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Marriott has sent out targeted emails today offering some Bonvoy members the opportunity to save 20% when buying their gift cards. These transactions should code as a Marriott purchase which adds a couple of additional benefits to the deal.
The Deal
- Save 20% when buying Marriott gift cards.
Key Terms
- Expires June 10, 2022.
Quick Thoughts
Reader Christopher in the Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook group gave us a heads up about this promotion. It’s a great deal because saving 20% on Marriott gift cards is about as good as it gets.
Even better is the fact that Marriott processes their gift card purchases themselves. That comes with a couple of potential benefits. One is that you can pay with a credit card that earns more on travel or hotel purchases, or with any Marriott credit card. The other is that Marriott gift card purchases have been known to trigger the $300 statement credit for Marriott purchases on the Amex Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card. That means you could buy $375 of Marriott gift cards for $300 with the 20% discount offer, then have the entire cost of that wiped out by the Brilliant card’s benefit if you’ve not yet redeemed it this year.
One important thing to note is that Marriott gift card purchases don’t trigger Marriott Amex Offers. There are a couple of different Marriott Amex Offers right now, but sadly neither will work as those do have to be used for hotel expenditure. Having said that, if you can find a Marriott hotel that sells gift cards, you can buy those from the front desk to lock in the statement credit from the Amex Offer; you just wouldn’t be able to stack it with the 20% gift card discount offer because that’s online-only.
This sadly appears to be a targeted promotion because apparently the email from Marriott has a redemption code to use when placing the order, so there’s no generic link to the offer. If you’re not targeted for this deal though, don’t be too despondent. Daily Getaways are due to make a return in July and for the last however many years they’ve offered a 20% discount on Marriott gift cards. Those deals tend to be popular, but it is possible to get in on them unlike the Hyatt points packages that seemingly sell out before the deal even goes live.
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Any data points on using Marriott Gift Cards to pay Marriott Vacation Club annual maintenance fees?
Works for Vistana so would assume so
Needed code please
Yes if anyone has a spare code I’d appreciate it!
If anyone is targeted and not going to use it, I would love the code
Thanks for this alert. Would luv to imbibe in this again. (Remember similar deals back during early covid)
Anybody have a subject title line for this current promotion? (ask as my in box is flooded with marriott messages…. easy to miss the good ones.) Is this promo buried at end of another email (as often happens) Sender?
From: Marriott Bonvoy <marriottbonvoy@email-marriott.com>
Subject: Limited-Time Offer, FIRST_NAME: 20% Off Travel
In 12/2020 I bought a $1000 Marriott e-gift card during the 15% sale but didn’t use it right away due to Covid. Fast forward to May, 2022 when my remaining ~$250 was fraudulently used.
Because I had registered my e-gift card account I could see the two NY hotels and dates the fraud took place but both Marriott and its third-party e-gift card company said that due to privacy issues the name of the registered guest that used it couldn’t be given to me and they aren’t going to do anything. I was told to file a police report. I filed one online with NYC but it was rejected. Long story short, don’t buy Marriott e-gift cards!!
Off Marriott website: “Lost or stolen Marriott eGiftCards will be replaced only if previously registered on our website. Value of replaced Marriott eGiftCard will equal balance at the time it was reported lost or stolen.”
Register at http://gifts.marriott.com/
Thanks!
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I have this targeted offer but I’m wondering if just buying points is a better play. Especially if you can buy that during a discount sale. Cash prices are out of control but even with dynamic prices the points awards, on average, seem like a better deal even at 20% off the cash rate. I also don’t know if the gift cards are hard to use, I assume not. Sure you’ll earn as Marriott spend on the purchase but you’d earn that on the hotel cost anyway. For example say you earn 6x for the purchase of a $500 gift card at 20% off so $400 so you’d earn 2,400 Marriott points but if you paid $500 or $400 for a hotel room you’d earn that anyway. It’s too bad this won’t stack on the Amex or other offers. Also beware that some Marriott properties don’ttake gift cards such as Homes&Villas, Bulgari, and Design Hotels.
While I’m no longer a Marriott guy, I used to be and have done this drill before. What would be nice is if Marriott would allow booking with gift cards but it doesn’t.
In your example, you purchased a $500 face value gift card for $400. If you used a Marriott credit card, you will earn 6X on the $400. Upon using the gift card, you would earn stay points based on the full $500. Correct.
As for what’s the better deal, buying points or the 20 percent discount, I developed a spreadsheet that looked at this property by property — not that I’m obsessed with maximizing value — ha. There are a lot of moving parts in the calculations and much depends on specific point costs and tier status earn rate. And, you suspect correctly.
As a general rule, if your specific redemption would be greater than roughly 1.75 cents per point on the full cash price, then buy points. Obviously, the redemption would need to be a very juicy redemption to beat the discounted gift card.
That being said, there are incidentals. And, the discounted gift cards would be a winner. On the coattails of your “don’t take gift cards” warning, some front desk team members at non-US properties are untrained on use of these cards — polite patience and persistence are required.
Anyone have a code to share?
One thing to note is that these gift cards are denominated in US Dollars and are best redeemed in the US. Properties are notorious for charging massive spreads when converting local currency into Dollars. The 20 percent will be eroded.
It’s very much dependent on the property of course, but I’ve had nothing but positive experiences redeeming these in Bora Bora, the Maldives, and Mexico where they all applied very favorable exchange rates (equal to or better than what I’d otherwise get by using a no-FTF Visa CC, given the market rates at the time). I rarely stay at US properties (and when I do my folio balance is usually zero at checkout), so this is quite important to me. If you’re concerned about the rate, then it might be a good idea to ask the manager about it before applying GC.
Almost forgot, last year I also used these in Denmark at a good rate.
We had one too many “experiences” with Marriott. Out of all of our destinations, there’s only one Marriott property at which we will stay. Best of luck.