We may receive a commission when you use our links. Monkey Miles is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com and CardRatings. This relationship may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Monkey Miles is also a Senior Advisor to Bilt Rewards. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
When you hit Marriott Platinum status, and hit 50 nights, you’re given a Choice award. One of the 5 options you could choose were called Suite Night Awards . While these sound awesome, a lot of Platinum, Titanium, and Ambassador members complained the Suite Nights never clear. Going forward these Suite Night Awards will be referred to as Nightly Upgrade Awards… either premium room or a suite. They will also clear at the 3 day mark.
Marriott, as I mention below, is committing to 20% more “upgrade” being available, but they’re folding in non suite rooms. For instance, we stayed at the St Regis Aspen in a large terraced room overlooking the slopes, I’d presume that this category would eligible for a “nightly upgrade award”
As you can see, it was a normal room with a fantastic view and terrace. Is this a value add or a deval? I guess that’s up to you to decide, but when you compare it to Hyatt who will confirm suite upgrades, up to 7 nights at a time, when you book, this doesn’t make these choice awards look all that valuable. Compare it to a much larger footprint hotel chain like IHG who will confirm up to 14 days in advance.
Here are the Annual Choice Benefits options from Marriott’s site
So what are Nightly Upgrade Awards?
- Nightly Upgrade Awards are one-night confirmable upgrades to a premium room or suite.
- Marriott has said that they will offer up ~20% more premium rooms and suites via upgrades
- examples: oceanfront rooms, balconies, and extra space.
- Marriott has said that they will offer up ~20% more premium rooms and suites via upgrades
- Notification will start at 3 nights prior to arrival
You may be able to lock down a Suite upgrade – ( St Regis Doha shown below )
Which properties are included? All of them except…
- All-Inclusive Resorts
- Bulgari
- Design Hotels
- Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy®
- Marriott Executive Apartments
- Marriott Vacation Club
- Marriott Grand Residence Club
- The Ritz-Carlton Club
- Ritz-Carlton Reserve
- The Ritz-Carlton Residences
- The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection
- Sheraton Vacation Club
- The Phoenician Residences, a Luxury Collection Residence Club, Scottsdale
- Westin Vacation Club
If you tried to use Suite Night Awards before, you’ll be pleased to see that Ritz-Carlton, EDITION, Aloft, Element, and Protea Hotels have been added.
Overall
I’d guess more people will use these awards, but fewer and fewer will end up in suites. Is that a value add? I dunno…traveling with a family or trying to do work on a holiday, having that separate living is a really nice perk. This is why I make sure to allocate as many nights to Hyatt to extract the immense value in their globalist status, and then look to potentially keep credit cards that grease the path to Marriott, IHG, or Hilton status.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.