Marriott Bonvoy 50k Free Night Certificate Sweet Spots: Dubai & Abu Dhabi (UAE)

Marriott Bonvoy is a program where you’d have to cherry pick on where to go to get outsized value out of its points. Marriott credit cards like the Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless and Amex Marriott Bonvoy Business Card occasionally offer signup bonuses in forms of 50k Free Night Certificates rather than points. Unfortunately, 50k FNC’s are the most frustrating to extract the max value.

This post’s aim is to make 50K FNC redemptions as painless as possible while showing luxurious options with decent to great value out of your 50K FNC’s. Maximizing monetary value with 50k FNC’s is unfortunately very difficult outside of special events.

One country where you can extract good value out of them is the UAE, and there are a good amount of luxurious Marriott properties, particularly in Dubai & Abu Dhabi.

Dubai

Dubai has plenty of luxurious hotels that you could redeem your 50k certificates on, with good chances.

Some nice options are:

1. La Ville Hotel & Suites CITY Walk, Dubai, Autograph Collection
2. JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai
3. Sheraton Grand Hotel, Dubai
4. Dubai Marriott Harbour Hotel & Suites
5. Grosvenor House, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Dubai
6. Habtoor Grand Resort, Autograph Collection
7. JW Marriott Hotel Marina

One interesting note is the Grosvenor House categorize their One Bedroom Suite (Tower) as a standard room in the award pricing tab. Thus, you’ll be able to redeem your 50k certs as long as the price is 65k points at most! It seems to be the most attractive option for a 50k certificate redemption in Dubai.

For St. Regis Dubai, The Palm, it is possible to redeem 50k certs, but you’d most likely have to be in Dubai in summer months (Jun-Sep), which will be brutally hot. But, no judgment from me if that’s what you want.

Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi, the capital of UAE, has tons of options within the Marriott’s top-end luxury line like the W, Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, Luxury Collection, and EDITION. All of them are attractive options with good chances for 50k certificate redemptions:

1. The Abu Dhabi EDITION
2. The Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi, Grand Canal
3. W Abu Dhabi – Yas Island
4. The St. Regis Abu Dhabi (not to be confused with St Regis Saadiyat Island Resort)
5. Al Wathba, a Luxury Collection Desert Resort & Spa, Abu Dhabi

Out of these options, The Abu Dhabi EDITION categorized some upgraded rooms (up to Premier Deluxe that includes a balcony) in a similar fashion to Grosvenor House in Dubai.

Conclusion

The UAE is a good candidate country to redeem your Marriott 50k certs on because of the good amount of luxury hotels that are categorized more generously compared to the US or western Europe. Few of them even categorize upgraded rooms as standard on award bookings that let you squeeze more value out of your certificates.