It’s true, you can become a Marriott Bonvoy Points “millionaire” without ever setting foot in a Marriott hotel.
Of course, once you have lots of points, you’ll probably want to set foot in one, because free nights in luxury hotels are the dream, and earning points for those joyous stays via daily life activities you do anyway is a smile worthy reality.
Here are 5 ‘easy win’ ways to earn Marriott Bonvoy Points, which will get your points balances to a healthy high, without stepping into a hotel. If you do stay in some hotels, it’ll only help!
Dining And Drinking At Hotel Restaurants
One of the best and most overlooked ways to earn Marriott Bonvoy Points is dining out, or drinking! When Marriott Bonvoy acquired Starwood, hotels which belonged to the Starwood platform retained a great way to earn points in many parts of the world.
Dining at ex-Starwood properties in USA, Europe, Middle East and Africa, such as a St. Regis, W Hotel, Luxury Collection, Westin or Sheraton allows you to earn points (see section 2.1) for the meal or drinks, even when you’re not staying. In Asia, Asia even more hotels, like Ritz Carlton and JW Marriott allow the same perk.
This means you can be earning points every night, even while sleeping in the comfort of your own bed. You’ll need to let a restaurant or bar team member know your loyalty number, and or scan the QR code from the Bonvoy app before paying.
Car Rentals Everywhere Earn Points
Not everyone is into hotel stays right now, but road trips are a big thing. When you rent a car with Hertz, you can snag 2,000 bonus points and more for the actual trip. This is a great way to keep working toward hotel stay goals, while doing other things.
To take Marriott Bonvoy up on the offer, you just need to go to the Marriott Activities website and get started. As noted, it’s 2,000 bonus points right now, which ain’t too shabby.
Marriott Credit Cards For Big Bonuses
Marriott Bonvoy has a variety of credit cards in different markets around the world including the US, UK, Middle East and Asia, but there’s none better than in the USA.
It’s not at all uncommon for Marriott to offer up to 125,000 Bonvoy Points or more as a welcome bonus on a singular US credit card.
When you have one, you also earn points on every dollar spent with the card. If you’re into elite status, the Bonvoy cards come with complimentary elite status, which brings perks when you do stay at a Marriott Bonvoy hotel, like late check out.
Even better, these are deposited via “nights”, and you can earn up to 30 nights per year if you have both a personal and business Marriott Bonvoy credit card. This allows you to earn higher elite status, such as Platinum or Titanium!
Earn Marriott Points from Emirates Flights
This one is a bit more selective, since you need to be Marriott Gold elite or above, but since that can be easily achieved by grabbing a Marriott Bonvoy credit card, it’s worth knowing for sure.
Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite members and above can earn 3 Marriott Bonvoy Points per dollar spent on Emirates flights, as part of ‘Your World Rewards’. Elite flyers in Emirates Skywards program can also earn more points thanks to the partnership. You must join first, and link the accounts to benefit.
FYI, there’s also elite perks on offer too, where Emirates frequent flyers can enjoy perks when they stay at Marriott Bonvoy hotels, such as 4PM late checkout. That can be valuable, since flights almost never depart at a convenient time for checkout!
Converting Amex Or Chase Credit Card Points
Yep, if you have an American Express Membership Rewards, or Chase Ultimate Rewards earning credit card, you can transfer points from these credit card loyalty programs into Marriott Bonvoy. Should you? That’s another story. Points transfers from credit card points into airline partners typically bring more aspirational value.
If you’re on the verge of having enough points for something cool, transferring a modest amount of credit card points over can be a brilliant way to get the points needed ‘for free’, since you’ve already acquired them.
It can take 24-48 hours for credit card points to transfer into your Marriott Bonvoy account, and it’s worth noting that transfers only work one way and with very few exceptions, can’t be reversed.
Once you’ve transferred your credit card points into Marriott Bonvoy, they can’t be transferred back – so be sure you have a way you will use them immediately, before making a transfer.
Bonus Tip: Points Sales
Marriott is currently offering a rare 50% bonus when you purchase Marriott Bonvoy Points online. The more you buy, the the better the bonus.
This allows you to almost instantly add up to 100,000 points to your tally and unlock goals without the wait of accumulating. When Marriott Moments are flying off the shelves, this can be a great way to get the points you need ASAP.
You can buy points from Marriott, but there is a hitch. If you use a branded Marriott credit card for the purchase, you will not receive any ‘bonus’ Marriott points on those cards when you do so.
I’m also getting Uber pop-ups in the Uber app, but doesn’t seem to work when I click through. Possibly only for US accounts.