Marriott Bonvoy Launches Points Multiplier: Worth It?

Loyalty programs are big businesses for airlines and hotel groups. These loyalty programs try to find all kinds of different ways to sell and merchandise their rewards currencies, so here’s the latest example of that from Marriott Bonvoy.

Multiply your Marriott Bonvoy points balance at a cost

While Marriott Bonvoy has long sold points directly to members, the program has just introduced a new way to (sort of indirectly) purchase points. Specifically, Marriott Bonvoy has launched Points Multiplier. With this feature, you can purchase up to 4x the points that you’ve earned on recent stays.

To celebrate this new feature, Marriott Bonvoy is offering the following discounts:

• Buy 2x the points you’ve earned on eligible stays, and save 15%
• Buy 3x the points you’ve earned on eligible stays, and save 20%
• Buy 4x the points you’ve earned on eligible stays, and save 25%

Now, as you’d expect, there are some terms to be aware of:

• To take advantage of this, you must be a Marriott Bonvoy member for at least 30 days
• Members can purchase between 1,000 and 100,000 points annually with this offer
• Points with this offer will post within 72 hours of completing a purchase
• The offer is available to those who have completed a stay within the past 12 months, though offers are customized for each member, and tailored based on the points earned and activities during the most recent eligible stay

So, what’s the cost to purchase Marriott Bonvoy points through this offer? The cost is 1.25 cents per point before any promotion, so the cost goes down if you qualify for the 15-25% discount. For example, in the case of my account, it seems that I can multiply up to 16,707 points. This means:

• I can purchase 33,414 points for $355.03 (a 15% discount), which is a cost of 1.06 cents per point
• I can purchase 50,121 points for $501.21 (a 20% discount), which is a cost of 1.0 cents per point
• I can purchase 66,828 points for $626.51 (a 25% discount), which is a cost of 0.94 cents per point

Is Marriott Bonvoy’s Points Multiplier a good deal?

In addition to this new Points Multiplier feature, Marriott Bonvoy also sells points directly, and often has promotions on that. The standard cost to purchase Marriott Bonvoy points is 1.25 cents per point, before any promotion. That same cost applies whether you’re buying points directly, or using the Points Multiplier feature.

With that in mind, a few thoughts:

• Currently Marriott Bonvoy is selling points with a 40% bonus, which is an opportunity to buy points for 0.89 cents each, so that’s a better deal
• Perhaps the main selling point of Points Multiplier is that the annual purchase limit is separate from the purchase limit for buying points, as each has a cap of 100,000 points (pre-bonus)
• We’ll see how this evolves, but it’s certainly possible that there will be situations where Points Multiplier is a better deal than the standard offer on buying points; we could see discounts of over 25%, and for that matter, Marriott Bonvoy isn’t always selling points with a discount or bonus

As of now, I’d only consider using Points Multiplier if you really want to earn Marriott Bonvoy points, and have already reached your annual cap on buying points. Otherwise, this really isn’t the best option.

For what it’s worth, I value Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.7 cents each, though there are definitely ways to redeem the points for more value.

Bottom line

Marriott Bonvoy has introduced Points Multiplier, whereby you can double, triple, or quadruple the points you’ve recently earned. The standard cost to acquire points through this method is the same as the cost to just buy points outright, but then the program will presumably sometimes have promotions that make this a better value.

This is something to be aware of, but for most, it’s probably not something to take advantage of at the moment.

What do you make of Marriott Bonvoy Points Multiplier?