Last-minute strategies to earn Marriott Bonvoy elite status

2 days ago 4

With just a couple of months remaining until the new year, now is the time to earn Marriott elite qualifying nights for your 2025 status.

Depending on your status tier and the hotel brand, Marriott elite status includes perks like complimentary suite upgrades, a welcome gift, lounge access and late checkout.

This guide will show you a few last-minute ways to earn Marriott elite status.

What is Marriott elite status?

Marriott Bonvoy has five elite status tiers. You can earn status by earning elite qualifying nights, holding the right credit cards or applying for a hotel status match.

Silver Elite: 10 elite nights
Gold Elite: 25 elite nights
Platinum Elite: 50 elite nights
Titanium Elite: 75 elite nights
Ambassador Elite: 100 elite nights (plus $23,000 in qualifying spending per calendar year)

Set your sails for Platinum Elite

While various benefits are associated with each Marriott status tier, Platinum Elite is the tier where the most rewarding benefits start to kick in.

Platinum Elite members enjoy benefits like annual Choice Benefits (including Nightly Upgrade Awards), enhanced room upgrades (including suites at most brands), a welcome gift — which can include free breakfast at select properties — and more.

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As a Platinum Elite member, you receive many of the same benefits that top-tier Ambassador Elite members receive.

If you didn't qualify for Platinum status by meeting the criteria of 50 elite nights, you can enjoy this perk by having the right card in your wallet.

The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card comes with complimentary Platinum Elite status. Additionally, the card comes with 25 annual elite night credits. So, if you're shooting for Titanium Elite status, the Brilliant card can be a great way to top off your account with some extra elite nights to help you close the gap.

While on the subject of credit cards, let's discuss how opening a Marriott cobranded credit card can help you earn status.

Use Marriott credit cards to qualify for elite status

Marriott cobranded credit cards come with either 5 or 25 annual elite qualifying nights that can help you qualify for status.

In 2020, Marriott expanded its rules, allowing you to earn credit card elite nights from both a personal and a business card. By holding the Brilliant card and one of Marriott's business cards, you can earn up to 40 elite qualifying nights. That's just 35 elite nights away from Titanium Elite status.

Remember that you cannot receive elite nights from multiple personal credit cards. Also, you must be the primary cardholder on a business card and a consumer card to combine them.

Here's how many elite nights you'll earn with each Marriott cobranded card:

*The information for The Ritz-Carlton Rewards Credit Card, Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business Card, Marriott Bonvoy Premier Credit Card, and Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful Card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Again, regardless of the issuer, you only receive elite night credits from one personal card and from one business card.

For example, TPG Senior Editorial Director Nick Ewen currently has three Marriott cards: the Bonvoy Brilliant Amex, the Ritz-Carlton card and the Bonvoy Business Amex. As a result, he earns 40 elite nights each calendar year — 25 from the Bonvoy Brilliant and 15 from the Bonvoy Business. However, if he canceled the Bonvoy Brilliant, his annual haul would drop to 30 nights (since the Ritz-Carlton card only awards 15 nights each calendar year).

Additionally, the following Amex cards offer complimentary Marriott Gold Elite status (enrollment is required): The Platinum Card® from American Express and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express.

If earning status through a card is not for you, let's look at some last-minute mattress runs you can make to earn Marriott status.

Earn status through Marriott discount award stays

Marriott allows members to earn elite qualifying nights on award stays. Don't forget that the fifth night is free when you redeem your Marriott points for award stays — but all nights of an award stay count as elite qualifying.

If you have a stash of Marriott points, you can redeem them to earn elite qualifying nights. We'll show you a few aspirational stays and some discounted trips that you can book on points to earn elite qualifying nights.

Remember that using points won't get you closer to the $23,000 in qualifying spending for Ambassador Elite status unless you charge eligible incidentals to your room.

Mattress runs outside of America's major cities

If you live in a major city like New York or San Francisco, booking additional nights in the center of these metropolises will likely be very expensive and outweigh the benefits you would receive from the status. Instead, look for cities or towns that are a short distance from your home where rates may be significantly cheaper.

When searching for a mattress run, we recommend typing your home address into the "destination" field on marriott.com. Marriott will show you all the hotels within a 50-mile radius, and you can sort them by price.

For example, if you need a few extra qualifying stays to snag status, you could choose to book one of these New Jersey-based properties rather than stay at a Marriott hotel in New York City. For a seven-night stay at the Sheraton Edison, you can pay the cash rate, use a little over 100,000 Marriott points or cut some of the cost by redeeming a free night award certificate.

Similarly, if you are based in Miami, consider booking in a city like Fort Lauderdale, where you could potentially earn seven elite night credits from a seven-night stay at the TownPlace Suites Fort Lauderdale West for less than 100,000 points.

And remember, the fifth night of award stays is free.

Earn status through high-value vacation redemptions

If you have a stack of Marriott points, you can use your points to splurge on a tropical vacation.

For example, you could stay at The Ritz-Carlton Oahu, Turtle Bay in Hawaii for 386,000 Bonvoy points for a five-night stay (earning five elite nights in the process).

This would save you $4,441 on the cash prices, giving your Bonvoy points a value of over 1 cent each, well above our October 2024 valuation of Bonvoy points of 0.85 cents each.

If you're short on Marriott points, you can transfer additional points from Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards, though we don't generally recommend it.

Check out new Marriott offers

While hotel room rates seemingly continue to rise, Marriott regularly releases last-minute booking deals for paid stays. With the end of the year fast approaching, check out Marriott's offers page to see if any deals pique your interest.

Earn Marriott status with a status match

Though you may not have earned status with Marriott, some United Airlines MileagePlus elite members actually receive complimentary Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status.

If you are a United Premier Gold, Premier Platinum or Premier 1K elite member, you can register online to match your status. Additionally, if you have Titanium Elite or Ambassador Elite status with Marriott, you can register to receive complimentary MileagePlus Premier Silver status.

Marriott's elite status soft landing policy

For Marriott elite members who did not requalify for status in 2024, the hotel loyalty program is offering members the chance to retain status at just one tier lower.

"In early March 2025, Members who did not re-achieve their existing Elite Status will be offered one tier below their current status through February 2026," per Marriott's website. Therefore, if you qualified for Titanium Elite status in 2023 and only qualified for Silver Elite status at the end of 2024, Marriott's "soft landing" policy will drop you to Platinum status from from March 2025 until February 2026.

Bottom line

Marriott is the largest hotel company and has many aspirational properties. Its status provides benefits like suite upgrades, late checkout and more.

Now is the time to log in to your Marriott Bonvoy account and see how many elite nights you've already accrued to make a plan for the rest of the year. By opening a credit card or booking a last-minute stay on points or cash, you can earn more Marriott elite qualifying nights and enjoy higher status in 2025.

For rates and fees of the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant, click here.
For rates and fees of the Marriott Bonvoy Bevy, click here.
For rates and fees of the Marriott Bonvoy Business, click here.

Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

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