Natalya’s Marriott Rewards Platinum Status Challenge and the Megabonus Promotion
Natalya travels for work a few nights a week every month. Even with moderate travel, she makes sure to maximize benefits and rewards. The trick is carefully planning her hotel stays and taking advantage of status challenges and promotions. Her newest feat is to tackle the Marriott Rewards Summer 2013 Megabonus. After just four nights at Marriott properties, she will be earning two free night certificates to use at the Residence Inn Vancouver Downtown. This will give her a value of $500 on her trip to the Pacific Northwest over Labor Day weekend this year with Samba for Miles. Along the way, she’ll have Marriott Rewards Platinum status so she can have free internet, free breakfast, Marriott lounge access and, of course, the Marriott top tier Platinum treatment for all her stays!
The First Half of 2013: Hilton and Hyatt
During the first quarter of 2013, Natalya picked up Hilton HHonors Gold status and took advantage of the Hilton HHonors double points promotion to earn up to 40 points per dollar spent at Hilton properties. She was collecting points for our trip to Asia in December. We plan to stay at Conrad Tokyo and Conrad Centennial Singapore. Once Hilton announced a program devaluation, it was time to switch gears to another hotel chain. We made sure to redeem our points to get full value before devaluation!
Hyatt matched Natalya’s Hilton Gold status to the Hyatt Diamond Challenge. She then kicked off her Diamond benefits at the Hyatt Regency Monterey with free breakfast, Regency Club lounge access and spa access. During the Challenge, she also got 1,000 points for each of her first six nights plus a 1,000 point Diamond amenity per stay on top of that. She spent 7 nights at Hyatt properties in April/May and earned 26,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points combining base earning, the Hyatt spring promotion and the Hyatt Diamond point bonuses.
Not only was Natalya maximizing promotion opportunities, but she made sure to get top tier (Diamond at Hyatt) or almost top tier (Gold at Hilton) status at both chains. Her stays were much better with benefits like free breakfast, free internet, club lounge access for refreshments and an occasional suite upgrade.
Summer 2013 Plan: Marriott Unexpected Bonus Promotion and Marriott Platinum Status
Marriott Rewards Unexpected Bonus Promotion May 15 – Sep 2, 2013
With the Hyatt promotion coming to a close on May 31 and her Diamond bonuses expiring, it was time for Natalya to regroup and plan her next move. Marriott Rewards just started another Marriott MegaBonus promotion called the Unexpected Bonus on May 15. The promotion will run through September 2. During that time, Natalya will earn a free night certificate for any Category 1-5 Marriott property for every two stays up to two nights. Since her stays are usually only 1 or 2 nights anyway, this is the perfect promotion for her.
Saving $250 a Night at Residence Inn Vancouver Downtown With Marriott Certificates
She will use her free night certificates at Residence Inn Vancouver Downtown where rates are $250 a night for her dates once tax is included (even for a fully prepaid rate). For Natalya, the Marriott Megabonus promotion makes a lot of sense. She has a very specific use in mind for her free night certificates. A trip to Vancouver she was already planning to take just happens to have a Category 5 Marriott hotel that turns out to be pricey. For this reason, she is able to get incredible value from a few stays with Marriott. The free night certificates do expire after only a year and are restricted to Category 5 hotels so the promotion may not make sense for everyone. There’s nothing worse than taking advantage of a promotion and then getting certificates you can’t use! But for Natalya, $500 in value after only four nights is amazing.
Marriott Rewards lets you reserve award nights before you have the points or award certificates in your account and she already reserved the two nights. Now all she has to do is complete her four stays and get the certificates!
Marriott Rewards Platinum Status Challenge for 4 Months
Since Natalya is staying at Marriott hotels this summer, she made sure she has Marriott Platinum status to maximize benefits during her stays. Getting the status is very easy. You simply call Marriott at 801-468-4000 and ask for the Platinum Challenge. You instantly get Platinum Status for the month your enroll and for an additional three months after that. Natalya’s Marriott Rewards Platinum Status will last through the end of September 2013.
