Nightly Upgrade Awards: Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Bonvoy Elite Annual Choice Benefit
All of the core four hotel chains offer some sort of milestone rewards - freebies you earn as you stay more and more nights - as part of their loyalty program. Unlike the other chains, Marriott Bonvoy's 'milestone awards' are tied to status tiers and are called annual choice benefits. Night Upgrade Awards (NUAs) are one of the annual choice benefits eligible Bonvoy members can choose. Despite attempts by Marriott to make these upgrade awards more useful, they remain a polarizing award amongst Bonvoy loyalists. In this piece, I want to share thoughts on why the NUAs are always my annual choice benefit selection and how I've made the most of these awards. Before we jump into it, let's start with the basics.
What are Nightly Upgrade Awards, and How Do You Earn Them?
NUAs are award certificates you can apply to your reservation (where applicable) to upgrade your room to a better one. Elite members reaching 50 nights (thereby qualifying or requalifying for Platinum elite status) can choose one annual choice benefit from a list of options:
- Select Nightly Upgrade Awards (five) to redeem for upgrades to select Premium Rooms or Standard Suites on your next adventure
- Choose Your Favorite Mattress and save $1000 USD on your purchase of a bed from any Marriott Bonvoy® retail brands
- Gift Marriott Bonvoy® Silver Elite Status to a family member or friend
- Support Arne M. Sorenson Hospitality Fund by donating $100 USD to champion the next generation of diverse leaders in hospitality
- Support United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) by donating $100 USD for children's aid worldwide.
- Support World Wildlife Fund (WWF) by donating $100 USD to their global conservation work.
- Add Elite Night Credits (five) to get you closer to higher Elite Status and enhanced benefits in 2025
Should members qualify for Titanium elite status - meeting the 75 threshold, they are granted a second annual choice benefit, which includes the options listed above and two more choices:
- Redeem one Free Night Award with a redemption value up to 40,000 Marriott Bonvoy® Points
- Gift Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite Status to a family member or friend.
I won't touch on the other options listed above, but in the spirit of transparency and thoroughness, I thought it best to disclose all of the options elites can choose from.
How Do You Use Nightly Upgrade Awards?
NUAs are easy to use. Once you've made your reservation, revisit the page on the Marriott website or Bonvoy app, Click 'View/Modify Room', where you should see an indicator to apply your NUA.
Start your NUA request by visiting the reservation - Source: You Are Travel
From there, you can select from the available upgrade options. The more you select, the better you chances for an upgrade. (Me personally, I'm a swing-for-the-fences-suite-or-bust-type-of-guy).
Select your desired room types for your upgrade. The more you choose the higher your chance for upgrade - Source: You Are Travel
Once you submit your request, you'll see a note that your NUA request is pending.
To be eligible for an upgrade, you must have at least as many NUAs in your account as the number of nights in your reservation, as they are nightly upgrades. For example, if you've booked a stay for four nights and want to upgrade using NUAs, you must have four NUAs available.
Additionally, you can't use NUAs at the following properties: Ritz-Carlton Reserve, The Ritz-Carlton Club, The Ritz-Carlton Residences, The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, Design Hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy, Sonder by Marriott Bonvoy, MGM Collection with Marriott Bonvoy, Marriott Executive Apartments, All-Inclusive Resorts, Marriott Vacation Club, Marriott Grand Residence Club, Sheraton Vacation Club, Westin Vacation Club, Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy, The Phoenician Residences, a Luxury Collection Residence Club, Scottsdale
The Grand New Century Hotel, Hangzhou Boao, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel, Wonderland Resort, Hangzhou Jiande, a Tribute Portfolio Resort
As with all non-paid upgrades, NUAs are subject to availability. Beginning five days before your check-in date, Marriott will try to confirm your upgrade with the property. If the upgrade doesn't clear prior to check-in, it will be returned to your account, giving you the chance to attempt an upgrade on a future stay.
Why I Always Choose Nightly Upgrade Awards as my Annual Choice Benefit?
Because the value of NUAs is outsized when they hit. The free night award one can choose as a Titanium is guaranteed - you'll know exactly what type of room/hotel you can book so no qualms there, but a super comfortable suite can really take a stay to the next level. Not too mention, the dollar value of a confirmed upgrade spanning the nights of your stay could far exceed the cash rate of whatever room you can book with 40,000 Bonvoy Points. I mean stepping out of your shower, so you can soak in the balcony hot tub while overlooking howler monkeys in the jungle?
You play to win the game.
Why Do People Get Frustrated with NUAs?
Simply because some properties just don't clear them. NUAs are not instant upgrades, much like Hyatt Suite Night Upgrades - they are very much left up to the jurisdiction of the local property. Even if there's present availability, properties can and often do wait until as late as possible to try and sell premium rooms. This may mean that members hoping for those confirmed upgrades are kept in the 'upgrade limbo' for quite some time. With that said some simple tactics have helped increase my NUA confirmation rate.
How to Increase Your NUA Upgrade Confirmation Chances?
A few things have increased my chances of successfully getting upgrades when using an NUA. Listed in no particular order:
- Book off-peak - If you're flexible on dates, using Marriott's flexible date calendar can help show which nights are off-peak and/or low-demand, increasing the availability of your chances of getting a bump to a better room. Tools like MaxMyPoint and Rooms.aero also show suite availability for many properties, under their premium plans.
- Reach out to the hotel and remind them - Simple enough, right? You can call the hotel, but let's be honest - not everyone has time for or will do that. The easiest route? Be sure to reply to the hotel's welcome email. Most premium brands in the Marriott portfolio will send a welcome email a few days or weeks before your stay. It's very easy to start the email in your inbox or mark it as read but always, always, always use this email as your chance to reconfirm the nightly upgrades you've applied for and share any other potentially swaying information about your stay. Your traveling with your family and the extra space would be helpful? Politely say that in your reply. Fido making the trip? Tell the hotel 'bow-wow-wow-yippy-yo-yippy-yay' or drop a Snoop Dogg gif in your reply. Either way, I've gotten very positive feedback from doing this and never positioned or phrased my replies as 'begging' - always just more of a casual reconfirmation-FYI.
- Split up the days of your stay and apply NUAs to the first one or two nights - Remember, nightly upgrades are nightly. Thus, it may be a bit much for a hotel to preemptively tie up five or seven nights of your reservation in a suite before your arrival, but what if you could get just the first one or two nights of your reservation to clear? This works well if you're staying (in the same room) with a spouse, partner, or friend who is always a Bonvoy member. I've booked the first night or two of a stay under my Bonvoy account, the next two under Mrs. Blackbeard's, and the last one under my account again. I've also succeeded when I've split bookings between the direct method (through Marriott) and third party (hotels.com, etc.). More often than not, if you can get the first one or two nights of your upgrade to clear, hotels might find it's more trouble to have you move rooms to a lower category than just having you stay in the upgraded room for all of your days. There's the housekeeping cost of turning over another room; if you have status, that's another feather in your cap. Many properties might be more willing to confirm an upgrade if they think it will be a one-night or two-night stay. Of course, if things don't work out your way and you have to move rooms, be prepared to do so. FWIW, as a last resort, you can always ask about paying some cash rate to stay in the upgraded room if you enjoy it that much.
And there you have it. Nothing earth-shattering, nothing too hard - simple tips that have helped me maximize use of the NUAs. If you have other tips and tricks that have increased your NUAs success rates, I'd love to hear them in the comments.