Marriott Rewards & SPG Choice Benefit that went dark unexpected in early January and was reactivated in mid month. Marriott then extended deadline until February 7, 2019 for members to make their choice.
Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) launched Choice Benefit first for those staying 50 nights and later introduced second gift at 75 nights. Marriott Rewards incorporated this into the combined program last year.
You can access website to choose the Choice Benefit here.
Remember that if you don’t make a selection by February 7, 2019 Marriott Rewards will choose by default the Suite Night Award option for both 50 and 75 night levels.
Conclusion
There are no good options at 50 nights level (SPG members used to be able to choose a free night award but Marriott discontinued this) but the free night award is the best option for those eligible 75 night award.
Remember to study the options and make your selection(s) by February 7. Marriott Rewards has surprisingly not emailed many members and alerted that they should choose their preferred award. I guess that they hope to be able to just award Suite Night Awards to everyone.
anyone know how long a suite night award lasts for? do they expire?
From the Marriott site: “Suite Night Awards expire on December 31st of the year following the year in which you earned them. For example, if you achieve Platinum Elite status with 50 nights on October 1, 2018, and select the Suite Night Awards as your Elite Choice Benefit, you’ll be able to use them through December 31, 2019.”
Unfortunately, I got a raw deal. I selected to get 5 elite night credit when I got 50 nights and then another 5 nights elite credit when I got to 75. This was under the assumption that those nights would count towards my 2019 status. NO WRONG, they put them into my 2018 status which basically was worthless to me since I already had way over 100 nights and had achieved Platinum Premier. If it had been clarified I would have selected the suite nights instead. So I learned my lesson the hard way.