If she stays 9 times with Marriott before the end of September, she will get to keep her Marriott Platinum status through February 2015. There is actually no way to qualify based on nights. It’s stays only. 9 stays in 4 months is only 2 stays a month so it’s completely doable. But we’ll have to see how Natalya’s travel plans pan out… and what kind of other hotel promotions enter the competition.
Marriott Rewards Platinum Status is the top-tier status and comes with a multitude of benefits, including:
- 50% Base Earning Bonus on paid stays
- Possible room upgrades
- Hotel lounge access with free breakfast
- Free internet access
Since Natalya is likely to spend about $150 a night anyway for each of her four stays, she will earn an additional 9,000 points with Marriott Rewards. While that pales in comparison to the 2 night certificates she’ll be earning, free points are still free points!
When she and Samba for Miles go to Vancouver over Labor Day, Natalya will still be a Marriott Rewards Platinum Member. Their trip will be that much better with full Platinum benefits and the Marriott Rewards Platinum treatment!
Summary
- Natalya is taking advantage of the Marriott Rewards Unexpected Bonus Promotion to earn two free nights at Category 1-5 hotels after four stays with Marriott before September 2.
- She will be using her two free nights at Residence Inn Vancouver Downtown, where rates are $250 a night for her dates.
- Natalya also got Marriott Rewards Platinum status for four months simply by calling and asking for the Marriott Rewards Platinum Challenge. This will give her free breakfast, free internet, club access and an occasional upgraded room.
Other posts you may like:
Natalya’s Stay at Hyatt Regency Monterey and The Hyatt Diamond Treatment
New Marriott Rewards “Unexpected Bonus” Promotion May 15, 2013 — Sep 2, 2013
Marriott Rewards Lets You Book Award Stays Before You Have Enough Points
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The points per stay re property specific. Residence Inn is 5x, Courtyard is 10x with 50% bonus for Plat.
It’s a pain but if she has a 4 day stay in a major city she can switch Marriott properties for each night and hit 4 stays in 1 trip. I did this recently to get to the 9th stay in my challenge.
Fortunately, Natalya’s stays are only 1 to 2 nights (usually 1) for work so no switching hotels needed. Glad you got the Platinum status :)
nice, very helpful miles prof! this is a great example of how to rack up some heavy points w/o credit card bonuses.
Does Marriott require booking through their website to earn points? i believe Hilton requires booking through hilton.com to earn points, but I can’t seem to find any info for marriott.
Thanks for the post compliment! :) It actually states on the Marriott rewards terms and conditions
Rooms booked through third party online retailers, such as Expedia.com, Orbitz.com, Travelocity.com, Hotels.com, Booking.com, Priceline, etc. as well as rooms booked through any other 3rd party online retailers that require pre-payment are not eligible for Points or Elite night credit. Wholesale packages and series tours are not eligible for Points or Elite night credit regardless of booking source.
I don’t know if that completely answers your question, but they do have more information on earning points in the link for their terms :)
Do you have to have some number of stays with Marriott to sign up? I just called and the rep would only sign me up for the taste of gold challenge, which kind of stinks.
As far as I’ve observed, there’s no hard and fast rules and is sort of up to the discretion of the rep. Natalya did have 10 nights with them over the past few years. You could try to book a few speculative (cancelable!) nights into the future to see if that gives them an incentive for Platinum status matching; just don’t forget to cancel anything you don’t plan to use!
Lady on the Marriott line was MEAN… barely got her to agree to give me a Gold challenge. With a WARNING that if I do not complete the challenge I will be inelegible to ever sign up for another challenge.
When I told her I was a Platinum member with IHG and Gold with Hilton she said: Well, we are not going to reward you for being loyal to another program.
Yeah, definitely a luck of the draw. Gary Leff always says that when things aren’t going well, just hang up and call again. You may get a friendlier agent next time!