Bonvoy: now live, adding points to free night certs

[mdurette]

This new feature is now live and the reservation process is easy.

I have 2 35K cert. I looked at 3 night stay in a room that cost 50K per night.
The system attached my 2 certs, added 15K for each upgrade and the 50K for the 3rd night.

3 nights at a cost of 2 certs and 80K bonvoy points.

 

[ann824]

There is a glitch that I discovered last night. I had a 40k and a 50k certificate that I wanted to use for a 50k and 58k redemption. Instead of adding 10k to the 40k for the 50k and 8k to the 50k for the 58k it used the 50k for the 50k redemption and would not give me the option to use the 40k certificate. I had to make separate reservations to make it work. You can edit your existing reservations.

 

[DanCali]

Was also just able to use it for an upcoming 3-night stay. Used 25K, 35K and 40K certificates (latter expiring in June).

The one thing that still seems to be a "problem" is that the system preference is to go by expiration dates. For example, I also happen to have a second 35K certificate that expires after the 40K certificate used here, and I may have potentially preferred to use that one (not in this case though, because the 40K expires in June). This problem can be solved by making a "dummy" reservation to temporarily use up the 40K, then book the reservation you want with the two 35K certs, and then cancel the dummy reservation to retrieve the 40K cert back (tip I got from a phone agent). But would be nice if they just let you pick the certificates you want to use - would have solved the @ann824 's issue too.

But I like the new top-off feature. Much easier to use the lowly 25K certificates this way!

 

[VacationForever]

Has anyone tried to replace points that had been attached to a reservation with the new hotel cert + top up points? I don't find a way to do it.

 

[iowaguy09]

Has anyone tried to replace points that had been attached to a reservation with the new hotel cert + top up points? I don't find a way to do it.

I know I have used “Modify” when I look at the “Reservation Details” to add or delete a certificate for a night, so maybe try it that way?

 

[VacationForever]

There is not a way to delete a certficate in the current Marriott.com system.

I can't rebook the nights because they have gone up from 43K-45K per night to 60K a night. I am on the phone with an agent now and she said the moment she hit modify, the points in the reservation went up to 60K per night. This is crap.

 

[TravelTime]

This new feature is now live and the reservation process is easy.

I have 2 35K cert. I looked at 3 night stay in a room that cost 50K per night.
The system attached my 2 certs, added 15K for each upgrade and the 50K for the 3rd night.

3 nights at a cost of 2 certs and 80K bonvoy points.

Thank you so much for letting us know about this new feature. With the way it worked before, I never used the certificates because the hotels I wanted to stay in almost always exceeded the number of points on my certificates.

The system might be funky. For one Ritz Carlton reservation, it seems to have applied only one of my certificates and I have two that add up to 75,000 points. For another Ritz Carlton, it would not apply my certificates at all.

Okay, just tried again. I changed the dates on one of the Ritz Carltons, and then it applied both certificates. So now I am getting 3 free nights at the Ritz Carlton. I am splitting the stay with 5 nights at one using points (1 night free bc I booked 5 nights) and 2 nights at the other using the 2 certificates plus 19K points. They are close to each other so not a big deal to move.

We could have stayed at one of the Ritz Carlton for the entire week but one is on the beach and the other isn’t so we decided to split the stay. I am so excited because until you told me about this feature, I had booked 2 nights at the Courtyard as two 1 night reservations. Each night was only 19,000 points so I would have lost many of the points on the certificate. I had chosen Courtyard only because in one of the towns we are going, there are only 2 hotels in the entire town. In the other town, the only hotel is the Ritz Carlton.

For a JW Marriott and the W, it applied both certificates for a total of 74,000 points and then it charged me a few extra points but not sure what it was for since the point cost was less than the 2 certificates combined.

 

[VacationForever]

Just got off the phone. The agent said there was not a way to keep the same point requirement for my existing reservation. It cost me 133K then, now it is 180K for the three nights. With 60K per night, it exceeds 15K per add-on as I have 2 35K and 1 40K certificates. Crap. Foul. Whatever I feel like calling it now.

