Marriott elite status offers some impressive benefits to frequent travelers. But the perks get particularly compelling once you accrue at least 50 elite nights in a calendar year and reach Marriott Platinum Elite status.
One of the benefits you’ll receive is the ability to choose an Annual Choice Benefit. You can select one once you reach 50 elite nights in a calendar year and a second when you get to 75 elite nights — also the milestone at which you’ll earn Marriott Titanium Elite status.
If you accrue at least 50 elite nights with Marriott Bonvoy during 2024, the deadline for selecting your Choice Benefit is Jan. 7, 2025. To help you make the best selection, we’ll examine the Choice Benefit options available at each tier in this guide.
Marriott Bonvoy Annual Choice Benefit overview
You earn an Annual Choice Benefit once you accrue 50 elite nights in a calendar year. You’ll earn a second Annual Choice Benefit after reaching 75 elite nights in a calendar year. However, as you’ll learn later in this guide, the Choice Benefit options aren’t identical at both tiers.
How to select Marriott Choice Benefits
To select your Annual Choice Benefit(s), visit this page on Marriott’s website. You must sign in to your Marriott Bonvoy account to choose your benefit.
You can’t change your selection once you make it, so choose wisely. You must select both during the same session if you’re eligible for a 50-night and a 75-night Annual Choice Benefit.
Related: The 26 best Marriott hotels in the world
When to select Marriott Choice Benefits
If you accrue 50 or 75 elite nights in 2024, you must select your Annual Choice Benefit(s) by 11:59 p.m. EST on Jan. 7, 2025. If you don’t make your selection(s) by the deadline, Marriott will automatically choose Nightly Upgrade Awards for you.
How to earn Marriott Bonvoy elite nights
Earning 50 or 75 elite nights in a calendar year may sound daunting. However, Marriott provides multiple ways to earn elite nights. You’ll earn elite nights at participating Marriott brands when you book directly with Marriott, even when redeeming Marriott points or using a free night award certificate.
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You can also earn elite night credits from select Marriott Bonvoy credit cards. You can earn 15 or 25 elite night credits each year with a Marriott consumer card and an additional 15 with a Marriott business card. Some Marriott cards even offer additional elite night credits when you hit specific spending thresholds.
Related: Here’s why you need both a personal and business Marriott Bonvoy credit card
50-night Annual Choice Benefit options
You’ll unlock your first Annual Choice Benefit when you accrue 50 elite nights in a calendar year. Your options for the 50-night Annual Choice Benefit are as follows:
- Five elite night credits
- Five Nightly Upgrade Awards
- $1,000 off a mattress
- $100 charity donation
- Gift Marriott Silver Elite status to another member
Most of these benefits are pretty tough to value. So, let’s take a closer look at each option. I’ll start with the options that are unlikely to make sense for most elite members.
Gift Marriott Silver Elite status
Giving status to someone else might initially sound like a good option. But Marriott Silver Elite status isn’t worth much, as the primary perks are a 10% points bonus on paid stays and priority late checkout.
Instead of using your Choice Benefit to gift status, you could encourage your friend or family member to earn Marriott status via a credit card. For example, primary cardholders of the no-annual-fee Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card get automatic Silver Elite status thanks to the 15 elite night credits they receive each calendar year as a cardholder perk.
Give a $100 charity donation
You can select a $100 donation to several charities — including the United Nations Children’s Fund, World Wildlife Fund and the Arne M. Sorenson Hospitality Fund — as your Annual Choice Benefit.
The $100 charity donation is a nice touch and could be the right decision if you can’t use any other Choice Benefit options. However, I’d prefer to earn points and miles on a donation to a charity of my choice and maintain my ability to select one of the other benefits.
Related: How you can donate your points and miles to charity
Get $1,000 off a mattress
If you love the mattress at a particular Marriott brand, you can buy a new one for your home. If you’re going to buy a Marriott mattress, you should consider selecting a promo code worth $1,000 off the full retail value for mattresses and box springs from select Marriott brands as your Annual Choice Benefit.
However, you can’t combine the one-time $1,000 discount with other offers. Although this Choice Benefit can offer great value, relatively few people are in the market for a specific hotel mattress. As such, this option won’t apply to most travelers.
