Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. “All information about the American Express® Green Card and Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Credit Card have been collected independently by Amber on Points. American Express® Green Card and Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Credit Cards are no longer available through Amber on Points.” All information is correct as of the date this article was written, however, changes may occur.

Let’s do a deep dive into Marriott today! With over 30 hotel brands participating, you’re sure to find a hotel fitting your style of travel from budget friendly like the Courtyard or Fairfield Inn to the ultra luxury of St Regis and Ritz Carlton – and everything in between.

Marriott’s footprint is one of the largest in the business. With over 9400 properties in over 140 countries, business travelers, casual travelers and families will find a property to fit their needs. Compare that to Hyatt, which has just about 1500 properties world wide. It’s easy to see why Marriott is well loved among travelers.

WHAT IS MARRIOTT BONVOY

Marriott Bonvoy is the name of their loyalty program. It’s free to join and even the basic members get some perks.

Perks include:

• Free WiFi
• Digital Check In
• Member only rates
• Earn up to 10 points per dollar at Marriott properties (varies by brand)

ELITE STATUS TIERS

Tier	Elite Nights Needed	Status with Credit Card?	Points Bonus	Late Checkout Benefit	Breakfast Benefit	Other Noteworthy Perks
Silver Elite	10 nights	Yes – automatic with many Marriott co-branded cards	+10%	2:00 PM (based on availability)	❌ No breakfast benefit	Priority late checkout, dedicated elite reservation line
Gold Elite	25 nights	Yes – automatic with American Express Platinum Card®, Marriott Bonvoy Bevy® American Express® Card, Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card	+25%	2:00 PM (based on availability)	❌ No breakfast benefit	Enhanced room upgrades (excludes suites), 250–500 welcome points per stay
Platinum Elite	50 nights	No (but credit cards offer 15–25 elite night credits to help)	+50%	4:00 PM (guaranteed, except resorts & convention hotels)	✅ Complimentary breakfast OR lounge access (brand dependent)	Room upgrades incl. suites (when available), lounge access, annual Choice Benefit (e.g., 5 Suite Night Awards)
Titanium Elite	75 nights	No	+75%	4:00 PM (guaranteed, except resorts & convention hotels)	✅ Complimentary breakfast OR lounge access (brand dependent)	48-hour guaranteed availability, better upgrades, 2nd Choice Benefit (another 5 Suite Night Awards or other perks)
Ambassador Elite	100 nights + $23,000 spend	No	+75%	4:00 PM (guaranteed, except resorts & convention hotels)	✅ Complimentary breakfast OR lounge access (brand dependent)	Personal Ambassador service, Your24 check-in (choose your 24-hour window), best upgrades

Keep in mind – breakfast isn’t universal with your higher elite status. It varies by property and brand. Full service brands like Marriott and Westin will provide breakfast to their top tier members while limited service properties like Courtyard will not offer breakfast. Also, even some premium properties don’t offer the breakfast benefit. So it really is subjective to the hotel.

HOW TO EARN MARRIOTT BONVOY POINTS

Marriott has a multitude of ways to earn points. Check out this list for a full breakdown of how to earn Marriott points. But for now, lets take look at some of the popular methods:

• Paid stays booked direct with Marriott: See the chart above for additional points earned on paid stays based on your status level.
• Marriott cobranded credit cards: American Express and Chase offer Marriott branded credit cards with welcome bonuses available.
• Earn with Eat Around Town (their dining program), Uber Eats or Starbucks.
• Earn when booking tours, activities and car rentals through Marriott Bonvoy Tours and Activities.
• Transfer points from:
  • American Express: 1:1
  • Bilt: 1:1
  • Chase: 1:1
  • MGM Rewards: 1:0.8
  • United Airlines: 1:1

WHICH CREDIT CARDS EARN MARRIOTT POINTS

American Express Cobranded Cards

Quick Note – If you apply for a card, I am so grateful when you use my affiliate links! This allows me to keep my content free and I appreciate it more than you know! Thanks for supporting my small business!

• Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card
• Marriott Bonvoy Bevy® American Express® Card
• Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card

Chase Cobranded Cards

• Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card
• Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card
• Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful™ Card
• The Ritz-Carlton™ Credit Card (Not open to new applicants. Keep scrolling for more info!)

In addition to the cards listed above, both Chase and American Express can transfer their flexible currencies over to Marriott.

Any American Express Membership Earning card will allow transfers to their airline and hotel partners at a 1:1 ratio.

