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Marriott has unveiled a new points sale today and this sale appears to be an slight improvement over the last sale we saw which ended back in September. Back then, the best bonus on offer was for 40% while this time around we’re seeing bonuses as high as 45%.
This appears to be a targeted offer, so there’s a chance that some readers may see a better offer than this while others may have to make do with a slightly worse bonus, but it’s unlikely that anyone will have been targeted for a maximum bonus that’s less than 40%.
The promotion
- Buy 1,000 Bonvoy points and get no bonus
- Buy 2,000 – 150,000 Bonvoy points and get a 45% bonus.
Key terms
- Transactions must be completed between 9:00 a.m. ET November 5, 2024, and 11:59 p.m. ET December 23, 2024, to be eligible for the 45% bonus Points purchase offer with a minimum purchase of 2,000 Points.
- For this offer only, purchases of 20,000 points or more will receive an additional 1,000 bonus points. The 1,000 bonus points are not eligible for any additional bonus and may only be applied once per Member account for the duration of the promotional period.
- The additional 1,000 bonus points with purchases of 20,000 or more points will be awarded to the Member’s Account up to 4 weeks after the promotion’s earning period ends.
- For this offer only, the annual purchase limit of 100,000 Points has been increased to a maximum annual purchase limit of 150,000 Points.
- The bonus Points earned with this promotion through the Buy Points or Gift Points pages are not included in the annual purchase limit of 100,000 Points.
- This offer is valid only for Points purchased through the promotion’s Buy Points and Gift Points pages.
- In 2024, members may purchase or receive as a gift a combined maximum of 100,000 Points per calendar year when purchased through our Buy Points and Gift Points pages, Buy Points Points.com-powered window on Marriott websites, Marriott Mobile Apps or the Customer Engagement Centers.
- Members may purchase up to an additional 100,000 Points annually while booking a hotel stay through the reservation path on marriott.com.
- Purchased or gifted Points do not count toward Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status.
- Purchase rate is $12.50 USD per 1,000 Points.
- Points will be posted to the Member’s Account within 72 hours after the transaction is complete.
- A member must be an active member in good standing to purchase and/or receive Points.
- New members may purchase Points thirty (30) days after enrollment in the Marriott Bonvoy program.
- Once Points have been purchased or gifted, no refunds will be permitted.
- Purchasing Points using a Marriott Bonvoy cobrand credit card will earn Points as an everyday purchase.
- GST/HST is charged to Canadian residents. QST is charged to Quebec residents.
Full terms and conditions can be found on the promotion page
The numbers
This is just about as simple as it gets – as long as you buy 2,000 points or more you’ll be buying Marriott Bonvoy points with a 45% bonus.
If you buy just 2,000 Marriott Bonvoy points you’ll end up with 2,900 points (after the 45% bonus is factored in) for just $25.00 …
… and that works out to a cost/point of ~0.86 cents.
If you buy 150,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, you’ll end up with a total of 140,000 points at a cost of $1,250 …
… which also comes to a cost/point of ~0.86 cents.
It’s also worth noting that in this sale you can actually do a little bit better than ~0.86 cents per point courtesy of the 1,000 point bonus that Marriott is throwing in for purchases of 20,000 or more points.
Purchasing exactly 20,000 points would see you net 29,000 points at a total cost of $250 (or 0.86 cents/point) …
… but once the 1,000 point bonus is added (whenever Marriott gets around to awarding it), you would get 30,000 points for $250 which is the same as ~0.83 cents/point.
Is this a good deal?
Note: Anyone even vaguely new to the miles and points world should read this post before proceeding.
This may not be the best deal that we’ve seen Marriott offer in a points sale, but it’s can still be a good one.
In the past, we’ve seen Marriott offer a bonus as high as 60% (points costing ~0.78 cents each), but I can’t remember the last time I saw that offer. More usually, we see bonuses of 35%, 40% and 50% on offer so as far as Marriott points sales go, this one of the better ones.
We value Marriott Bonvoy points at around 0.6 cents each so, at first glance, the points on sale here are still quite expensive, but there may be times when buying points here isn’t such a bad idea.
Despite Marriott’s move to dynamic pricing, it remains possible (with a bit of research) to find stays where you’ll get at least 1 cent of value out of each Bonvoy Point you use, and if you’re buying points at under 0.9 cents each, that represents a good saving.
Be aware, however, that just as it’s not particularly difficult to find a good use for points purchased in this sale, it’s also very easy to find a significant number of terrible ways to use the points that you buy, so make sure you run the numbers and pay close attention to what you’re booking.
Don’t use the wrong credit card
Marriott Bonvoy points sales are processed by Points.com and that eliminates the scope to earn a travel/hotel bonus by using a credit card that offers bonus points for spending in one of those categories.
That makes this a good opportunity to boost your spending towards a welcome bonus on a card that’s offering a good deal, or to boost your earnings of a currency that you particularly like.
I, for example, would probably use my Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card if I was to buy Bonvoy Points as I can never have too many Ultimate Rewards points (despite the fact that I would only earn 1 point/dollar).
Bottom line
This may or may not be a good sale depending on how you plan to spend the points you buy.
Don’t buy Marriott Bonvoy points if you have no plans to use them in the near future, but buy as many as you need if you can lock in a booking now (for any bookable date) where the points you purchase offer you a good saving on the cash rate you would otherwise have had to pay.
As usual, following my frequently given advice is probably the best way forward:
- Find out the cost of a night at the properties you would like to visit (at the time of year you would like to travel)
- Compare that cost to the cost of an award night paid for with points purchased in this sale.
Only if the math clearly makes sense is it ok to buy points. If the results are inconclusive you should probably pass.
Featured image: The JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort courtesy of Marriott
