You will be able to combine points for stays with Marriott with a free night certificate. This gives guests more flexibility and access to more premium hotels. There are some drawbacks to this.
This is now available online.
A free night certificate with Marriott Bonvoy is worth a set number of points. Here are two awards that both say they are worth 35,000 points. I can use the award for one night even if I use them at a hotel that charges 10,000 points per night. I don't get vouchers or residual points. This is the maximum the certificate can be worth.
The value of your free night certificate can range from 25,000 to 50,000 Marriott points, depending on which Marriott credit card you have. That is a big difference. Points pricing at a Marriott hotel can range from 5,000 points per night to 100,000 points per night.
Beginning in 2022, Marriott will allow you to add points to your free night award. You can add up to 15,000 points to your free night certificate.
Let's say you want to go to Disney World and want a hotel that can be booked on points. There are a lot of benefits to booking your Disney stay this way.
Since my free night certificates are only worth 35,000 points, I wouldn't be able to book a stay at the Dolphin hotel. Peak pricing on this date is 60,000 points per night. The free night certificate is worth more than 15,000 points.
I could book a room at the World Center Marriott. It charges 40,000 points per night. That is less than the value of my night certificate.
There are some important things to note.
We think this is all sunshine, but there could be some negatives. Marriott is moving to dynamic pricing in March of 2022. We are accustomed to the award chart going away. Points requirements for a hotel can vary greatly. It can become difficult to use your night certificates. Adding a few points on top of the certificate may be a good solution.
Imagine a world in which hotels routinely cost 36,000 points, just out of reach for your free night certificate. If hotels routinely price themselves above the value of free night certificates, you need to add points to them, which will devalue your Marriott awards even further.
I will reply that I have no doubt that hotels are already considering this, if anyone complains that I might be giving ideas to unscrupulous hotels. I'm not telling them anything they haven't heard before. I'm sure of it. How easy will it be to use the free night awards in dynamic pricing? It's anyone's guess.
There are some positives and some negatives here. When traveling to a popular destination during a peak period, the ability to add points to a Marriott free night certificate can help. Think of Spring Break and holiday travel. The fact that this is rolling out around the time that award charts will disappear gives me pause. I am nervous about how this will play out.
Once this goes live, we’ll test it out and provide updates to show you how this new feature works in practice.
Disclosure: Miles to Memories has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Miles to Memories and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.Chase Sapphire Preferred - Increased 80K Welcome Offer!
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