Marriott Rewards MegaBonus
I was already enrolled for the promotion that gives 35,000 bonus points after 20 paid nights at the Marriott if you use Visa, and at the hotel I picked up a leaflet offering 2 free nights at a category 1-4 hotel.
By the way, 2 (by the way why two, but sometimes it happens) letters from the Marriott were waiting for me at home informing me about the special offer for bonus points.
I wanted to enrol for the free nights, but the Marriott automated system wouldn’t let me.
So I sent an e-mail inquiring about this, and the answer was: “Marriott analyzes the stay histories of Marriott Rewards members and designates in advance the offer each member will receive if they register for the promotion.” However, they could manually change the offer if I wished, so I was told.
Fair enough, I kind of expected not to be allowed to register for both offers, but I was curious how the system works.
The offer for free nights is interesting: “one free night every second paid stay, up to two free nights, using their Visa card.”
So I could check in Monday, check out Tuesday (Tuesday night at another hotel), check in Wednesday, check out Thursday, and get my free night (I’d have had 2 stays for that week). Next week, do the same, so it would only take 2 weeks to get 2 free nights. Am I missing out on something? Perhaps they bank on the fact that people would not go through all this trouble.
Initially, the 50,000 bonus points (35,000 after 20 paid nights + 15,000 after 25 paid nights) seemed more attractive as I could use the points at any category. But it would take 6 weeks, considering the usual travel pattern, 4 nights away, 3 nights at home. Many things can happen in 6 weeks, like losing one’s job, so no way to reach 25 paid nights, but 2 weeks . . . (with some hard work, I reckon). A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Decisions, decisions, and no action so far. Perhaps I will stay with the bonus points. I mean, I had 2 free nights, which were going to expire on Dec. 31st, and I kind of struggled to find a hotel to go to, as the cities I wanted to go to didn’t have the category 1-4 Marriott hotels for which my free nights were valid.
And no, it is not possible to register for one offer (the free nights) and after 2 weeks to register for the 2nd one (the bonus points). I asked about this, too.
This is new to you? Marriott’s been running these promotions at least 2-3 quarters a year for years now . . .
You are not missing anything. I change hotels all the time in a single city on a single trip to maximize points/free nights when the basis is number of stays. If you were away for four nights and there were four different properties available, you could get it done in one trip. But as you note, the free nights are for categories 1-4 only so if you want to be in San Francisco, for example, you can’t use them. I look at my free Marriott nights as an excuse to go somewhere, which I guess is the point [no pun intended].
Yes, it is new for me. This is the fist year (in a long time) I have stayed for a longer period at a Marriott.