On paper, Marriott Bonvoy is an excellent loyalty program. It offers many ways to earn and redeem points, and its elite program offers upgrade certificates, free breakfast and more. But… it’s no accident that “Bonvoy” has become a negative verb (as in “you’ve been Bonvoyed!”). We get nickel and dimed with ever-increasing resort fees; our free breakfasts often aren’t free; those upgrades frequently fail; and our free night certificates often fall short.
Some of the issues we have with Marriott are due to poor enforcement of program benefits. Others are due to problematic IT. I’d love for those issues to be fixed, but they’re not what this post is about. This post is specifically about the documented Bonvoy program. In other words, even if the program benefits were globally enforced and if Marriott’s website and app always worked perfectly, there are things I’d like changed. Below is my wishlist of things I’d like to see changed. I believe that these changes would go a very long way towards making Bonvoy a program we love rather than tolerate.
The following wishlist is roughly sorted in priority order…
Waive resort fees on award stays
Is it too much to ask that our “free stays” actually be free? Come on Marriott, both Hilton and Hyatt waive resort fees on award stays, so you can too. And lest you think that only programs starting with “H” can do it, don’t forget that Wyndham does it too.
Fix the Platinum Elite free breakfast benefit
Those with Platinum Elite status are supposed to get free breakfast at Marriott properties. But some brands only provide $10. Others don’t provide breakfast at all. And, among the brands that offer free breakfast, there’s a list of exempt properties that should give you breakfast but don’t have to (and so they don’t). It’s so convoluted that we created a guide to Bonvoy free breakfast (found here).
Come on Marriott… Fix this! When staying at ANY Marriott hotel, Platinum Elite members should always get free breakfast instead of excuses.
Clear Nightly Upgrade Awards from the time of booking
Currently, Nightly Upgrade Awards (which are benefits that you can choose at 50 nights and 75 nights each year) don’t start looking for upgrade availability until 3 days before the stay. When upgrades are important to us, the 3 day thing makes our vacations more stressful while we sweat it out waiting to see what happens. Please, please, please, Marriott, clear the upgrades early so that we can eagerly look forward to our stays rather than stressing about them!
Remove the 15K limit on free night certificate top-offs
Bonvoy lets us add up to 15,000 points to our free night certificates to book award stays. Adding that capability was a good enhancement, but it didn’t go far enough. It’s way too frustrating when trying to use 35K free night certs and rooms cost 51K. IHG has unlimited top-offs, Marriott, so why can’t you?
Make Bonvoy credit cards more rewarding for spend
Given that Marriott points are worth, on average, considerably less than a penny each (details here), the 2x base earning rate for Marriott cards just isn’t good enough. Marriott, consider bumping that up to 3x (both IHG and Hilton do this). Also, or alternatively, consider adding 6x in popular categories like dining and grocery shopping. Or, at the very least, offer significant bonus points when hitting big spend thresholds.
More wishes
Via the Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook Group, I asked group members what changes they’d like to see Marriott make to the Bonvoy loyalty program. Here are some of the suggestions from the Facebook group that I think are good ideas, but which didn’t make it into my top wishes above:
- Free parking for high level elites.
- Add meaningful Titanium elite benefits above those offered to Platinum elites.
- Let us use free night certificates with your ‘Stay 5, Pay For 4’ benefit.
- Make premium rooms bookable with free night certificates as long as they are within the point limit.
- Introduce more – and better – Choice benefits. e.g. a 35k night cert (or even a 25k night cert) at the 50 night level would be a nice additional option.
- Allow people to earn lifetime Titanium Elite status.
See Also
- Bonvoyology: Mastering Marriott’s Mysteries
- Marriott Bonvoy Complete Guide
- My World of Hyatt wishlist. Make a good thing even better
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