Marriott Bonvoy has revealed that it will soon be ending the Points Advance perk, one of the program’s more generous perks. I guess this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, given the restrictions we’ve seen added to Points Advance bookings in recent years.
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What is the Marriott Points Advance feature?
For some context, Marriott Bonvoy has a Points Advance feature, whereby members can make an award reservation at a hotel even if they don’t yet have enough points for the stay.
The way it works is that you just make a booking and then there’s no reward certificate attached to it. As long as you earn or purchase the needed points at least 14 days prior to check-in, you’re good to go. If you don’t have the points needed 14 days out, then your reservation gets canceled.
This is intended as a goodwill gesture, and ultimately also keeps people engaged in the program. After all, if you have an award stay booked at a hotel you’re really excited about, then you’re more likely to keep earning points.
In recent years, we’ve seen Marriott Bonvoy increasingly add restrictions to Points Advance bookings. For example, a while back a new limit was added whereby you could only hold a reservation for 60 days using the Points Advance feature, limiting these kinds of bookings made far in advance.
Furthermore, there have long been limits on only being able to make three Points Advance reservations at once.
Marriott Points Advance feature ends March 2023
Marriott Bonvoy has announced that as of March 28, 2023, the Points Advance feature will no longer be available. All existing Points Advance bookings will be honored, though, under the current terms.
Marriott Bonvoy isn’t providing any justification for this change. Back in 2021, when some negative changes were made to this program, Marriott explained that there had been a rise in Points Advance bookings at some of the most popular resorts, and many of these end up being canceled. Apparently around 25% of all award bookings at some of Marriott’s most popular resorts were made using Points Advance reservations.
This is potentially a disadvantage to members who would otherwise book using their points. It also has an economic impact on properties, since many stays are canceled just two weeks out, and for some destinations it’s hard to resell rooms at that point.
Marriott’s Points Advance feature has been the most generous in the industry, so I suppose it’s not surprising to see Marriott now eliminate it. Obviously to those who used this feature, this is quite a negative development. However, for everyone else it might be positive, as hopefully it leads to more award nights bookable for those with points in their account.
Bottom line
Marriott is eliminating its Points Advance feature as of March 28, 2023. With this, it has been possible to book an award stay even if you don’t have enough points. I know this is something that many people found to be valuable, though at the same time it also apparently caused a lot of speculative bookings that people didn’t end up following through on.
I’m not surprised to see this change, given that Marriott was the only hotel group to have a policy this generous. And as someone who has never used this feature, I can’t say I’ll personally miss it (though I recognize others feel differently).
What do you make of Marriott Bonvoy’s Points Advance perk ending?
I’ll personally miss this feature very much. I used it frequently to secure dates and locations for future trips and it allowed me a little flexibility in my point bank. 60 days isn’t a ton of time to accumulate more points, but for our business we rack a lot of points and it actually made a huge difference for us as we’re able to accumulate several hundred thousand points during that period (e-commerce biz, 4x...
I’ll personally miss this feature very much. I used it frequently to secure dates and locations for future trips and it allowed me a little flexibility in my point bank. 60 days isn’t a ton of time to accumulate more points, but for our business we rack a lot of points and it actually made a huge difference for us as we’re able to accumulate several hundred thousand points during that period (e-commerce biz, 4x shipping multiplier on Marriott credit card, if anyone is curious.) It was like a layaway plan for vacations, lol. Bummed to lose it. It was also nice to have the booking and see if suite night awards were available for us or not. I find those to be particularly puzzling to know in advance of a booking if they will be honored or an option, so that was always good info to see and you could see it if you were booked.
I am not sure I believe Marriott’s justification. I use this feature often because I transfer points from my Amex account into my Marriott account. From what I remember you had 30-60 days from the time you made the points advance reservation to transfer the points into your account or you would lose the reservation or it converts to a cash reservation.
I usually visit a couple places when I have time for a vacation, and I have used this feature a couple times to lock in a great redemption at the highlight stay for the trip. Useful for me to book several different dates for the stay, work out the other details of the trip (flights, other stays), and then cancel the remaining stays.
Also a handy feature before Marriott changed the terms and conditions (such...
I usually visit a couple places when I have time for a vacation, and I have used this feature a couple times to lock in a great redemption at the highlight stay for the trip. Useful for me to book several different dates for the stay, work out the other details of the trip (flights, other stays), and then cancel the remaining stays.
Also a handy feature before Marriott changed the terms and conditions (such as not locking in the points price at time of booking).
So, overall not terribly sad to see this go. Agree with Lucky's analysis and I hope it leads to more redemption availability at the more popular hotels.
Wonder why. 14 days is plenty of noice for the hotels.
Not if you are a destination resort like the St. Regis Maldives - 14 days is not a lot of time at all.
Just one feature left to remove, to fully drive Marriott Bonvoy into oblivion - remove the ability to book hotels. Isn’t that all that’s left, basically?
This is an unfortunate change and I'm sad to see it go.
But, Hyatt has this exact feature for Globalists, and your reservation is held for up to 7 days before check-in, and then the reservation converts to a cash stay.
What is that feature called? I am a Globalist and was unaware of it, and can imagine wanting exactly that..
So basically, the way I’ve understood it, it allows you to book a stay without the number of points required. But, if you don’t have the required points for the stay, the stay will become a cash day 7 days before checkin.
I’m a lifetime Bonvoy Platinum and it took years of loyalty. I’ve found that I can get a $99 AF AMEX Hilton card to get the same benefits on Hilton Honors. I’ve now switched a majority of my business to Hilton, as they are better at providing benefits (like free breakfasts). Marriott’s continued reduction of relative value as compared to other brands’ loyalty programs will impact them eventually.
I sort of wish this was true but it won't be for 2 reasons.
1. Marriott has cooler brands from an artistic point of view. Think about the Ritz, the W, EDITION hotels, the Westin Heavenly Bed. What does Hilton have going for it? The 500 calorie DoubleTree cookie that's falling out of favor as travelers are increasingly...
I sort of wish this was true but it won't be for 2 reasons.
1. Marriott has cooler brands from an artistic point of view. Think about the Ritz, the W, EDITION hotels, the Westin Heavenly Bed. What does Hilton have going for it? The 500 calorie DoubleTree cookie that's falling out of favor as travelers are increasingly health conscious?
2. Marriott is far more available. There are plenty of cities worldwide in which Marriott has a presence, but Hilton does not. Marriott gets away with low-value rewards because they make up for it in global footprint.
I agree with #2, but I just stayed at the Waldorf Cancun and the Waldorf Pedegral, and both crushed all of the 15+ Ritz Carlton’s in which I’ve stayed!
Marriott overlooked something of actual value while butchering the program so now they're rectifying that mistake.
Disappointed to see this go. I have used it a few times to make reservations that I knew would eventually be covered off by free night certs that were going to arrive