| Sorry, this deal is no longer available. Do you want to be alerted about new deals as they’re published? Click here to subscribe to Frequent Miler's Instant Posts by email. |
We have confirmed with Marriott that the certificates awarded through this welcome offer can be topped off with up to 15,000 additional points, just like the rest of the certs that orbit around the Marriott universe. There was some concern about language in the terms and conditions that stated that the certificates awarded in this offer could not be topped up with additional points, but the horses themselves said that it was inaccurate language left over from a previous offer. Go forth and conquer.
In our most recent evaluation of Marriott points, our formula determined Marriott 50K free night certificates to be worth about $300. Starting today, you can get five of those free night certificates with a new Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card after $5,000 in purchases in the first 3 months. Given that you can now top off those certificates with up to 15,000 additional points per night, this could be a terrific deal for someone able to maximize the use of the certificates in the first year.
We have confirmed with Marriott that the certificates awarded through this welcome offer can be topped off with up to 15,000 additional points, just like the rest of the certs that orbit around the Marriott universe. There was some concern about language in the terms and conditions that stated that the certificates awarded in this offer could not be topped up with additional points, but the horses themselves said that it was inaccurate language left over from a previous offer. Go forth and conquer.
The Offer & Key Card Details
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
Quick Thoughts
For the past couple of years, I’ve been lukewarm on free night certificates given the fact that those certificates expire a year after issuance and the uncertainty of travel in 2020 and 2021. Furthermore, certificates are far less flexible than points in that you can only use each of these five certificates for a single night — you can’t break them up into multiple cheaper nights as you can with points. However, with travel largely roaring back and hotel prices skyrocketing along with the added flexibility of putting points on top of your free night certificates, it should be easier than ever to get solid value out of your free night certificates.
I’ve personally made a couple of recent bookings that included some points on top of a 50K certificate that are yielding values at or above 1c per point (let’s just hope the suite might awards clear!). I could see this offer being particularly appealing for folks with relatively near-term plans that could make good use of these certificates.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Even with the risks, applied through the link. Accepted after reconsideration (5/24 denial, but removed after AU cards).
Confirmed that the offer I received was 5 50k certs for 5k spend in 3 months.
Please consider making a note on where this link came from, so that readers are aware of the potential risk and can make an informed decision. Yes, DoC posted it, but it originally came from a comment in his comments section, and could easily be from a targeted email.
I need it to stay live a few more weeks. I canceled my old SPG Amex and I need a 30 day window before I can apply.
Same. But I’m down to just 6 more days. Fingers crossed!
Any comment on the fact that we don’t know the source of the link? Risk of getting shutdown?
I’m wondering about this too
1) The hotel you want will be 66000 points per night.
2) These certificates expire in 12 months.
any idea if these can be extended?
You can only use the 15k top up on “standard rooms”. I was so excited to book overwater bungalows, but I guess not
Any idea if this offer may come back over the next few months? Or do you think its a missed opportunity and to apply at the current rate of 3 free nights? Looking to travel in January – onward, and not sure they will reinstate this promotion or not.
Can you book with these before you have earned them? Was just approved for this after reconsideration.
At first I wanted to do the silliest thing I could think of with these, which IMO was to try to book five different W Hotels (Marriott’s silliest brand). After reading Nicks’ impressive review of St. Pancras Renaissance London, however, I decided to get my mind right.
Havig just 1 certificate to use in a year is a headache. Who takes 1 day vacations? But 5 is a vacation and fun. Mine will be at the Westin Hapuna Bay off-peak or the Royal Palm South Beach most likely.
Westin Hapuna Bay five days off peak? Yeah, I suppose hell will eventually freeze over. Until then, suck on 67,000 – 70,000 points per night.
I just looked again and half the nights from the end of August to the end of November are 54K-58K. Check “Flexible date” by calendar by month.
Nice Property. But pay another $70+ a day in resort fees per day so please keep that in mind.
I’m glad you found dates at that price. I looked and was finding nothing because I was looking at 2023, because booking further off is when I expect the better flight and rental car prices. In the case of 2022, you have to expect to get the card in hand and the SUB taken care of and hope all your ducks are still lined up. Good luck!
I plan on using mine at the JW San Antonio. Currently 50k and about $500 a night for the vacation periods I’ve checked (spring break 2023 and summer 2023
[…] admin – June 10, 2022 7 0 Facebook Twitter Pinterest […]
Does anyone out there know if the person who get the certs HAS to be the one checking in or can you book with certs under someone else’s name? For example, if my mom got the certs could she book reservations for me?
