Marriott Bonvoy, the loyalty programme of Marriott Hotels, is dishing out hits after hits at the moment. The current buy Marriott points with a bonus is one of their best deals on purchased points and presents a good opportunity.
Buy Marriott Points with a Mystery Bonus through July 15, 2022
Marriott Bonvoy is now offering a Bonus on the purchase of Marriott Bonvoy Points till July 15, 2022. All you have to do is buy at least 2,000 Marriott Bonvoy points in a transaction to trigger the promotion. You could get a 45-55% bonus on purchased points..
Marriott Bonvoy has also doubled its cap on the number of points one can buy with this promotion. The limit is 50,000 points, but for the duration of the promotion, it becomes 100,000 points pre-bonus. In my case, I can buy a total of 155,000 points for USD 1,250 (INR 97,000), making the per point cost of purchase at US Cent 0.81 (INR 0.62)
It can take up to 72 hours for purchased points to post. Also, if you are a new member, a new member can purchase points 30 days after enrolment if they have some qualifying activity.
Is it a good idea to buy Marriott Bonvoy points?
I’ve advocated buying points since redemption stays are usually exempt from the requirement to pay taxes over and above the stay cost. It works out cheaper to redeem points at premium properties than to pay cash for them. So, there are many properties where you can get outsized value from your Marriott points. Also, let’s not forget that Marriott Bonvoy runs a pretty sweet ability to convert to airmiles at a 3:1 ratio as well.
Take the example of this established resort, one of India’s most popular Marriott properties, for the New Year 2021/22. The cash price was INR 128,500 ex taxes (INR 151,000 inclusive of taxes), and on points, it just came to INR 96,000 for five nights with no separate taxes to pay.
Given Marriott has moved away from award charts in 2022, it usually still works out for the better because most hotels I stay at or I track are still working within the same peak and off-peak ranges. This will come very handy this year with everyone travelling, and hotel costs having gone up massively on a systemic basis. You could get up to 40-50% discount by buying miles and using them for your stay.
Bottomline
There are a large number of situations where Bonvoy points could provide outsized value anyways, and given this is one of Marriott’s reasonable offers on Bonvoy points purchase, that sweetens the deal a whole lot. If you additionally have cards that give you a bonus on international purchases, you get to make even more points. This is amongst the best offer from Marriott Bonvoy on points purchases.
So, are you going to buy Marriott Points with a mystery Bonus?
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Jaisalmer Mariott is offering >1 rs value for bookings between october and December 2021 , average room price is around 19k , in points 15k per night
Just completed a 5 night stay at Jaisalmer Marriott. Fantastic value as I redeemed 72,500 points (5th night free) versus 14k average cash rate.
small question , I already bought 100k points with 50k bonus in my account this year , now can i buy 100k points with bonus in my wife’s account and then transfer them to my account ? we short of the 100k for a vacation
@MT, yes, you can. But remember, the address on both accounts needs to be the same, and allowed to trf only once a month.
Ohk , thanks , on it now
Ajay, I was trying to book ITC Goa for 2 Nights which is a Category 6 property. It will cost 46K if paid in cash and if paid in points, I need 1.2Lac points. Clearly, purchasing and paying in points is a HUGEEE LOSS. Am i missing anything here?
@Bharath, the normal pricing in terms of points is 50K points a night, and clearly, you are booking some sort of a busy week hence it is pricing at 60K for you. I’ve always maintained that this works well for all sorts of properties that cost a lot of $$$, not a lot of INR! If the math works cheaper in terms of cash, then go for the cash option
@Ajay – Thank You. Can you please write about any tricks which we can use at Indian Properties? I am fan of Taj and i make the most use of Taj Vouchers which i receive from my Travel Platinum card. Unfortunately, I see no other cards which give Taj Vouchers as reward after meeting milestone. Recently, Aurum started giving them – but, spending 10L to get 10K voucher doesn’t worth it. Vistara cards are covering my flight tickets and I am in desperate search for a hotel card which can give me free nights so that i can enjoy my vacations for free 😀 Eagerly waiting for HDFC/Amex to launch a co-branded hotel card in next 6-9 months.
hay bharat, please let me know which are the taj properties u find best and value for money for my first taj voucher i received from amex…
Wish they could roll out some promos like 2x nights / points , etc
@ajay, Hi and thanks firstly for bringing this to our knowledge.
Would this be a better cost promotion than the one Marriott had earlier with 50% bonus points purchase
Maybe wrong article to ask this , but does booking ITC hotels (via mariott website luxury collection) earn elite night credits? Or they have to be in purely mariott managed hotels ?
Sheraton hotels do accrue nights. If you booked through the Marriott site, you get the nights – simple.
Itc did too , achieved platinum for the year
Still showing 40 % bonus points only not 50 %
@Shen, after log in as well?
Yes even after log in and going to the page of payment
When you pay , in receipt it will appear as 50% , i bought calculating 40% , but in receipt came 50%
Ajay’s favourite indian hotel J W Musoorie is selling for approx >1rs per point on redemption till may 2021 (I haven’t checked further) , good opurtunity for some
@MT my favourite Indian hotel shut down in 2018. Nothing took its place yet.
