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Ambassador Elite status is the very highest level of status that you can earn with the Marriott Bonvoy program and it’s the only Bonvoy Elite status that currently comes with a spending requirement. In 2023, that spending requirement will be going up.
Bonvoy Ambassador Elite status changes
Currently, anyone wanting to reach the dizzying heights of Bonvoy Ambassador Elite status would have to credit 100 elite nights to their Bonvoy account and make at least $20,000 of eligible spending with Marriott in a calendar year.
Also, as things stand, one of the more key benefits of Ambassador Elite status – a single dedicated point of contact within Marriott – remains suspended (it was suspended during the pandemic).
From 2023, the spending target for Bonvoy Ambassador Elite status will be going up by 15% to $23,000 but to help cushion that blow, the dedicated contact benefit will be coming back.
Bonvoy Ambassador Elite status benefits
In return for crediting 100 elite nights to a Bonvoy account and spending at least $23,000 with Marriott (from 2023), these are the benefits that someone with Bonvoy Ambassador Elite status can expect to enjoy:
- Dedicated “Ambassador” to provide assistance
- Your24 – the ability to choose their 24-hour check-in and checkout time
- 75% bonus Bonvoy points on all stays
- A welcome gift choice upon arrival
- Annual choice benefit at 50 nights
- Annual choice benefit at 75 nights
- 48-hour guarantee (book by 3 pm, 48 hours prior to arrival, and a room will always be available)
- Lounge access
- 4 pm late checkout
- Free in-room wi-fi
- Ultimate reservation guarantee (if Marriott can’t honor a reservation for any reason, it guarantees that it will pay for them to stay nearby and will compensate them for the inconvenience)
- United MileagePlus Silver Elite status
- Enhanced room upgrades (includes select suites)
A few other small benefits are also offered, but as all Bonvoy elites get these benefits they’re not really key.
A status that I consider pointless
I have absolutely no idea why anyone who isn’t going to earn Ambassador Elite status organically would make any kind of effort to earn it.
Marriott Bonvoy Titanium Elite status offers all the benefits that Ambassador Elite status offers except for the dedicated point of contact and the Your24 benefit and this is a status that requires a Bonvoy member to earn 75 elite night credits (25 less than Ambassador status) and that doesn’t impose any kind of minimum spending criteria.
Does anyone really think that a dedicated Marriott contact and the Your24 benefit are worth the cost of an extra 25 elite night credits and worth having to spend at least $23,000 with Marriott?
I guess if you’re not spending your own money, have recently taken a significant knock to the head, or if you’re the sort of person who likes to tell everyone they meet what elite status they hold, Bonvoy Ambassador Elite status may be attractive. For everyone else, however, I cannot see any attraction whatsoever.
Bottom line
Starting next year, Marriott will set the minimum spending requirement for Bonvoy Ambassador Elite status at $23,000 – a $3,000 increase – and will be bringing back the key benefit that this elite status is supposed to offer – a dedicated point of contact within Marriott.
For a few people, this will be bad news, but as the overwhelming majority of people who earn Ambassador Elite status probably do so on the back of someone else’s money, I doubt that many members will be viewing this as a major devaluation to the Bonvoy program.
If Marriott hadn’t acted with such consistently bad faith toward engaged guests for the last five years or so, the stated benefits might be expected to be honored as listed but since they’ve pretty much gone to war against these loyal members it seems a lot more likely that the new Ambassadors are likely to be simple reservation agents who are intentionally not empowered to help the guests.
The problem is that there are a lot of people who still adore Marriott (usually people who aren’t spending their own money), so Marriott has very little incentive to change.