One of the positive aspects of the Starwood Preferred Guest program that Marriott has adopted is “Choice Benefits.” Specifically, Platinum members are able to select special rewards when they pass 50 and 75 elite qualifying nights in a year.
This is a benefit that those of us who are SPG loyalists have had for years, and many of us have already selected our benefits for this year before the programs were merged. However, if you’re a Marriott loyalist then this is likely new to you.
What are Marriott’s Choice Benefits?
With Marriott Choice Benefits, those who pass 50 elite qualifying nights in a year can choose from the following rewards:
- 5 Suite Night Awards
- 5 Elite Night Credits
- The ability to gift Silver Elite status
- 40% off a hotel bed
- A $100 UNICF donation
Then those who pass 75 elite qualifying nights in a year can choose from the following rewards:
- 5 Suite Night Awards
- 5 Elite Night Credits
- A free night award (valid at a hotel costing up to 40,000 points)
- The ability to gift Gold Elite status
- 40% off a hotel bed
- A $100 UNICF donation
You actually have to earn the elite nights associated with the above status levels to select these benefits. In other words, those who have lifetime status couldn’t choose the above benefits unless they happened to qualify as well.
However, elite nights earned through credit cards, including the 15 elite nights annually offered by either the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card, Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card, or Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card, would qualify towards that total.
You can now select your Marriott Choice Benefit
While Marriott has had a single loyalty program for over a week now, prior to today they hadn’t rolled out the ability for Marriott Rewards members to select benefits. That has finally changed.
Marriott elite members who have passed 50 or 75 nights for 2018 should now be able to select their Choice Benefits at this link.
If you do select the suite upgrade as the reward, note that it could take up to 48 hours for the upgrades to post to your account, so it likely won’t be instant. Suite Night Awards should be valid for stays through December 31, 2019.
An oddity with Suite Night Awards
There’s one other interesting thing I’m noticing with these upgrades. With Starwood, Suite Night Awards were always (as far as I know) valid for upgrades to suites of some sort (as the name suggests — shocking concept, eh?)
It’s my understanding that Marriott isn’t regulating what rooms hotels have to designate as part of the Suite Night Award inventory, and as a result you have some hotels where the Suite Night Award would clear into an executive room. Hmmm…
Have you selected your Marriott Choice Benefits yet? If so, any further data points as to what rooms Marriotts are designating as suites?
(Tip of the hat to @tpbagala)
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