Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is happening now! Follow us as Greg, Nick, and Stephen compete to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines before November 23rd. Who will complete the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
The JW Marriott Masai Mara Lodge is showing wide open award availability in Summer 2024, including most days in June, July, and August 2024 available as awards. Unfortunately, the award rate is a 132,000 points per night and it now features a 45-day cancellation window. Still, compared to cash rates, this is a great deal and it is good to see award availability during peak travel dates.
The Deal
- JW Marriott Masai Mara in Kenya has wide open award availability from June through September 2024
- Search for availability at Marriott.com
Quick Thoughts
The JW Marriott Masai Mara is a luxury safari camp in Kenya that opened earlier this year. Reader Allyson S had an early stay there and wrote a review that we published here that is worth a read to know what you’re getting at this property.
Generally speaking, dry months are often considered the best time for wildlife viewing thanks to less dense vegetation. According to the Internet, July to October is considered the best time to visit Masai Mara. The good news is that award availability in that window is excellent, with nearly every day in July available.
Mid-August is a a little sparser, but there is still quite a bit of availability at the beginning and end of the month.
The award calendar only extends into September, but that month is also widely available.
Unfortunately, the 132K award price means that it is not possible to use any type of Marriott free night certificates.
It is possible to get a “5th night free”, with a 5-night stay ringing in at 528,000 points.
More than half a million Marriott points is certainly steep, though it still rings in at a surprisingly good value against cash rates. The same five nights shown above come to $13,475.00 in cash.
Don’t forget that you’ll also pay a daily fee to be in the Masai Mara Reserve (Allyson reported $80 per person per day), so do your research and budget accordingly.
Beware of the cancellation policy. The terms on an award stay currently note a cancellation deadline 45 days in advance of your stay. I recommend taking a screen shot of the policy if you book because the “Member rate flexible” and Flexible rate” cancellation deadline is actually 60 days in advance. It wouldn’t surprise me if they changed the award deadline to match the cash deadline, so I’d recommend getting a screen shot of the policy at the time of booking in case they change it later.
Overall, this availability is good to see, particularly this far in advance since it would make it far easier to find award availability with the long lead time. I am of course disappointed that this property has increased in award rate so much so quickly, but this nonetheless could be an attractive deal for those who wish to use Marriott points for a luxury safari stay.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Has anyone been able to price 2 adults and 2 children at this points rate?
The lodge doesn’t allow bookings for children under six. I believe that every room has a maximum occupancy of three and it’s strictly enforced. The folks that I have seen with parties larger than 3 had two book two separate rooms.
I’d recommend reading about the ethics of luxury safaris. not for or against, but be aware of what you are participating in,
Now for the part that is not so good. I got this email from Masai Mara JW Marriott
“Please allow me to highlight the fine print of your booking, concerning the cancellation policy for your reservation. You may modify or cancel your booking before 12th July 2024 (60 Days prior to arrival) without incurring any additional fees.
If you must modify or cancel your reservation after that date, a cancellation fee of 49500 USD applies. The cancellation fee will be charged to the credit card provided (AMEX Card ending XXXX), the certificate will be cancelled, and Points will be re-credited to your Marriott Bonvoy account. Please note, you will not be able to settle the cancellation fee with Points.” How do you handle cancellations, because of unforseen health issues, flight cancellations or global weather/man made events. Is there some kind os special insurance
What did you end up doing? Same issue for 2025.
I cancelled on last day because of flooding
One thing to note here is that the value is actually even better than you show here. You priced it out for 1 room, 1 person, but if you increase it to 2 people per room, the price doubles, but the points rate stays the same. The stay I booked got me almost 5 cents per point.
Thank you so much for the heads up! Booked for second half of September. Now to figure out best ways to get there 🙂
Ivan
AA through Qatar does not have Business. Turkish is pricey at 175K/PP one way to Nairobi .
Does AA not have access to Qatar business inventory to/from the US? It’s been a long time since I’ve seen any space 🙁
There are non-stop flights available from London (BA) and Amsterdam (Flying Blue, VS, Delta). Only premium economy seems to be widely available.
There are too many options for getting to Europe especially without knowing what cities you’re starting from
Thanks Jim. SFO (San Francisco)
Assuming you want to get there on miles/points, business class is almost impossible. Air Canada has premium economy on some days SFO-FRA-NBO 110k pp each way.
Other one stop choices are VS/BA to LHR with BA London to NBO, SFO-AMS-NBO with flying blue/flying blue-VS-Delta miles.
The other one stop choices would probably be more expensive, and would probably require collecting and re-checking bags.
I’m not going further into the details.
Sorry novice question what is VS?
Virgin Atlantic
For years, my favorite route has been a 2-legger from the West Coast via AMS. Emirates/Turkish/Qatar can sometimes be good options too (including free stopovers). There was a brief time when Qatar was a great option with last-min upgrade offers for 2 legs of Q-Suites but that might be extinct for now.
Thanks Nick for the tip on taking screen shots of the cancellation policy for award stays. I have booked 2 rooms , so this is really important. Just when you think you have learnt most of this stuff, the FMN team comes up with tidbits like this tip that shows you can never have learnt everything and there is always a thing or two to learn. The cash rates though, for aug/sept is showing $4100 per night, coming in at $20K for 5 nights for a King deluxe Suite