• American Express® Green Card
• American Express® Gold Card
• American Express Platinum Card®
• The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express
• American Express® Business Green Rewards
• American Express® Business Gold Card
• The Business Platinum Card® from American Express

Chase Ultimate Rewards can also be transferred to Marriott. While there are a multitude of cards that earn Chase Ultimate Rewards, you need one of the following cards to transfer them out to partner airlines and hotels:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
• Chase Sapphire Reserve®
• Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
• Sapphire Reserve for Business℠

Bilt Cards

Bilt Rewards also has Marriott as a transfer partner – although I’m not sure I’d make that transfer. But if you’re in a position to do so, here are the Bilt credit cards available. Keep in mind you don’t need to have a Bilt credit card to earn Bilt Rewards – although it may be to your advantage!

• Bilt Blue Card
• Bilt Obsidian Card
• Bilt Palladium Card

THE RITZ TRICK

The premium Ritz-Carlton™ Credit Card is also a Marriott cobranded card. It’s not currently open to new applicants – but its a card that a lot of frequent Marriott travelers want. It has lots of great benefits, including great travel protection and generous lounge access and an annual 85K Free Night Award. So how does one get it??

The key to getting the The Ritz-Carlton™ Credit Card is to product change from an existing Chase Marriott cobranded card – such as the Marriott Boundless, after holding it for at least one year.

Once you’ve held your existing Chase Marriott card for one or more years, you can call Chase and request to upgrade to the The Ritz-Carlton™ Credit Card. Easy peasy. Now you can enjoy the perks and benefits that come with The Ritz-Carlton™ Credit Card!

WHAT ARE MARRIOTT BONVOY POINTS WORTH

Marriott implemented dynamic pricing a few years ago. This means that Marriott’s award pricing is tied to the cash rates. This also means that any given hotel may fluctuate wildly depending on the time of year and demand.

On average, Marriott points appear to be worth about 0.7 cents per point. It’s worth it to always check cash prices of hotels against the points price. As is true with any dynamic pricing model, sometimes you might find a great value and other times you may find a less than stellar redemption.

FIFTH NIGHT FREE

When booking on points, Marriott offers the perk of booking five nights but only paying for four. This is available to all members with a Marriott Bonvoy loyalty account. The lowest award price room will be taken off. Keep in mind all five nights, at standard pricing, must be booked on the same reservation and the discount will be taken off automatically. If you happen to have ten consecutive nights booked, you’ll be able to get your two lowest nights for free.

If you have any free night awards to use, you cannot use them in conjunction with points and still access the fifth night free. Additionally, this will not work on ‘cash+points’ bookings either.

REDEEMING MARRIOTT POINTS

You will book direct on Marriott’s website. Unfortunately Marriott does pass along taxes and resort fees if applicable. So it’s very possible that your “free” points stay may have some additional cash output at the hotel.

If your dates are flexible, I suggest heading to the “flexible dates” tab on Marriott’s booking page. You can see a calendar view of the total points price for your respective number of nights. Take a look at the screenshot below.

You’ll then be able to choose which dates work best with your schedule and provide standard availability. In the example below, Feb 1st, 2026 has standard rooms available for 323,000 points for five nights at the Westin Bora Bora. At the bottom, you’ll see that you also have an 11,550 XPF daily resort fee charged at your stay.

At the next screen (shown below) you’ll be prompted to book with points or points+ cash. You can clearly see the individual nights listed and the cheapest one automatically has the discount applied.

So for 323,000 plus 58,750 XPF (which is about $575 USD) you will get five nights at this luxurious property in Bora Bora. The cash rate for this hotel room was $6350 for this same stay! That’s a value of 1.9 cents per point! Now that’s not typical for Marriott and you’ll likely find them hovering closer to 0.7 cents per point on average. But there are definitely some outliers!

FREE NIGHT AWARDS

Marriott has free night awards that are available just by holding the right credit card. Additionally, you can spend your way to extra free nights on certain credit cards. More likely than not, you’ll simply earn your free nights by holding the right card. So here’s which cards give you free night certificates:

• 35K Free Night Award: available via the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card and Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card
• 50K Free Night Award: available on the Marriott Bonvoy Bevy® American Express® Card and Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful™ Card only after spending $15K on the card in the calendar year.
• 85K Free Night Award: available via the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card and The Ritz-Carlton™ Credit Card.

While the free night awards are capped at the points prices listed above, you can top them off with 25K additional points per award. This gives you a little more flexibility when redeeming these certificates.

POOLING MARRIOTT POINTS

Marriott allows you to pool points with another Marriott Bonvoy member for free. All you need is the recepient’s name, member number and amount to transfer. You can transfer out 100,000 Marriott points per year and receive in up to 500,000 points per year.