Can’t be done. I tried with certificates in my husband’s name and I was on the reservation. I said I would be arriving before him. The hotel and Marriott both told me when booking that my husband would have to be present with a photo ID. I would have to wait in the lobby until he arrived. Strict policy.
You definitely can’t book a Marriott cert in someone else’s name. As far as whether your husband would need to be present or they’d make you wait in the lobby, that’s highly variable. In many cases, adding the additional traveler’s name and then maybe following up with the hotel via chat on the day of arrival to let them know that the other person will arrive first will probably work, but they certainly could stand firm that the primary guest needs to be present to give out the keys. I’ve never had that happen to me in the US, but it’s common in Asia for that to be strictly enforced.
There is unfortunately no way to “gift” these though.
I applied through an email link I got for 100k points after $3k spend and another 25k points after another $2k spend ($5k total). It’s about half the point value as the certs. I was thinking to ask chase for a match, but realized I can’t use it at the hotel I have booked on points atm (even after the 15k additional points). I don’t have any particular plans for use of the 50k certs so am thinking the point flexibility might be better. Just curious on people thoughts?
Update: In an email from Marriott with this offer, it says to apply by 7/21.
I’ve got kind of a weird case when it comes to eligibility. I upgraded my Amex Marriott card to the Brilliant 26 months ago for 100k point offer. However Amex and Marriott had a screwup that took 6 months to resolve. I had success via Amex twitter and my Brilliant upgrade bonus ended up being a manually entered “goodwill” bonus that appeared on my account 20 months ago. It says ‘goodwill’ when I look at my award in Marriott. I’m really tempted by this 5x50k offer, and I suspect that I might be eligible for it based on how I got my 100k. Thoughts?
[…] There was some worry that these free night certificates couldn’t be topped up with points but FM has confirmed with Marriott that that was leftover language from a previous […]
Any idea when this offer expires?
No, I don’t know. Increased bonuses usually last a while, but the Marriott cards are a bit of a wildcard since they are issued by both Chase and Amex. At least once before we saw a situation where the Chase bonuses were only increased for a few weeks I think and then it switched over to an Amex increase. Chase rarely lets us know when an offer is scheduled to end and in the rare case when they do, it’s usually only a couple of days before they are going to end it.
Someone commented July 21.
Marriott certificates don’t work for making a cash+points booking at a higher category property, I assume?
Well, correct sorta.
You can’t use it for what is dubbed a “cash & points” reservation, but you *can* top up a certificate with up to 15K points per night.
Here’s the difference: if a standard room costs, for example, 62K points per night, you can use the certificate + 12K points.
If instead it’s an upgraded room — like a room with an ocean view or on the executive level or a suite or something, they label it as something like a “Redemption upgrade” or something like that where a “standard” room would be 50K but the “upgraded” room is 62K, then I believe that you can’t add points on top of the cert still.
Does that make sense? Well, no, it *doesn’t* make sense :-). But I mean “is that clear”?
Absolutely, thanks for clarifying – I’m trying to plot out how to maximize the certificates for the up coming. I had my eye on a stay later this year that’s right at 50,000/night with a cash copay, since the rate on points alone is a bit too high to top up at 78,000/night.
How likely is it that this will be available through referral? Was planning to do amex gold, but this would get heavy consideration through referral from P2. I’d love to do both, but I’m at 4/24 and the amex gold offer expires in a few days so I might have to choose one.
I really don’t know. I will say that it’s encouraging that this is the second time they’ve run the offer. With travel on such an upswing right now, I wouldn’t have necessarily expected the 5-night offer to come back. Maybe this will be repeated again in the future sometime? I don’t know.
If you can meet the spend on both, then apply for this and then the Gold, no? If t’s definitely one or the other, that could be tough.
I would like to apply for both, as you suggest, but I’d like to use P2’s referral. So that’s why I’m trying to determine if it’s likely that this will become the referral offer. Right now, P2 gets 40k per referral but the offer is only three 50k certs.
Ah, right. Makes sense. Yeah, I don’t know. My first instinct is that it’s not likely to come up via referral soon enough (if at all), but on the other hand you’ve got a few days so you can wait and hope. And even after you apply for the Amex card, you probably have some undetermined amount of time before it reports, so I guess if you really wanted to live on the edge, you could apply on the last day for that and give it another week to see if the Marriott offer comes up via referral, but there’s more risk there than it’s probably worth.