And which one was that? The park hyatt Goa?
@Kartikay, yes. They were effortlessly flawless for years.
Can this be clubbed with the Amex platinum rewards multiplier which now has Marriott as a partner? Thus increasing the MR points that you could earn?
@Lloyd, no. Points issuance is not done by Marriott but by another company, hence, no.
Marriott terms are confusing about who can buy points (and bonus). It says 30 day old a/c with qualifying activity OR 1 year old a/c without qualifying activity.
Strangely, most points recommending portals suggest it is 90 days without qualifying activity.
My a/c was signed up in March 2020 (6 months old) and does NOT have any qualifying activity.
Can I buy points (+ bonus)
@Bhushan, why not just try to buy points and find out 🙂
Additionally, if you have the American Express Platinum Charge Card and you put this buy on that card, you can also earn about 12 Membership Rewards points extra per USD spent. Usually, USD spends would earn 7.5 points/INR 100. Each Membership Rewards point also converts to Bonvoy 1:1 ratio.
Please explain
@Jitendra, bad maths without coffee. fixed it.
Hi Ajay,
what is the 12 points extra per USD promotion on Amex Plat Charge card? Can you clarify?
@Sharad. @Jitendra, bad maths without coffee. fixed it. That promotion was over earlier on in the year, so inconsequential at the moment.
Did some research,
St. Regis, Mumbai (category 6)
1 Night = 35,000 points or $130(~INR9500)
Under this 60% bonus promotion,
To get to 35,000points the math is $275 = 22,000 + 13,200= 35,200 points
Clear loss of $145 + the forex fee levied on the cc.
Maybe its has a better reward for another category/property. Would request all to check for their choice of property beforehand. 🙂
@ekas, the categories of the Indian hotels are much inflated compared to their $rates. This would ideally work very will with many luxury properties in places with high $ rates such as DXB, NYC, TYO, PAR and such.
Thanks for the clarity !
I’m planning for a Dubai trip in Feb 21(5 nights). A night in JW marriott Marquis shows 40000 Bonvoy points. On cash payment through my Gold elite (thanks to Amex), I can book it for AED 589 a night Isn’t points more expensive even with bonus? Wanted to check since I’ve only a day left before the bonus point offer expires.
Also if you book thru points, in case of cancellation, do they refund the full points?
@Sambit, it may or may not work in every situation, but they almost always tend to work at high-end hotels. If you are looking to pay cash, try out classictravel.com/livefromalounge, and you might get an upgrade and some $ as well to use at the hotel. Cheers.
Thanks!
Hi Ajay, can u please name some luxury properties where this Marriott points work better than cash?
All the high-end ones during peak periods
definitely right.. visiting dubai and other places frequently.. the redemption value works fab. especially when with family or friends so then i book 2 rooms , 1 paid to earn nights and 1 redeemed.
Is the 50% promotion still on
Can anyone able to buy Marriott points right now? I am getting an error saying payment information is not correct yet I see pending charges on my credit… I tried 10+ different credits cards with different billing addresses, different phones, emails on 3 different Marriott accounts… all same error after click buy. This can’t be just happening to me only. Anyone else successfully bought points in last few days???
points are processed by points.com but of course they don’t have a customer service number being a 3rd party processor and Marriott reps have no clue.
Any idea if you were able to get this issue resolved? Facing the exact same error and unable to buy points via the app or desktop website!
Hello Ajay bhai.. I used my Dinners black for buying this points.(First time doing an INTL. transaction) 137$ (10,300 INR) transaction successful and SMS cane regarding this on July 13. Today a mail cane from Marriott that my transaction got cancelled…Ang idea why?
I was just wondering can we transfer these purchased Marriott points to another account and what is the limit for same?
@Rohit you can combine them with someone who shares the same postal address as on your account.
Just bought 50k points (+30k bonus). Top this up with 7.5k bonus from Amex Plat Charge points.
Also, I renewed my card for 80k points.
Looks like I’m going to have enough points to make a good international vacation soon.
Hi Ajay,
I’m confused on what you mention about charging this to the Amex Platinum Charge Card:
Amex usually awards 3x points on Intl spends, ie, 7.5 points (up from 2.5 points) per INR 100 spent. Until July 20, they are running a 2x MR promotion on all transactions, so wouldn’t that make it 7.5 x 2 = 15 points per INR 100 spent on Intl transaction?
Thanks for clarifying.
@Amit, you are right. My maths was off. Fixed it.
Ajay,
do the points come with an expiry date? or like the 20% promo no expiry date?
@neil, like the usual other Marriott points. Valid for 24 months if no transaction. Even if 1 point is earned or spent, extended for another 24 months and so on.
thanks been waiting for a post on this.
Helps greatly. Inclined to buy now but unsure when and how safe would it be to get into a hotel premise for a stay. I stay at JW Marriott kolkata frequently.