At the end of 2024, I found myself one night short of Marriott Bonvoy Titanium status. I needed 75 nights, but only had 74. This happened because I had messed up my Bonvoy Boundless spend. That card offers 1 elite night per $5,000 spend. I had made sure to spend $5,000 before my December statement finalized, but I didn’t realize that a few hundred dollars in refunds had posted to the card earlier in the year. That brought my total below $5,000 of eligible spend. So, with only days remaining before the end of the year, I booked a cheap one-night stay at a nearby hotel. Read below for details.
Why I wanted to earn 75 nights
When you reach 75 elite nights with Marriott each year, you get two things: Titanium Elite status and the ability to pick a second Choice Benefit (the first Choice Benefit comes at 50 nights). Titanium status doesn’t offer many concrete benefits over 50-night Platinum status, but it does offer a few. The ones I value the most are United Premier Silver status and Air Canada Aeroplan 25K status. Both offer things like free checked bags, the ability to pick preferred seats, etc. Those benefits alone would have been easily worth the cost of booking one night in an inexpensive hotel. The 75 Night Choice Benefit was icing on the cake. I can now pick either a 40K free night certificate or 5 Nightly Upgrade Awards. The former has obvious concrete value. It’s easy to use a certificate like that to book a hotel that would have cost $280 or more. But I’ve had pretty good luck with getting suite upgrades lately with Nightly Upgrade Awards so I’m considering picking those instead. I have until the end of January to decide. See: Marriott Bonvoy Choice Benefits. Which to pick?
Marriott Bonvoy Elite Benefits
This chart summarizes benefits you can get with each elite level. Note that you don’t really have to stay that many nights in Marriott hotels to earn each level of status because there are several shortcuts available. See: Shortcuts to Marriott Elite status
| Elite Status Level | Requirements Per Year | Key Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| Silver Elite | 10 Nights | Late checkout, 10% point bonus |
| Gold Elite | 25 Nights | 2PM late checkout; 25% point bonus; welcome gift (points only); room upgrade; enhanced internet |
| Platinum Elite | 50 Nights | 4PM late checkout; 50% point bonus; welcome gift w/ breakfast option; room upgrade includes suites; lounge access; Choice benefit (such as 5 nightly upgrade awards) when you achieve 50 nights. |
| Titanium Elite | 75 Nights | All of the above, plus: 75% point bonus; United Silver Premier status; Air Canada Aeroplan 25K Status; Ritz-Carlton suite upgrades; Additional Choice Benefit (such as 40K free night certificate) when you achieve 75 nights. |
| Ambassador Elite | 100 Nights + $23K Spend | All of the above, plus: Ambassador Service (dedicated Marriott agent); Your24 (Choose the 24 hours of your stay. For example, choose to check in at 9am after an overnight flight). |
Mattress Run Details
I had two nearly back-to-back family trips at the end of December. That left me with only one night where I could practically do a “mattress run” to earn an elite night before the end of the year. A mattress run is where you check into a hotel for the purpose of earning status or other rewards but with no plans to actually stay overnight. I found a nearby Fairfield Inn that could be booked for about $99 after taxes. I nearly booked that until I saw that they also had a special rate that offered 5,000 bonus points. That rate cost me only $109.89. It was well worth the extra $11 to get 5,000 extra points!
Stacking Deals
In order to make the most of my stay, I enrolled in a Chase offer for 10% back at Fairfield by Marriott. And when booking the hotel, I first clicked through Capital One Shopping for 8% back. Both rewards tracked as expected:
Chase Offer
Capital One Shopping
Of course, I also earned Marriott Bonvoy points and credit card points for the stay.
Rewards Breakdown
Here’s a full breakdown of earnings:
- Marriott Bonvoy Points Earned: 7,233
- 990 Base
- 743 Elite Bonus
- 500 Extra
- 5,000 Bonus (due to the special rate I booked)
- Other Rebates
- $7.92 Capital One Shopping
- $10.99 Chase Offer
- 329.67 Ultimate Rewards points
Let’s say that the Capital One Shopping rewards are worth 70% of face value since they can only be redeemed for gift cards. In that case, the $7.92 rewards would be worth $5.54. And let’s use the current Reasonable Redemption Values (RRVs) for Marriott Bonvoy points (0.7 cents per point) and Chase Ultimate Rewards points (1.5 cents per point) to calculate the full value of the rewards earned:
- Marriott Bonvoy Points Earned: 7,233 x $0.0070 = $50.6
- $7.92 Capital One Shopping x .7 = $5.54
- $10.99 Chase Offer = $10.99
- 329.67 Ultimate Rewards points x $0.0150 = $4.95
- Total rewards = $72.08
Net Cost
The hotel charged a total of $109.89 after all taxes and fees. And, as shown above, I earned a total of $72.08 in rewards for this stay. That makes the net cost for this one night mattress run only $37.81. Not bad!
Conclusion
I would have happily paid $100 or more to secure Titanium status for another year plus the Choice Benefits that come with 75 nights. As it happened, though, I was able to stack deals to where my net cost after rewards and rebates came to less than $40. I’m happy with that outcome!
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