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Marriott.com is offering 20% off on Marriott eGift Cards for the next week. This could potentially be a good opportunity to lock in a discount on future travel given that Marriott gift cards are accepted worldwide except at Bulgari and Design Hotels and The Ritz-Carlton Residences and Homes and Villas by Marriott International. It’s a bit of a risky proposition tying up cash in gift cards, but if you are confident that you’ll eventually stay at Marriott properties again this could nonetheless be a very good deal.
The Deal
- Marriott.com is offering 20% off on eGift Cards from May 11-17, 2020 issued in the following denominations:
- Buy a $50 gift card for $40
- Buy a $100 gift card for $80
- Buy a $250 gift card for $200
- Buy a $500 gift card for $400
- Buy a $1,000 gift card for $800
Key Terms
- Valid on eGift cards purchased via Marriott.com only (not at properties)
- Valid May 11-17, 2020
- Gift cards do not expire and can be used worldwide except at Bulgari and Design Hotels and The Ritz-Carlton Residences and Homes and Villas by Marriott International
- Gift cards can’t be used to pay for advance purchase rates
- Max purchase of $5,000 worth of gift cards per person per credit card per day
Quick Thoughts
Locking in a future discount might make sense for some folks, especially since you’ll be able to stack these gift cards with future promotions. I like being able to stack discounted gift cards with portal rewards and hotel promotions – the combination of which is often better than the discount for advance purchase rates (which can’t be paid with gift cards). Note of course that right now Marriott is gone from most shopping portals. I think it is reasonable to expect that when travel returns to normal, that will change again. Personally, I almost never book advance purchase rates since I prefer flexibility unless the discount is substantial (and I often find that stacking a portal + AAA rate + discounted gift card to be a better deal). That said, it’s worth taking a look at prepaid rates to decide whether or not this deal makes sense since Marriott’s current COVID-19 cancellation policy allows guests to cancel reservations they make before June 30 up to 24 hours prior to arrival including pre-paid stays.
Note that as these gift cards are sold directly by Marriott, I expect you’ll earn 6x Marriott Bonvoy points on the purchase if using a Bonvoy credit card. Using a card like the Bonvoy Brilliant might be a good idea (I’ve successfully gotten the $300 in Marriott hotel credits from that card by purchasing gift cards from Marriott.com in the past even though it “shouldn’t” work).
I’m somewhat tempted by this because I have previously redeemed Capital One “miles” for Marriott gift cards, but Marriott is not currently available through Capital One. Since Marriott runs these purchases directly, I expect that I could probably pay with my Capital One card and then redeem “miles” to erase the purchase if I wanted to do so (which would yield a slightly lesser value than my special grandfathered rate via Capital One).
It’s worth mentioning that when Marriott and Starwood initially merged, you couldn’t use Marriott gift cards at legacy Starwood properties. However, that changed at some point. I used US-issued Marriott gift cards (in US dollars) to pay for my room changes (food) at the St. Regis Bora Bora last fall. I have often found that front desk agents get confused about how to apply gift cards to my folio, so I usually go to the desk early in the morning on check-out day. At the St. Regis Bora Bora, I had to leave the gift cards with the front desk for an hour or two for them to figure out how to apply them, but they got it done. I mention that so you prepare and hit the desk ahead of check out time if you’re looking to use gift cards.
Obviously gift cards carry some risk. If Marriott went bankrupt, your gift card could become worthless. Is the discount worth the risk? Personally, I doubt Marriott will go out of business entirely and I know that I’ll stay somewhere when I eventually travel again (and given that my Titanium status is locked up until February 2022, there’s a good chance I’ll travel to a Marriott property). Like I said, I’m tempted and may well buy some in gift cards here, though I likely won’t go nuts. Given the uncertain state of the economy in general, it doesn’t make sense to me to tie up a huge amount of capital in an unnecessary expense, but neither do I want to pay more than necessary for future stays. I’ll find the middle ground.
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Amex Bonvoy Business statement just generated. 6x — exactly as advertised.
Hi. This week I bought $1200 worth of Marriott gift cards (at 20% off) for a future stay in October. The hotel (a South Beach resort) charges a $700 prepaid amount to hold my reservation (regular, not prepaid rate, so I’m not sure why they’re charging so much).
I understand I cannot use the gift cards to pay for the prepaid amount of $700. Question: Can I present the $1200 in gift cards when I check in and then will Marriott credit my card the original $700 they charged me at the time of the reservation (this month/May)?
I have booked an event venue at a Marriott property. Any idea if I can use giftcards for paying event reservations? I would love 20% discount on that!
would love to know this as well!!
Sorry I didn’t see this in time. The answer though is that I think it depends on the property. Some charge everything through the front desk (in which case, you probably could use GCs) but others charge events separately. Your best bet would have been to contact the property with some lead time for them to double check.
I’ve got $200 left to spend on my Reserve’s annual travel credit and only days left to spend it. Is this a good option?! Would purchasing gift cards direct from Marriott even trigger the Travel Credit?! T.I.A.
I expect it likely will, but I can’t say with certainty.
with Bonvoy, there is a chance they will exclude every hotel except for 1 or 2 in downtown Tehran from using giftcards…effective immediately….Bonvoy, put nothing past them and beware the Lurkers lies.
Does anyone know how the points are earned with Marriott when using a gift card? For instance, if I buy a $100 gift card for $80 and use it on a room that costs $100 for simplicity. Do I then earn my 1000 Marriott points the night of my stay like if I pay with any other method? Or no since it was paid with a gift card?
