Bonus Elite Night Credits Have Now Posted For Marriott Lifetime Elites

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Almost exactly a month ago, Marriott announced that on top of the elite status extensions that it has offered to all of its Bonvoy elites, it would also be adding bonus elite night credits to member accounts by the end of this month. On Friday night, most Bonvoy accounts were updated (unexpectedly early) but the accounts of a lot of Lifetime Elites remained unchanged, and this led to some confusion.

When Marriott announced that it would be topping up member accounts with bonus elite night credits, it only told us that the number of elite qualifying nights deposited into each Bonvoy member’s account would be equal to 50% of the elite nights needed to earn the status the member earned in 2019. What Marriott didn’t mention was how it would be treating members with Lifetime Elite status.

Marriott’s methodology is simple for those who actually earned status in 2019, but what about members who have Lifetime Status in the Bonvoy program but who didn’t earn many elite night credits in 2019? If a member has Lifetime Platinum status but only earned 25 elite night credits in 2019 (enough for Gold status) would Marriott top-up their account with 25 elite night credits (half the nights needed for Platinum status) or with 13 elite night credits (~half the nights needed for Gold status)?

The level of intrigue increased when a lot of Lifetime Elite accounts didn’t get updated at the same time as the accounts of other Bonvoy elites but, fortunately, Marriott’s IT has caught up and we now have our answer – Marriott Bonvoy Lifetime Elites are being credited with 50% of the nights needed to earn the status they hold and not the status they earned in 2019 and I’m a good example of this in action.

There are three things you now need to know:

1. I hold Marriott Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium status.
2. In 2019, I did not earn the 75 elite night credits that are usually required for Titanium status as there was no real incentive for me to do so.
3. Before my account was updated at some point on Saturday night/Sunday morning, I had just 33 elite night credits in my account from my activities in 2020.

Following Marriott’s updates on Saturday/Sunday my account now looks like this:

Marriott has deposited 38 elite night credits into my account which represents approximately half of the nights needed to earn the Titanium Status I hold (75 nights). Had Marriott been basing the number of bonus nights I’m due on the number of nights I actually earned in 2019, my elite night credit counter would be lower right now.

The number of nights Marriott has just credited me with is now showing in my account…

…and you can also see that the 38 nights I’ve just been gifted have taken me across the 1,000 night threshold with Marriott (a significant number of these nights have come from Marriott co-branded credit cards).

Bottom Line

They may have taken a little longer to post than for regular accounts, but the bonus elite night credits that Marriott promised back in June have now posted to the accounts of Lifetime Elite members. More importantly, Marriott is basing the number of bonus elite night credits due on a Lifetime Elite’s status and not on the number of elite night credits the Lifetime Elite earned in 2019.