Marriott just announced that they extended eligible Free Night Awards & Point expirations for members of the Bonvoy program.
Free Night Awards (FNA) that had an original expiration date in 2020, or which will expire before July 31, 2021, as part of their cobrand credit card benefit, annual choice benefit, promotions or travel package will be able to redeem it through August 1, 2021.
Members have been concerned that they won’t be able to use their certificates during the Covid-19 period in any efficient way and this extension will help to get additional breathing space.
You can access the announcement by Marriott here (just updated).
For all Marriott Bonvoy™ Members:
Free Night Awards: Effective December 11, 2020, members who currently have a Free Night Award (FNA) that had [has] an original expiration date in 2020, or which will expire before July 31, 2021, as part of their cobrand credit card benefit, annual choice benefit, promotions or travel package will be able to redeem it through August 1, 2021. Free Night Awards with an original expiration date prior to 2020 will not be eligible for the additional extension. Members do not need to take any action. The system will automatically update your Account with these extensions on December 11, 2020.
Points Expiration: To provide you ample time to redeem points, the expiration of points will be paused until August 1, 2021. At that time, your points will only expire if your account has been inactive for at least 24 months.
Marriott had already previously published the following extensions concerning members accounts and associated awards / benefits:
Elite Status: Members who earned Elite Status in 2019 will receive an extension of their Elite Status to February 1, 2022.
Suite Night Awards: Elite Members who have Suite Night Awards (earned in 2019 as part of the 50- and 75-Night Annual Choice Benefit) with an expiration date of December 31, 2020 will be extended to December 31, 2021.
Elite Night Credits: In July 2020 we gave you a head start toward earning status this year by depositing 50% of the Elite Night Credits (“ENCs”) into your account based on your 2019 earned Elite status tier.
Bonvoy’s extension policies are quite comprehensive and they deposited 50% status nights into everybodies account who qualified in 2019 that even counted for Lifetime status.
Conclusion
Good move by Marriott to extend the certificates and points at least a little bit although in many cases it won’t do much if anything for the certificate holders.
I have my Amex certificate in the account and it expires on July 21st 2021. This extension will buy me an additional 10 days. Not a problem for me though as the chances are 99% that I’m going to use it beforehand.
