Earn bonus points with new targeted Marriott promotion
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
It always pays to double check your emails before banishing them to the trash folder, especially if they're coming from an airline, hotel or credit card issuer since you never know what special offer might be hidden inside. Marriott is currently sending out targeted promo offers to select members under the heading "More Points Ahead."
These offers are targeted and vary from person to person, but on the TPG staff, we've already seen the following offers:
- Earn up to 45,000 bonus points: 15,000 after five stays, 15,000 after 10 stays and another 15,000 points after 15 stays.
- Earn up to 18,000 points on eligible stays that include a weekend night: 4,000 points after your first eligible weekend stay, 6,000 after your second weekend stay and 8,000 after your third weekend stay.
No matter what offer you're targeted for, you'll need to click on the registration link in the email (or under the promotions tab in your Marriott Bonvoy app) in order to start earning. The offers we've seen so far give you roughly three months to complete the stays, but you must register for the offer within three weeks of receiving the email.
TPG values Marriott points at 0.8 cents each, which you'll want to think about when deciding whether the offer you receive is worth specifically targeting extra Marriott stays. While I wouldn't necessarily go out of my way to earn the 3,000 bonus points ($24) per stay from the first offer, earning 8,000 extra points ($64) on a short weekend stay would be better.
This More Points Ahead promotion is different from Marriott's Unlock More promotion, which is publicly available to all Marriott members. That deal, which also requires registration through the Marriott app, allows you to earn 2,000 bonus points after completing your second stay. Once you do so, you'll also "unlock" a targeted offer to earn even more points. In my case, I was targeted to earn 15,000 bonus points after completing six additional stays.
Major hotel chains usually offer promotions at least once a quarter to drive more business, but Marriott clearly seems to be shifting away from one-size-fits-all deals to more variable and targeted offers. Even within the same promotion, some members are being incentivized to simply stay more with Marriott, while others are being rewarded specifically for weekend stays.
Bottom line
This offer is highly targeted but it costs you nothing to register, so if you think you might be staying at a Marriott property in the next few months, you should log in to your account, check the promotions tab and see if you're eligible.