Yes, you earn points the same as if you paid with a credit card, a debit card, a hundred dollar bill, a visa gift card, or a Marriott gift card. The hotel gets a hundred bucks and you earn points on that hundred bucks.
Does Marriott’s Mexico resorts use USD rate too?
I’m not sure.
when there is a gift card related promotion, I have to stop by and see Nick’s thoughts on that
Nick I have a Brilliant and have not used my $300 yet this year. It looks like I’m planning to receive 6x and $300, if you can confirm?
I am getting married in December and we have an after party at a Marriott where we are staying and will be doing an open bar package. Do you know off hand if we can apply the gift cards to that?
I haven’t done it in a while, but I have purchased eGCs from Marriott.com with the Brilliant and gotten the $300 in credits before. I can’t recall for sure whether the purchase earned 6x (I assume it earned nothing since it got credited back? Didn’t check) — but I would assume that if the purchase has coded in such a way to credit back the $300, it would be logical that it also awards 6x since that presumably means it is coded the same way as a hotel front desk.
I have no idea if you can use gift cards for events. I suspect this may vary by property. My bet is that some have catering run as a near totally separate entity and others have it set up directly through the hotel. If you’d pay that bill at the front desk, I don’t see why you couldn’t use a gift card. If you are paying the catering / events department directly, I don’t know. Your best bet is to reach out to them now and ask if they can confirm that you can pay with gift cards. I’m sure the person you ask initially won’t know, so you may need to push them to find out and be sure.
Can verify I bought a $1k purchase for $800. AMEX credited me $300 on my Brilliant cc, + I earned 6x Bonvoy points.
@Pam, how many days did this take to credit? I purchased on May 12, still waiting for credit.
I purchased 5.11 & the credit/points posted on 5.13 (tho not visible to me until 5.14). I bet you see sometime today.
@Pam, thank for the data point, been checking today and still no credit. Hoping I see it tomorrow. I only purchased $100 gc to see if it would trigger. Also used an authorized user card, that may have been a mistake.
AMEX T&Cs say: “each Card Account is eligible for up to a total of $300 per renewal year in statement credits across all Cards on the Card Account” so not that. Hopefully today!
One thing about overseas redemptions; expect to lose bigly re the conversion rate.
Yeah, you certainly may. I can’t remember exactly what I got at the St. Regis Bora Bora (I’ll have to see if I can dig up my receipt), but I remember thinking that it wasn’t bad. I’m sure it’s awful in some cases though.
Depending on how far out a prepaid res is made, you might be able to initially book/pay with a Bonvoy cc (15-20% off) then have the front desk credit the cc & pay with a discounted gc instead.
Could you elaborate this strategy?
In the past I have prepaid advance bookings with, say, my Bonvoy personal card but then switched to my Biz card at checkout if there is now a promo specifically for that card, etc. I have even rung the billing dpt up once home to make a change if a promo doesn’t start til after check-out. The same change can likely be done with a gift card. They don’t like it if it’s been more than 30-60 days, though, dep on the property but they are otherwise usually cool with making the change.
Good to know. Someone in our Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook group reported the same. I’ve never tried this, but certainly could be interesting if it works.
Hi Pam, So you are suggesting this be a workaround for not being able to use the gift cards for a prepaid rate? I usually always go for the flexible cancelation as its much easier to match best rate guarantee rates since everyone is offering refunds on their rates.
I think at 20 percent off I’m a buyer. I have sat out most of the recent buying opportunities but at this point I think I may give this one a go. I have generally purchased them during daily getaways and find that they are pretty easy to use in USA properties. They used to be more difficult to use and it was a real hassle but some of the old IT problems look to have been resolved more recently. We often rent Marriott timeshares from owners and I’ve had no problem using these gift cards for paying everything — taxes, room charges, incidentals, parking.
I think one has to look at the 6x (or 3x with CSR if it turns out it is available) as not a perk but actually a break even. That’s one of the downsides to daily getaways is that when you buy the gift cards at 20 percent off at only 1x you’re giving up the points you would have earned for using a multiplier card at the front desk. So, this evens the playing field and makes it a more true 20 percent discount from a paid stay.
Good point about apples-to-apples purchases using these gc’s v paying for the room with a Bonvoy card. Will you please go into more detail how you use gc’s with MVC stays? Are you booking thru Marriott or direct with the owner? Most of the time rentals require a deposit, are you able to use gc’s for it? Thanks, Larry
Hi Pam — We rent timeshares from the owners directly. Unfortunately there is no way to pay for these with gift cards and often you can’t even use a credit card. Sometimes they use property management companies who let you pay with a card and I’ve actually used plastiq sometimes too. Even so, we’ve found it to be a pretty good deal especially with some flexibility on dates. We use redweek and tug and then usually enter into an arrangement directly with the owner and they transfer the reservation to our name.
At Marriott resorts — at least the ones we have rented — once you get there you check in like at a hotel and usually they even let me add my Marriott number and earn elite nights and points for charges. In Hawaii, there’s a nightly transient tax that gets charged directly to the room each night and we charge everything — parking, food, bar charges, etc. — to the room and then settle up with a gift card at the end of the stay. Never had a problem.
I can see paying for incidentals with gc’s, was just confused when you paid “room charges,” sorry! Great idea to use Plastiq on rentals since rental co’s don’t code as travel on travel cards. Thank you!
Oh, sorry — yes, charges to the room not charges for the room!