What is the Marriott Bonvoy Program?

If you love traveling and staying at amazing hotels, you should definitely check out Marriott Bonvoy, a great loyalty program for travelers. Marriott Bonvoy is the award-winning travel program that lets you earn and redeem points at over 7,000 hotels and resorts worldwide. You can also enjoy exclusive benefits like free nights, upgrades, free breakfast, late checkout, and more.

Marriott Bonvoy has six membership tiers, from Member to Ambassador Elite, each with its own perks and rewards. The more you stay, the more you earn and the higher you climb. You can also earn points by using the Marriott Bonvoy credit cards, booking travel partners, or shopping online.

But what makes Marriott Bonvoy a great loyalty program for travelers is not just the points and benefits, but also the experiences. Marriott Bonvoy offers access to hundreds of curated experiences around the world, from concerts and sports events to culinary and cultural adventures. You can use your points to bid on these experiences or buy them outright.

So what are you waiting for? Join Marriott Bonvoy today and start your journey to a world of possibilities. Whether you want to relax at a beach resort, explore a new city, or indulge in a spa retreat, Marriott Bonvoy has something for everyone. Marriott Bonvoy: more than a loyalty program, a travel lifestyle.

Are We Team Marriott Bonvoy?

This summer, we will be staying at several different Marriott properties over the course of our 45 day trip. We will be reviewing each of these properties here on the blog. There are other hotel chains we will be staying with as we wanted to use all of our credit card travel rewards and elite benefits during our trip. But due to the sheer size of the Marriott program and my husbands recent Marriott stays with work trips, we decided to focus in on Marriott for some of our trip this summer.

Because of this, ND signed up for the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card. We are currently working on meeting the minimum spend, but once we do, we will earn a welcome bonus of 150,000 points. Additionally, part of our welcome offer includes the opportunity to earn an additional 50,000 points by staying 6 nights at a Marriott property through the end of 2023. Luckily, we already have more than 6 nights at Marriott properties booked this summer and will be able to meet this requirement and earn the extra 50K points. Overall, we will earn 200,000 points with the welcome offer and the card comes with automatic Platinum Elite Status.

Platinum Elite Status provides benefits such as 50% more points on purchases at Marriott hotels, 4pm late check out, enhanced room upgrades (I'm very interested to see if we get any amazing upgrades with our status this summer--stay tuned for updates!), lounge access with free breakfast, and more! The card also provides an annual free night award worth up to 85,000 points. If we set the value of each Marriott point around 0.75 cents each (a reasonable estimation according to my research), those 200,000 points should be worth $1500 or more depending on redemptions. With the welcome offer, free night award, and elite benefits, we will more than compensate for the steep $695 yearly fee. Of course, we will always re-evaluate next year to see if the annual fee is worth the benefits.

Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card Highlights

A few highlights of the card:

• 6x the points on purchases with Marriott

• 3x the points on dining purchases

• 2x the points on all other purchases

• $25/month dining credit

• Complimentary Platinum Status as mentioned above

• 25 elite night credits per year

• An annual free night certificate worth up to 85,000 points

Earn Points via the Marriott Bonvoy Dining Program

Just like many other loyalty programs, Marriott Bonvoy has several ways to earn points. Besides a Marriott branded credit card and physical stays at Marriott properties, you can earn points via the Marriott Dining Program called Eat Around Town. To earn points with the program, it's pretty simple!

• First, go to the Eat Around Town website here: https://eataroundtown.marriott.com

• Sign up for a free Marriott account if you aren't already a member

• Link your credit cards to the account

• Search for a participating restaurant near you

• Pay with your linked card

• Wait for the points to hit your account!

I recommend linking a credit card that earns bonus points for the dining category such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserved that earn 3x points on dining. This allows you to "double dip" and earn bonus points in your Marriott account and bonus points with your credit card bonus category spending.

For example, recently we got take out from a local restaurant for $70.43. We used our Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Amex Card linked to our Marriott Eat Around Town account because we are still working to meet our minimum spend. We earned 3x points on the purchase with our card for a total of 210 points. Additionally, we earned 8x points via the Eat around Town portal for a total of 563 points. So we essentially earned 11x points on the purchase just by having our card linked to the program and choosing a participating restaurant! It's such an easy way to earn extra points!

If you are interested in a Marriott American Express Card, we'd be thrilled if you used our referral link below. You'll receive a welcome bonus and we'll receive a referral bonus as well! :) Apply for an American Express Card with this link. Terms Apply. https://americanexpress.com/en-us/referral/NAREnDO7VD?XLINK=MYCP

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