When you say “more risk than it’s worth,” is the risk missing out on the five 50k offer altogether? My thinking is that it might not be worth doing, for my situation, without the referral. P2 and I can always get 40k points and 3 certs at any time, so doing the new offer without the referral is essentially one cert better. Yes, it’s still better, but I feel like it is worth the risk of what you’re proposing. If I miss it, I’m guessing another good offer will come up again in the future.
Was this offer available via referral the last time it came up (in the fall of 2020)?
Can you use the certs to book 5 days in a row with separate reservations?
Why?
I’m reading that the certs are hard to use and can’t be used in the same reservation. I was asking if they can just be used separately at the same hotel consecutively.
I see. I’m almost sure you can use up to all 5 in one reservation for 5 consecutive nights.
I think he means you won’t have leftover points when you use a certicate for a night where the room is less than 50k (e.g., 35k).
You can do that, but better yet you can use as many certs as you want in a single reservation. You won’t get the 5th night free as you do with points, but otherwise there’s no problem.
In terms and condition I don’t see any mention of the Chase Ritz card. I currently have the Chase Ritz card which I product changed from Marriott Premier during August 2019 and also have the Amex Bonvoy Business card which I opened during December 2020 and didn’t qualify for welcome bonus. Would I be eligible for SUB for Bonvoy Boundless Card?
I assume if I cancel my Boundless card I can re-apply and get the bonus. (I meet all other qualifications – no amex Bonvoy, no bonus in over 24 months). Should I cancel and wait 30 days before re-applying?
You probably don’t need to wait 30 days. Assuming you meet the eligibility criteria (which you clearly seem to understand), you probably only need to wait a week or two at most.
If I received the welcome bonus over 24 months ago, can I cancel my current Boundless and apply for this?
Assuming you meet the other eligibility criteria, yes. You should probably wait at least a week to reapply just to make sure the system recognizes that you’re no longer a cardholder.
https://frequentmiler.com/marriott-bonvoy-complete-guide/#Credit_Card_Eligibility
Does the Chase referral bonus work for this new five night offer ?
My refer-a-friend link shows only 3 free nights @ 35k each. Sometimes it takes them a week or two to update the link to the new offer.
Anyone seen data points of Chase not enforcing 5/24 on this cobrand card (like their United cobrands)?
No.
So I just had my P2 apply for this card over the weekend with the prior offer. Haven’t even gotten it in the mail. Any way to get it switched the newer offer or are we SOL?
I did the same thing and just got off the phone with chase, there’s no way to apply the new offer to the old one unless you close the account and reapply.
Damn. Appreciate the data point. I guess my FOMO is somewhat offset by the thought it is hard enough to use 3 of these certs 🙂
I’m not even confident that you’d be able to close and reapply if you were recently approved.
Would like to get confirmation from Marriott if these certificates are able to get topped off with up to 15k points to redeem.. Thanks you.
I just got that confirmation. I reached out when readers noticed below. It’s a mistake / old wording. The certificates can indeed be topped off with up to 15K points each.
I downgraded my boundless card to a non fee card last year. Can I apply for it again to get the bonus? TIA.
If you have the Bold you can’t get the Boundless. The link Nick posted is very helpful. https://frequentmiler.com/marriott-card-eligible/
Thanks. Very helpful indeed. I will cancel the bold card and wait a couple weeks to apply for boundless.
The Offer Details contain this phrase: “Your e-certificate may not be combined with cash or other Marriott Bonvoy points when redeeming for your free night.” I feel like this may be carryover language from a prior offer from before Marriott allowed top offs of up to 15K points, but it doesn’t instill confidence that it would be allowed.
I followed up on this because my hunch was that it was just old / outdated wording and that there isn’t really a separate class of certificate that is not top-off-able. We have received confirmation that these certificates can indeed be toped off with up to 15K points each.
Hi Nick, I got the card and the certificates. I played around and see that the 60K /night room doesn’t allow me to topped off 10K to book the room. My husband on the other hand has a 35K cert, it can be topped off with the 50K/night room.
Is Marriott still extending the expiration for a year when calling in?
No
Yeah, NOPE. Just tried the last two weeks and failed four times. 🙁