Receive 5 elite night credits
Choosing five elite night credits for your Annual Choice Benefit is smart for some travelers. Marriott will post the elite night credits to the year you earned them. So, choosing elite night credits may be useful if you fall just a few nights short of earning Titanium Elite status or a new Marriott Bonvoy lifetime status during the 2024 calendar year.
Receive 5 Nightly Upgrade Awards
Each Nightly Upgrade Award is valid for a one-night confirmable upgrade to select premium rooms and suites designated by each property. So, you’d need six Nightly Upgrade Award certificates to request an upgrade for a six-night reservation.
Many members save their Nightly Upgrade Award for stays at high-end Marriott Bonvoy properties, while others collect them for nights they’d like more space. However, remember that some members find it difficult to use Nightly Upgrade Awards for high value, and these awards won’t start clearing until three days before your arrival.
If you opt for five Nightly Upgrade Awards as a Choice Benefit, your awards will expire Dec. 31 of the year following the one in which you earned them. So, if you reach 50 nights in 2024 and choose five Nightly Upgrade Awards as your Choice Benefit, they’ll expire Dec. 31, 2025.
75-night Annual Choice Benefit options
After you reach 75 elite nights, you’ll earn Marriott Titanium Elite status and receive a second Annual Choice Benefit. The choices for the 75-night Annual Choice Benefit are as follows:
- Five elite night credits
- Five Nightly Upgrade Awards
- $1,000 off a mattress
- $100 charity donation
- Gift Marriott Gold Elite status to another member
- Free night award worth up to 40,000 points
As you can see, the choices here are mostly the same as those available after hitting the 50-night threshold. I’ll skip over the charitable donation, Nightly Upgrade Awards and mattress discount since I’ve already discussed these options in the previous section. Likewise, I won’t discuss gifting Gold Elite status since earning Marriott status via credit cards is relatively easy.
However, let’s take a closer look at the other two options.
Receive 5 elite night credits
Earlier in this article, I considered how some travelers might select five elite night credits as the 50-night Annual Choice Benefit to reach Titanium Elite or lifetime elite status. However, it could also make sense for Titanium Elite members to choose five elite night credits to earn Ambassador Elite status. This status tier typically requires 100 elite nights and $23,000 in annual Marriott spending.
This option will likely only make sense if you end the year within five elite nights of a higher lifetime elite status tier or with 95 to 99 elite nights and at least $23,000 in annual qualifying spending with Marriott.
Get a free night award worth up to 40,000 points
The final option, unique to the 75-night Annual Choice Benefit, is a free night award worth up to 40,000 points. This free night award is slightly more valuable than the 35,000-point free night award certificates associated with many of the Marriott Bonvoy cards.
Based on TPG’s valuations, 40,000 Marriott points are worth $336. So, this is undoubtedly a valuable option. However, if you already have lots of Marriott Bonvoy points and outstanding free night awards to cover your future travels, you may want to choose another benefit.
Which Annual Choice Benefit should you choose?
The best Annual Choice Benefit for most Marriott loyalists at the 50-night tier is five Nightly Upgrade Awards. At the 75-night tier, the best Annual Choice Benefit is usually five more Nightly Upgrade Awards or a free night award worth up to 40,000 points.
However, the five elite night credits may be a great choice if you were within five elite nights of qualifying for Ambassador Elite, Titanium Elite or lifetime status. Likewise, the $1,000 discount is likely your best bet if you want to buy a Marriott-brand mattress.
You may wonder what I typically select for my Annual Choice Benefits. I earned Titanium Elite status in 2021, 2022 and 2023. I picked five Suite Night Awards (now Nightly Upgrade Awards) for my 50-night choice and a free night award worth up to 40,000 points for my 75-night choice each time.
Bottom line
Marriott’s Annual Choice Benefits are valuable, with ample options at each threshold. The options aren’t valued equally, so carefully consider which benefit will be most valuable for you before deciding. Be sure to make your Choice Benefit selections each year before the deadline of 11:59 p.m. EST on Jan. 7.
