Marriott Rewards Megabonus now open for registration

Marriott Rewards has launched its first Megabonus promotion since its rather badly-handled integration with Starwood Preferred Guest on 18 August.

It seems that hotlinking to the promotion doesn’t work, so my advice is that you log into your Marriott Rewards account and click on “promotions”

You’ll then be sent to the promotion’s landing page where you can register with the click of a button. Once you’re registered you’ll see the following tracker.

Megabonus

Members who register by 7 January 2019 and stay at any participating Marriott property between 26 September 2018 and 31 January 2019 will earn 2,000 bonus points on all stays of 2 or more nights and 1,000 bonus points per brand, starting with the second brand.

Objectively speaking, this is a pretty crappy promotion. 2,000 points is the equivalent of 667 SPG points, and your stay needs to be at least 2 nights to qualify (no bonus for 1 night stays). This is a far cry from the double/triple Starpoints promos of yesteryear, although Starwood members do earn more base points with the revised earning scheme.

The brand bonus is interesting, given that there are now 29 brands to earn at. I could see people hopping from hotel to hotel to try and rack this up. That said, 1,000 bonus points is even less than what Starwood members used to earn with the Make a Green Choice option, so while it’s better than nothing, it’s definitely not worth switching stays from competitors.

29 Ways to Stay

In addition to Megabonus, a game called “29 Ways to Stay” (alluding to the 29 brands that Marriott has in its portfolio post the SPG integration) will be available from 4 October to 1 November 2018.

The sad part is that as per the T&C, the game is only open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States (including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico), Argentina (excluding Mendoza, Neuquén, Río Negro, Salta and Tierra del Fuego), Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, Peru, South Africa and United Kingdom, who, as of date of game play/entry, are Marriott Rewards, Starwood Preferred Guest or The Ritz-Carlton Rewards members with a completed member profile and at least eighteen (18) years of age or the age of majority in their respective country/region of permanent residence, whichever is greater. Void in all countries/regions not listed

Could you switch your membership profile country to take part? Perhaps, but my fear is that customers who are caught doing so could have their accounts audited and, in a worse case scenario, shut down. I’m not going to risk it.

Conclusion

This is a fairly weak promo from Marriott, and the response online has been a resounding meh. Then again, Marriott now has a dominant market position and 29 brands for customers to choose from- does it really need to dole out on the promos?

That was rhetorical.