Marriott Bonvoy’s Latest Change: Is This a Net Win For Members?

March 13, 2026

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Marriott Bonvoy Increases Points Top Up Threshold
Is this Change Good or Bad?
The Pundit’s Mantra
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Just yesterday, I wrote about brand new limited time offers rolled out by American Express on their co-branded Marriott Bonvoy credit cards. You can earn up to 200,000 points or 5 free nights from just one credit card welcome bonus. You can read all the details here. However, in addition to the new offers, Marriott Bonvoy also made a change to the way free night certificates are redeemed. So what’s going on here and are the changes a net positive or negative for Marriott Bonvoy loyalists?

Marriott Bonvoy Increases Points Top Up Threshold

Unlike Hilton and Hyatt, Marriott Bonvoy’s free night certificates are tied to the value of a standard room in points. For example, each year upon renewal, on the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card, you get a free night certificate. However, that certificate is capped at a maximum of 85,000 points per night.

Previously, Marriott Bonvoy used to allow members to top up a maximum of 15,000 points per night while redeeming their free night certificates. In this particular example, you could redeem you points for a night at a property charging up to 100,000 points per night. However,

Marriott Bonvoy has now increased that threshold to 25,000 points per night! In essence, you can now redeem the same certificate for a night that is priced up to 110,000 points per night. The same rules will apply to all free night certificates in the Mariott Bonvoy ecosystem. For example, a free night certificate capped at 50,000 points will not allow you to book a night up 75,000 points per night with the new rules.

Use your points or Free Night Award(s) for a stay at any hotel or resort participating in Marriott Bonvoy®, including our extraordinary portfolio of 30 brands worldwide. Additionally, the value of your Free Night Award can be combined with up to 25,000 points. View your available Free Night Awards on the Activity section of your Marriott Bonvoy account.^1-8Certain hotels have resort fees.

Is this Change Good or Bad?

My first impression while reacting to this news was that this was really good. However, after giving it more thought, here’s what I think.

What works well:

You have more options to redeem now, you can unlock properties priced higher, ones that were out of reach earlier.
It gives us more flexibility and also unlocks higher priced properties during peak times
Most importantly, it rids me about worrying about my orphan certificate expiring every now and then. Earlier, the 15,000 points threshold was really restrictive and I often had a structure a vacation around that certificate. With the higher cap, using the certificate becomes easier. You can relate to this change if you, like me, have multiple fre night certificates sitting in your account each year.

What worries me:

What has be a tad worried is the fact that this additional room for using points gives Marriott Bonvoy even more leeway to increase points prices at multiple properties. Bear in mind that unlike World of Hyatt, Marriott Bonvoy has no award chart. So, while a 25,000 top up feature is great, if could well be negated by properties increasing prices even more. Since there’s no award chart, there’s no real ceiling for an increase in pricing.
On the contrary, it adds little value to people who were not topping up points to their certificates or only use their certificates to redeem at mid-tier properties.

The Pundit’s Mantra

Overall, I view this as a positive change since most of my travel is aspirational in nature and I love redeeming my points to book stays at properties like St. Regis and the Ritz Carlton. However, only time will tell whether this positive change sticks or it has been negated by a points price increase that erodes any value added by this change.

How do you view this change made by Marriott Bonvoy? Tell us in the comments section.

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