Marriott Bonvoy Status Challenge

Marriott Bonvoy Status Match [2020]
Photo: Adobe Stock.

New to Marriott, or perhaps you’ve let your elite hotel status lapse? Marriott Bonvoy offers a Gold and Platinum status challenge. It’s free to start a challenge, and you don’t need to already hold status with any hotel loyalty program.

The Marriott Bonvoy status challenge is available to all program members. You can request a challenge by calling Marriott Bonvoy or getting in touch via their online form. From within Australia, you can call Marriott Bonvoy on 1800 450 010.

Marriott Bonvoy is the new combined hotel loyalty program of Marriott Rewards, Ritz-Carlton Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest. The programs merged to become Marriott Bonvoy earlier this month.

The Marriott status challenge is an ongoing offer and is available at least until the end of this year. However, you cannot complete the challenge more than once this year. So it’s best to only enrol if you expect to meet the criteria in the next three months.

Marriott offers challenges to its Gold Elite and Platinum Elite tiers. To complete a Gold Elite challenge, you would need to stay for 8 paid nights at any of Marriott’s 29 brands during the challenge period. To earn Platinum Elite status, this requirement doubles to 16 paid (i.e. not award) nights. To earn Gold or Platinum status, you would normally need to stay at Marriott hotels at least 25 or 50 nights in a calendar year, respectively.

The challenge period will run for the remainder of the month in which the challenge is started, plus three more months. For example, if you began a challenge on 20 March 2019, you would have until 30 June 2019 to complete it. Once the challenge is completed, Marriott says you’ll get to then keep your status for “up to 12 months”.

Benefits of Marriott Gold Elite status include 25% bonus points, late checkout and space-available room upgrades. But the real benefits, such as lounge access, kick in at the Platinum Elite level.

Unfortunately, you won’t get to enjoy any of the benefits of Marriott status until you’ve completed the challenge. But considering the Marriott status challenge is free and has no prerequisites, this seems like a worthwhile deal if you’re starting out with Marriott Bonvoy.

Note that this offer is not publicly advertised by Marriott, so there is no guarantee that your request for a status challenge will be accepted. But if you’re interested, it can’t hurt to ask.

You can discuss the Marriott Bonvoy status challenge – or anything else related to Marriott’s loyalty program – on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Marriott Bonvoy forum

Would you like to learn more about status matches and challenges?

The AFF training program includes detailed information about airline status, hotel loyalty programs, hotel status matches and more!

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.
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