One of the valuable perks of Marriott Bonvoy elite status is being able to select Choice Benefits, which can be earned after passing 50 or 75 elite nights in a calendar year.
While we’re now well into 2025, I want to remind everyone that this is the last chance to select Marriott Bonvoy Choice Benefits for the 2024 program year. I’ll cover everything you need to know about how this works, given that many people work toward elite status with the goal of unlocking these rewards.
In this post:
What are Marriott Choice Benefits?
In addition to the standard published program benefits that apply with every stay, Marriott Bonvoy elite members are able to select additional perks for passing certain milestones.
Elite members — in this case Platinum, Titanium, and Ambassador members — can select Choice Benefits when they pass 50 and 75 elite qualifying nights in a calendar year.
Even elite nights not earned through stays qualify toward these thresholds. This includes that Marriott Bonvoy members can earn up to 40 elite nights per year with co-branded Marriott credit cards. For example, I have the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card (review) and Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card (review), and they offer 25 and 15 elite nights annually, respectively.
It sure is helpful to be able to start the year with 40 elite nights, as that gets you most of the way to the two Choice Benefits thresholds.
However, note that lifetime Marriott Bonvoy elite members don’t automatically get these perks, unless they pass the required elite night threshold in a particular year.
Marriott’s 50 night Platinum Choice Benefits
With Marriott Choice Benefits, Bonvoy members who pass 50 elite qualifying nights in a year can choose from the following rewards:
- Five Nightly Upgrade Awards
- Five Elite Night Credits
- Ability to gift Silver Elite status
- $1,000 off the purchase of a Marriott Bonvoy retail bed
- $100 charitable donation
Marriott’s 75 night Titanium Choice Benefits
Then Marriott Bonvoy members who pass 75 elite qualifying nights in a year can choose from the following rewards (as you can see, this offers two elevated choices):
- Five Nightly Upgrade Awards
- Five Elite Night Credits
- Free night award (valid at a hotel costing up to 40,000 points)
- Ability to gift Gold Elite status
- $1,000 off the purchase of a Marriott Bonvoy retail bed
- $100 charitable donation
How do you select Marriott Choice Benefits?
Marriott’s Choice Benefits program for 2024 has been live for quite some time, and will be ending shortly. Marriott Bonvoy typically emails members to prompt them to select Choice Benefits. In addition to that, you can follow this link, and if you’re eligible to select Choice Benefits, you’ll see the options listed. Note that:
- Once you select your rewards you can’t change them
- You need to make your selection by February 1, 2025; if you don’t make a selection by then, the Nightly Upgrade Awards will automatically be posted to your account
- It can sometimes make sense to wait to make your selection if you don’t have an immediate use, since you might change your mind on what makes more sense over time (though with the deadline looming, now is the time to choose)
- If you don’t make a selection, you’ll automatically receive Nightly Upgrade Awards as your choice
Which Marriott Choice Benefits are most valuable?
Everyone will value the various perks differently. Personally I’ve always selected Nightly Upgrade Awards (previously known as Suite Night Awards) as my benefit. These can in theory unlock the most value — I say “in theory,” because they won’t be equally valuable for everyone.
Nightly Upgrade Awards can be used to unlock premium rooms at virtually all Marriott brands, and upgrades confirm up to three to five days before arrival, depending on the brand (it’s five days for brands except EDITION, Ritz-Carlton, and St. Regis). It essentially gets you a leg-up when it comes to upgrades, which is valuable, given how many Marriott Bonvoy elite members there are.
Over the years, I’ve used these to confirm upgrades at all kinds of properties, and in many cases have gotten suites that retail for $1,000+ over the room that I booked. So I’ve made the same selection for the past year.
Just to share a bit more on why the other options don’t appeal to me as much:
- There’s usually no value in adding five elite nights to my total in a particular year, unless that would get you over the next elite threshold
- Gifting Silver or Gold status isn’t worth much, as the status doesn’t offer many benefits
- While a donation is a nice thing to do, realistically, I value some of the other options at more than $100, so that wouldn’t be a good way to maximize value
- Selecting a free night award worth up to 40,000 points could be a solid option, especially if you don’t otherwise get value out of the Nightly Upgrade Awards
Bottom line
Choice Benefits is one of the nice perks offered to Marriott Bonvoy Platinum and Titanium members. For passing 50 or 75 elite nights in a year, members can select from several valuable perks, including Nightly Upgrade Awards. The 2024 Bonvoy Choice Benefits program will be ending shortly, so if you haven’t made your selection yet, now is the time to do so.
What Marriott Choice Benefits have you selected, assuming you’re eligible?
Thanks to the credit cards I will hit 50 nights in April, but I can't remember how it works once you qualify. Will I receive the Choice Benefits as soon as I hit 50 nights and be able to use upgrades for the rest of 2025? Or will the benefit be delayed until 2026? Might be worth adding to the post if you know the answer as I'm sure others are in my shoes! Thanks.
I always choose the upgrade nights for the first choice but then the free night for the second. I kind of wish they had a points option. A lot of my travel is last minute so I miss the window for the upgrades and my planned work travel is often 10 days plus so I can’t really use the upgrade certs except when I go on vacation. Then when I go on vacation I feel like the upgrades never clear.