Marriott Bonvoy Credit Cards Signup Bonus: Free Night Certificates vs. Points- Which To Go For?
From time to time, Marriott credit cards will have elevated signup bonus offers in the form of 3-5x 50K Free Night Certificates or points, particularly on the American Express Marriott Bonvoy Business Card or Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless.
On paper, free night certificates typically gives the most amount of nominal value. Sneakily enough, a 5x 50K FNC bonus would be advertised in worth up to 250K points. Unfortunately , it’s not as clear cut and dry because of certain limitations FNC’s present.
Your near-future travel plans should greatly influence how you decide whether to get Free Night Certificate bonuses or points, and I’ll guide you through it in this post.
Pros & Cons of Free Night Certificates Signup Bonus
Free Night Certificates potentially give you nice hotels, but not top of the line within Marriott portfolio. The biggest caveat is that they take the most amount of work to redeem as you’d find yourself being priced out, even with 25K topoff.
Because FNC’s are expiring instruments (1 year after issuance), they’re better to be utilized first, which in turn, help you not spend much of your Marriott points reserve that can then be redeemed elsewhere. This is handy because Marriott points are harder to earn effectively compared to other hotel points.
I’d say choose FNC signup bonus only if you are sure that you can redeem them and have enough points to top all of them off!
You’ll have to work backwards by figuring out which hotels allow for greater likelihood of 50K certs redemption first before accepting the signup bonus offer rather than taking the offer first and then figuring out which hotel(s) to redeem them at.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Can be worth more than points bonus in nominal value; thus netting more nights from a single signup bonus alone | FNC's take more work to redeem and maximize out of |
| Using FNC's help save actual Marriott points that may serve better use elsewhere | FNC's are locked out from Marriott's most aspirational properties |
| FNC's expire 1 year after issuance | |
| Stay 5 Nights, Pay for 4 don't apply to FNC's |
Lists of Hotels Worldwide for 50K Free Night Certificates
To figure out what hotels you can redeem 50K certs on, I’ve created list of the higher-end brand hotels that you can find around the world to help you burn them.
In general, you can find high-end hotels where Americans typically don’t go to that you can easily redeem your 50K FNC’s on. You can use this opportunity to visit places you never thought of going before, which I believe is a cool way to figure out where to go for your next trip.
Basically, aim for Category 4-5 hotels from the lists if you want to be in a comfortable spot where most availability opens up for 50K FNC’s plus 25K points top-off. The problem is, 35K FNC’s can do the same job should you decide to choose Cat 4 or 5 hotels.
With Category 6-7, that’s when you want to start planning your trip around the hotel. They are more challenging to redeem for with 50K FNC’s with top-offs, but they are generally nicer than Cat 4-5’s.
The qualities of hotels within each Categories are not equal, and there are cases where the Cat 4-5 hotels will be nicer than the ones in Cat 6-7, so do your own due diligence by checking out the pictures and reviews to see if they appeal to you.
Tips on Dealing with Marriott Dynamic Pricing
One important thing I want to mention is that people will typically try to maximize the certs and points top-off so they can redeem at hotels that’s priced at 70k-75k points per night. I don’t think this is necessary to do, and at times, don’t offer the best value anyway because of dynamic pricing.
A big valuable characteristic of the FNC is that you don’t get to spend on your Marriott points reserve, so it’s still a nice thing to be able to redeem them at 40k+ points hotels, with the additional benefit on not having to work so hard to do so.
You can also be prudent in checking the hotel prices because they can change day by day which can help you make a redemption possible or save you more points by reducing top-offs needed.
Typically, you can see what a hotel’s max points they’d charge by simply checking the end of schedule on the calendar view so you’d have a benchmark on what to expect within the hotel you’re seeing.
Pros & Cons of Points Signup Bonus
Points bonuses are typically presented to have less nominal value than FNC’s, but they are simpler to use and more beneficial towards targeted aspirational hotels.
Compared to FNC’s, points virtually won’t expire as long as there’s a point-earning activity that will reset the 24-month expiration from inactivity like earnings from a credit card (regardless of amount).
With all that said, points signup bonuses are the way to go if you wish to go all-out on the top-of-the-line Marriott hotels. But, it can take multiple Marriott signup bonuses to do so, so it’s better to do them as quickly as you can to prevent devaluation. Marriott typically adjust points rates incrementally and quietly around March and August each year ever since the official award chart went away. Because of that, if you plan to redeem them on an aspirational property, do try to accumulate them at least 1-2 years in advance.
Because of card issuer restrictions like Chase 5/24 rule, the Amex lineup of Marriott cards are better to spend your way through the signup bonuses.
Assuming you have no Marriott cards to start with, I’d sign up for the offers in the following way:
Amex Marriott Bonvoy Bevy>>Amex Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant/Bonvoy Business
It’s best to do the Bevy first because you aren’t eligible for their signup bonus if you ever have the signup bonus of the Bonvoy Brilliant. After that, you may go for either the Brilliant and Business in whichever order you want. With that, you can get the signup bonus for all 3 Marriott credit cards by Amex. The points bonuses worth taking offers for typically come from the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant and Bevy which has the cost of $650 and $250 in annual fee respectively.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Can be used towards aspirational hotels | Less in nominal value per signup bonus compared to FNC's |
| Can be used towards Stay 5 Nights , Pay for 4 | Takes multiple signup bonuses to make them meaningful |
| Points virtually don't expire as long as there's activity | High points signup bonus come from higher annual fee cards |
| Simpler to use and understand |
Conclusion
Choosing between Marriott Free Night Certificates or points signup bonus offers heavily depends on your near-future travel plans and wants.
50K Free Night Certificates help you not spend Marriott points that are harder to earn compared to other hotel points. They can still get you nice hotels, especially outside of the US. But, it takes work and some luck to redeem them. Figure out which hotels appeal to you first based on my lists and see the likelihood of you being able to redeem them by browsing the prices on the yearly calendar before taking the offer.
On the other hand with points, they are simpler to use and can go towards the top-of-the-line hotels. But, it would take multiple signup bonus amount of points to be able to stay at them for multiple nights. More signup bonus required means more time needed to accumulate, and I’m speaking at least 6 months just from card application velocity alone. Accumulate the points as soon as possible for an aspirational stay 1-2 years down the line to ease the impact of price adjustments done around twice a year.