Keep in mind that your accounts need to be open for at least 30 days with any activity on the account or 90 days with no activity on the account. But this is a great way to combine points towards a trip.

UNIQUE REDEMTPIONS

If you’re interested in booking all-inclusives with Marriott points, you can read all about it here – and you should because there’s some cool properties! Otherwise, keep reading for a few fun redemptions you can use your Marriott points on:

Le Meridien Maldives

Five nights in a beachfront bungalow in the Maldives for under 250K points? Sign me up. A house reef for off shore snorkeling and activities catered to couples as well as families make this a great option in the luxurious Maldives!

JW Marriott Venice

A private island in the Venice lagoon with a private boat ride into the hotel? Yes please. This five star hotel gets great reviews for it’s spa, dining and exceptional property. You might not want to leave the hotel to go explore. And that’s okay.

Walt Disney World: The Swan or The Dolphin

Both the Swan and the Dolphin have exclusive Disney Benefits including things like extra time in the park and transportation. We’ve done this and loved it. What a great way to use points and get the Disney experience!

Springhill Suites Zion, Utah

Springhill Suites at Zion National Park gives you room for large families to spread out, free breakfast – all while being within driving distance to major national parks.

Tambo Del Inca

Use your points to stay in Peru’s Sacred Valley. Tambo del Inka is a stellar property to acclimate to the elevation before continuing on your journey in Peru. I’m saving my points for this one!

Residence Inn Maui

Finding a property on Maui that accommodates a larger family and has free breakfast is quite a challenge! This property checks off the boxes -and puts you in the heart of the popular Wailea area.

UNIQUE ASPECTS OF THE MARRIOTT BONVOY PROGRAM

POINTS SAVERS

Occasionally, when booking award stays, you may see “PointSavers” pricing. These are deeper discounts on the award price and can be a great deal.

I don’t notice any rhyme or reason as to when the PointSavers pricing is active. If you see a great deal, it’s a good idea to go ahead and book it as Marriott typically has a generous cancellation policy to have your points refunded back to you.

REDEEM FOR MARRIOTT MOMENTS

Marriott Moments are highly curated activities or experiences that you can bid on with your Marriott points. From sporting events to concerts to culinary experiences, there is likely a Marriott Moment to interest you. You can set your max bid and use your points for some truly unforgettable experiences!

TRANSFER TO AIRLINE PARTNERS

You can transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to book flights from Bonvoy travel partners. With over 35 participating airlines, you can transfer points at a 3:1 ratio, meaning 3 Marriott Bonvoy points = 1 airline mile. Additionally, you get a bonus 5,000 miles when you transfer 60,000 Bonvoy points in one transaction.

Frequent Flyer Programs	Points to Miles
AEGEAN Miles+Bonus	3:1
Aer Lingus AerClub	3:1
Aeromexico Rewards	3:1
Air Canada Aeroplan	3:1
Air China PhoenixMiles	3:1
Air France-KLM Flying Blue	3:1
Air New Zealand AirPoint	200:1
Atmos™ Rewards	3:1
American Airlines AAdvantage®**	3:1
ANA Mileage Club	3:1
Avianca LifeMiles**	3:1
The British Airways Club	3:1
Cathay Pacific Cathay	3:1
China Southern Airlines Sky Pearl Club	3:1
Copa Airlines ConnectMiles	3:1
Delta SkyMiles®**	3:1
Emirates Skywards®	3:1
Etihad Guest	3:1
FRONTIER Miles	3:1
Hainan Airlines Fortune Wings Club	3:1
Iberia Plus	3:1
InterMiles	3:1
Japan Airlines JAL Mileage Bank	3:1
LATAM Airlines LATAM Pass	3:1
LATAM Pass Brazil	3:1
Qantas Frequent Flyer	3:1
Qatar Airways Privilege Club	3:1
Saudia Alfursan	3:1
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer®	3:1
Southwest Rapid Rewards®	3:1
TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go	3:1
Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus	3:1
Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles	3:1
United MileagePlus®	3:1
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club	3:1
Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer	3:1
Vueling Club	3:1

**5000 mile bonus does not apply to these transfer partners

While I wouldn’t typically recommend transferring your Marriott points to airline partners, there can be instances when it valuable. Some of the above listed airlines are notoriously hard to earn points. Additionally, those who travel extensively for work may find themselves with a pretty big stockpile of Marriott points and want the flexibility of transferring some of their hotel points to airlines.

CONCLUSION

After today’s deep dive into Marriott Bonvoy, I think it’s safe to say the program has some great benefits for travelers. Know of a stellar property to add to this list? Reach out to me below!

xoxo Amber

Reach out to me here.