Back in May 2018, Chase sent out upgrade offers to encourage Marriott Rewards Premier cardholders to upgrade to the new Premier Plus card.
Those offers were for 10,000-50,000 bonus points, but there were subsequently reports that even if you’d received a lower upgrade offer, you could request a match to the 50,000 bonus point offer.
I’d planned on passing up on my 20,000 point offer, but as the year progressed I started considering an upgrade. When the reports came out that you could match to the 50,000 point offer, I decided to go ahead and upgrade. 50,000 Marriott Rewards points is almost enough to cover 9 free nights in a category 1 property when taking advantage of the 5th night free, so that would save us a good amount of money.
Getting matched to the 50,000 point offer was easy – I just called Chase and within a few minutes my card was upgraded. Making a purchase on my old Marriott card triggered the bonus seeing as the card numbers were exactly the same.
I didn’t think much more about it and assumed the 50,000 bonus points would be awarded once the statement closed. When checking my Marriott Rewards account though, I noticed something unusual:
Chase had only awarded 10,000 bonus points which was especially strange seeing as my original offer was for 20,000 bonus points.
It was an easy fix though. I sent a secure message to Chase explaining that I’d been offered 50,000 bonus points but only received 10,000 points. Within an hour I’d received a reply advising that they’d added 40,000 points to my account which will be awarded when the next statement closes.
If you upgraded to the Premier Plus, check your Marriott Rewards account to ensure you received the correct number of bonus points.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Received 10,000 points on December 18, still waiting for the additional 40,000….
Unfortunately, I didn’t take advantage of these offers. But I just received a new offer to upgrade from the Premium to Premium Plus. Receive $200 statement credit when you spend $3k by 3/31/19, which is essentially 6.7% cashback. Not too bad as a runner up to 50k points.
Called in Today, couldn’t upgrade, offers have been expired as of Dec 31st 2018.
I received the 10K bonus from upgrading back in July. Do you think I have a chance to received the 50K bonus now? And if so, what would be the best strategy – calling or a secure message? Thanks!!
Sorry, I forgot I had done this when the first post came out. This was the response I got from Chase:
I’m writing in response to the request for additional
points for upgrading to the Marriott Rewards® Premier Plus
Credit Card.
Mark, I understand that you are unhappy with the response
and it was not our intention to cause any inconvenience.
Since it has been more than 90 days since the card was
upgraded, the option to match the 50,000 bonus points
offer is unavailable.
Although the option is unavailable, we value your
relationship with Chase.
🙁 M.
Sent secure message re this on 11/3/18 and was told that the additional points would post 6-8 weeks after the next billing cylce closes. Still waiting for the points to post…
Since ur on the road for 5 years how do u do the ID, CC and mail thing So Your Legal everywhere ? I lived in an apartment for 10 years with unsafe mail so I have a P.O box but DL showed my apt address .It really was a hassle and costly to have them forward Junk mail to me when I was on travel . That PO box showed up all over my reports and I had to explain @ every loan apply.
CHEERs
We use a mail forwarding service called St Brendan’s Isle. It acts as a street address which works fine for some banks like Chase, but Amex doesn’t accept it – we therefore have to use my in-laws’ address for them.
Our driver licenses have Green Cove Springs FL listed as the city/state as that’s where the mail service is, but the street address is our license plate seeing as we don’t actually live anywhere.
Called Chase about this exact thing yesterday after I upgraded last week with the 50K offer. They told me that they’re breaking up the bonus for everyone. 10K upon first purchase, then the remaining 40K when the next statement closes.
That’s a strange decision on their part as it surely results in more work for them with people calling/messaging asking for the missing points.
Agree. The same thing happened to me.
Unfortunately, some companies seem to only fulfill promises after you point out their flaw. And even worse, some won’t budge until you get a lawyer. Yes it is counterproductive for marketing teams which are tasked with wooing customers who then just get frustrated.