My husband's account is similar to mine and we are booking 3 nights under each of our account for next month when our friend comes to visit and we are headed to Utah. So we can't do it on his account either.

 

[Mroze]

Just got off the phone. The agent said there was not a way to keep the same point requirement for my existing reservation. It cost me 133K then, now it is 180K for the three nights. With 60K per night, it exceeds 15K per add-on as I have 2 35K and 1 40K certificates. Crap. Foul. Whatever I feel like calling it now.

My husband's account is similar to mine and we are booking 3 nights under each of our account for next month when our friend comes to visit and we are headed to Utah. So we can't do it on his account either.

This is the way it has worked in the past.
If you "Modify" a reservation, you may have to give up more Points [based on the current Points/Night] to pay for the difference.
However, it works both ways. If the Points/Night goes down, your account will be credited with the difference.

Prior to MAR-31, I made a flood of reservations for the next 12 months [even if we have less than 25% probability of traveling] and noticed the following:

• For most of the high-end [previously CAT-8] reservations [Ritz, Al Maha, St. Regis Maldives] Points/Night have gone up by +25-50%
• For about 1/3 of our reservations [JW, St. Regis] it has gone down slightly [by ~2K, 5K, 10K/Night]
  • For these I clicked "Modify" and received a credit instantly

 

[frank808]

I was able to do this with a bunch of certificates last night. Was messing around with the system and noticed, all of a sudden, that system added points to a reservation. I think this happened at 12am EST. Prior to this it would not. I was actually googling the expected date that topping off was going live.

Happy camper as I was able to use up 9 FNA. This freed up my Hilton FNA to use for nicer properties. Win win in my eyes. I just wish there was no limit to the number of bonvoy points that you could add. This would make the FNA extremely usable.

Sent from my SM-T290 using Tapatalk

 

[TravelTime]

So I get one free 40K certificate with my Bonvoy card. I had a bunch of 35K certificates but not sure how I got those. How are certificates awarded?

 

[DanCali]

So I get one free 40K certificate with my Bonvoy card. I had a bunch of 35K certificates but not sure how I got those. How are certificates awarded?

I have 3 cards. They give 25k, ,35k, and 50k certificates.

The 40k I believe comes from the 75-night choice awards. I don’t know if any cards offer a 40k certificate.

Some certificates from 2020 and 2021 were extended due to Covid and expire June 30 this year.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[VacationForever]

So I get one free 40K certificate with my Bonvoy card. I had a bunch of 35K certificates but not sure how I got those. How are certificates awarded?

Credit cards for 35K. 75 nights stay gives you option to elect 40K night certficate.

Amex Bonvoy Brilliant gives 50K night.

 

[Fallenone]

Rebooked one that was 60k before dynamic, and now 57k. Used a 50k cert and 7k point, got the 60k points back.

 

[Sandy VDH]

I saw that 2 days ago when I went to book one of my remaining 35K free certs that are expiring.

I am down to 1 cert left that expires 6/30. I will get a new one if I keep that card but I think I am going cancel and get a new card with chase instead. I am lifetime with Marriott and just don't travel as much as I used to. I also don't own a Marriott TS so nothing coming over from that side. I would likely prefer to keep my AMEX Hilton Aspire card, and perhaps pick up a Chase United card instead.

 

[TravelTime]

I have 3 cards. They give 25k, ,35k, and 50k certificates.

The 40k I believe comes from the 75-night choice awards. I don’t know if any cards offer a 40k certificate.

Some certificates from 2020 and 2021 were extended due to Covid and expire June 30 this year.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That must be why I had 3 certificates for 35K each expiring June 30 which I did not realize I could use or I would have planned something using them. I am giving them to another Tugger to use.

 

[TravelTime]

Credit cards for 35K. 75 nights stay gives you option to elect 40K night certficate.

Amex Bonvoy Brilliant gives 50K night.

