In a previous post, I shared my experience for the year with Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador status, which is Marriott’s top tier status. In this post, I’d like to talk about my experience with Marriott Bonvoy Nightly Upgrade Awards, which are the upgrade “instruments” that can be used to confirm better rooms ahead of check-in.
People tend to be divided on these, with some finding them to be super worthwhile, and others finding them to be worthless. To be honest, I didn’t have an amazing year with getting these to clear, especially compared to previous years… but I still did get some value!
In this post:
The basics of Marriott Bonvoy Nightly Upgrade Awards
Marriott Bonvoy has the Choice Benefits program, whereby you can select certain perks when passing 50 elite nights and 75 elite nights in a calendar year. For many people, the default selection is Nightly Upgrade Awards (known as “NUAs”), as you can select five at each of the thresholds (for a total of up to 10).
The intent is that this is a way for Marriott Bonvoy Platinum, Titanium, and Ambassador members, to confirm a room upgrade before arrival. Each NUA is valid for one night of a stay, and depending on the brand you’re staying at, these can start to clear either three or five days before arrival.
While Platinum members and above receive unlimited upgrades subject to availability at check-in, this perk essentially allows members to prioritize upgrades on the stays that matter most to them.
The catch with NUAs is that even at the three and five day mark, they’re capacity controlled, so they don’t offer last room availability. Instead, there’s an algorithm that decides whether or not to clear them, which makes it a bit of a mystery.
The other thing to keep in mind with NUAs is that you can specifically choose which upgraded rooms you’d like to use an NUA for. Some properties may have one or two choices, while others have 10 choices.
This could include everything from rooms with slightly better views, to massive suites. So it’s always a bit of a decision making process when requesting them — you want the best suites possible, of course, but the more upgrade options you select, the better the odds of them clearing.
My Nightly Upgrade Award luck this year wasn’t great
With the year wrapping up, how did I do with Marriott Nightly Upgrade Awards in 2025? Well, I successfully used five of them, I had one disappear (long story), and I’ll end the year with four expiring. Bleh — I absolutely hate to see these expire, so I really need to be less conservative when it comes to deciding on which stays to request them.
To be more specific, I cleared NUAs on the following stays:
- For one night at the Tokyo EDITION Toranomon, where I got a Tower Suite, probably the most exciting upgrade of the year
- For one night at the Tokyo EDITION Ginza, where I got a Premier Suite, which was comfortable and cozy
- For three nights at the St. Regis Kanai Riviera Maya, where I got a St. Regis Suite, which was appreciated, since we were traveling with our older son
Meanwhile I had Nightly Upgrade Award requests fail five times, including at properties like the St. Regis Hong Kong, Ritz-Carlton New York NoMad, Koenigshof Munich (Marriott Luxury Collection), The Vinoy St. Petersburg (Marriott Autograph Collection), and more.
That’s honestly worse luck than I’ve had in the past. I do tend to be specific about the types of room upgrades I request — in other words, I don’t try to use an NUA for a room with a slightly upgraded view, since I’d hope to get that upgrade anyway. In all cases, the rooms I requested were still for sale at the upgrade window, but the upgrades didn’t clear.
Obviously I’m still too conservative with using these, given that I have four expiring this year. I’ve had worse luck this year than in past years, though that ultimately comes down to a few specific stays not clearing, so I can’t necessarily draw bigger conclusions from that.
I am curious to hear what kind of experiences others have had — did you notice a difference in these clearing this past year compared to previous years, or no?
Bottom line
2025 hasn’t been a great year for me when it comes to Marriott Bonvoy Nightly Upgrade Awards. I did manage to confirm three upgrades, though I also had five failures. Ultimately I try to be strategic with using these, and also try to be realistic in terms of them clearing. However, I definitely had worse luck this year than in previous years.
Even so, I continue to select NUAs with the Choice Benefits program, because when the upgrades do clear, I find them to be super valuable.
What has your experience been with Marriott NUAs this year? Did you have more successes or failures?
got two NUA back which will expiry. It depends on the hotel I guess. however it's a shame the process is not more clear. If I apply an NUA and it's 4 days for the stay why is is it not confirmed. that would be great. In practice it can be the day of arrivasl though or you hear nothing. Got one cleared (!) tommorow on december 31st though. Nice. hoepfully it will not change when we check in ;-)
This is actually nothing new. And, in a way, it is no different than a property denying an elite-based upgrade at check-in even though there are upgrade-eligible rooms for your entire stay. In spite of the upgrade algorithm, it is an elusive benefit.
@ Fred -- I don't think I suggested anything was new? I was just sharing my experience with the benefit over the past year.
Certainly. Just sharing with newbies this has been ongoing for some time.
Reading all the negative comments about Marriott staff, management and Bonvoy progam, I have a simple question: why do you keep staying at Marriotts ?
There are some truly good properties. Some will use those and be free agents for other stays. For many, it's a matter of wanting a single program and taking the bad with the good. In other cases, a specific hotel network has the geographic footprint or convenient locations. In the case of business travelers, some are mandated to use a specific hotel network due to their company having a corporate/contract rate.
I was just denied NUA over this Christmas (got my 5 awards back that will expire in a few days...). Still, it is better than Hilton as a Diamond, as there isn't even a certificate. However, this is the reason why Hyatt tops the rest with their SUA... and that's why my next year's winter vacation is with Hyatt now.