Marriott Bonvoy, the loyalty programme of Marriott Hotels, is dishing out hits after hits at the moment. After a sale which got you a 20% discount on Marriott gift cards, Marriott Bonvoy is out offering their latest promotion on purchased points. The current buy Marriott points bonus is one of their best deals on purchased points and presents a good opportunity.
Buy Marriott Points with 50% Bonus through March 22, 2021
Marriott Bonvoy is now offering a 50% bonus on Marriott Bonvoy Points till March 22, 2021. To trigger the promotion, all you have to do is buy at least 2,000 Marriott Bonvoy points in a transaction.
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 through this promotion, it becomes 100,000 points pre-bonus. Points may be purchased in increments of 1,000, up to 50,000 Points (with a minimum purchase of 2,000 Points required for promotion eligibility); in increments of 5,000, up to a maximum of 100,000 Points; or in increments of 10,000, up to 150,000 Points. Then, through this promotion, you are looking at the price of 0.83 US Cents (INR 0.60) per point purchased.
Points purchases will be processed up to seven (7) business days after purchase. Base Points purchased will be deposited into members’ Accounts first. Bonus Points will be deposited up to 48 hours after that initial deposit.
When you head over to buy points, you will initially see the points offered as a 40% bonus. However, after logging in, it showed me a 50% bonus on both my family accounts. On some accounts, it may still continue to show 40%; however, the arithmetic may differ slightly.
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 over paying cash for them. Also, let’s not forget that Marriott Bonvoy runs a pretty sweet ability to convert to airmiles at 3:1 ratio as well. So, there are many properties where you can get outsized value from your Marriott points.
Take the example of this established resort, one of India’s most popular Marriott properties, for the New Year 2021. The cash price was INR 128,500 ex taxes (INR 151,000 inclusive of taxes), and on points, it just came to INR 99,200 for five nights with no separate taxes to pay.
Additionally, if you have the American Express Platinum Charge Card and you put this buy on that card, you can also earn about 6 Membership Rewards points per USD spent. Each Membership Rewards point also converts to Bonvoy 1:1 ratio.
Bottomline
There are a large number of situations where Bonvoy points could provide outsized value anyways, and given this is Marriott’s best offer 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 the best offer from Marriott Bonvoy on points purchase.
So, are you going to buy Marriott Points with a 50% Bonus?
Liked our articles and our efforts? Please pay an amount you are comfortable with; an amount you believe is the fair price for the content you have consumed. Please enter an amount in the box below and click on the button to pay; you can use Netbanking, Debit/Credit Cards, UPI, QR codes, or any Wallet to pay. Every contribution helps cover the cost of the content generated for your benefit.
(Important: to receive confirmation and details of your transaction, please enter a valid email address in the pop-up form that will appear after you click the ‘Pay Now’ button. For international transactions, use Paypal to process the transaction.)
We are not putting our articles behind any paywall where you are asked to pay before you read an article. We are asking you to pay after you have read the article if you are satisfied with the quality and our efforts.
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 ?
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
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.
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.