I am looking for a new card. I was thinking of getting a new personal United card for miles. I have been using my American Airlines card mostly right now but there are fewer places to fly from CA using American. Now I am thinking of using my Bonvoy card more. I now can’t decide which new card to get!

Since you seem to be knowledge about getting the most benefits, which cards would you recommend? What would be the reasons or benefits for having the cards you recommend?

I have family in Florida so I am able to use my AA card to go there. I think United would be better but I need to decide on one card to consolidate spending.

 

[ljmiii]

I am looking for a new card...I need to decide on one card to consolidate spending

If you want only one card I would recommend the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Points are valuable, 3x points for dining and travel, and points can be transferred elsewhere. Expensive, but you get various credits that knock it down to little, no, or negative cost. There is a lesser Chase Sapphire at a lower per year cost, with only 2x points, and no (or fewer?) credits.

That said, I'd suggest you keep your Bonvoy card for Marriott MFs and hotel expenses.

 

[TravelTime]

If you want only one card I would recommend the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Points are valuable, 3x points for dining and travel, and points can be transferred elsewhere. Expensive, but you get various credits that knock it down to little, no, or negative cost. There is a lesser Chase Sapphire at a lower per year cost, with only 2x points, and no (or fewer?) credits.

That said, I'd suggest you keep your Bonvoy card for Marriott MFs and hotel expenses.

Thank you. I will look into this card.

 

[Sandy VDH]

If you want only one card I would recommend the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Points are valuable, 3x points for dining and travel, and points can be transferred elsewhere.

CSR is already my primary spend card. I love that card.

 

[jeff76543]

There is not a way to delete a certficate in the current Marriott.com system.

I can't rebook the nights because they have gone up from 43K-45K per night to 60K a night. I am on the phone with an agent now and she said the moment she hit modify, the points in the reservation went up to 60K per night. This is crap.

I had a similar problem. I wanted to make a change to a reservation for a room type that is now sold out - so there was a chance that it could not be rebooked and the system wouldn't let me or the Marriott agent make the change to the original reservation. The agent said that there is a special team that handles the "back end" of the system and that they can make those kind of changes without canceling the reservation. He kept me on hold for about 5 minutes and then told me the change had been made. The original point values were retained.

 

[tberman]

This new feature is now live and the reservation process is easy.

I have 2 35K cert. I looked at 3 night stay in a room that cost 50K per night.
The system attached my 2 certs, added 15K for each upgrade and the 50K for the 3rd night.

3 nights at a cost of 2 certs and 80K bonvoy points.

How do you get certificates?

 

[DanCali]

How do you get certificates?

The Bonvoy credit cards through chase and Amex give you a free night certificate every year on your anniversary. With the basic cards it's a 35K point certificate and with the Amex Brilliant card it's a 50K point certificate. Some older ones that are no longer offered had a 25K certificate.

You can also get a 40K certificate as a "choice award" if you get to 75 nights in a calendar year.

 

[MOXJO7282]

I was told this was coming and so pleased that it has because it just saved me $1200 by allowing me to add points to 2 50k certs to use for a Maui trip in July. I was forced to buy cash units because I didn't have the right certs so this is perfect timing for us.

 

[VacationForever]

I am looking for a new card. I was thinking of getting a new personal United card for miles. I have been using my American Airlines card mostly right now but there are fewer places to fly from CA using American. Now I am thinking of using my Bonvoy card more. I now can’t decide which new card to get!

Since you seem to be knowledge about getting the most benefits, which cards would you recommend? What would be the reasons or benefits for having the cards you recommend?

I have family in Florida so I am able to use my AA card to go there. I think United would be better but I need to decide on one card to consolidate spending.

If not for my friend visiting next month and my sis and bro-in-law visiting in September, I would have had a hard time in using the free nights. We have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card for the longest time but then they wanted to increase the fees from $450 to $525 (I think), I cancelled it. Now I use a BOA cash back card - 3.5 cents for travel and dining and 2.6 cents for other spending. But this cash back card is going to be reduced because we pulled our money out of BOA. I am back to finding a replacement card and I don't know yet...