Express US Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards at a 1:1 ratio, and its vast footprint of over 8,500 hotels around the world to redeem points, Marriott Bonvoy remains one of the best programs for North Americans to rack up free hotel nights and save money along their travels.