The Best Ways To Use 10,000 (or Fewer) Marriott Bonvoy Points

The best rewards currencies are like Swiss Army knives: They’re valuable enough just fulfilling their primary purposes — you know, cutting stuff — but, more importantly, they’re useful when thrown into any number of situations, like opening wine bottles and cans of chili, tightening screws, and stripping wires.

Marriott Bonvoy is arguably the Swiss Army knife of hotel rewards currencies. If you’ve only ever used it to book hotel stays within the Marriott portfolio, you might be satisfied but not necessarily thrilled. It’s notoriously hard to climb up Marriott Bonvoy tiers, and we value the currency at an average 0.7 cents per point.

But where the program really shines is in its utility outside of its primary use. Marriott Bonvoy is one of the most flexible and versatile hotel rewards currencies available. This is a case where you buy the knife for the corkscrew, not the blade.

You have a ton of ways to redeem Marriott Bonvoy points, even if you have just a few thousand points in your account. In this article, we discuss all the ways to redeem 10,000 or fewer Marriott Bonvoy points so that you realize maximum value.

Just note that 10,000 Marriott Bonvoy points aren’t a ton of points, so don’t expect to book your honeymoon or once-in-a-lifetime trips to the world’s most exotic destinations. Regardless, these options are better than letting orphaned Marriott Bonvoy points expire or otherwise not be used since it’s so easy to find something to do with them.

Let’s get started!

How To Earn Marriott Bonvoy Points

For an in-depth Marriott Bonvoy balance, see our full guide that covers the best ways to earn Marriott Bonvoy points.

Without a doubt, though, one of the best ways to accrue a lot of Marriott Bonvoy points is to open a Marriott co-branded credit card. You’ll find several options below (including some cards that should be in every Marriott loyalist’s wallet):

With that, let’s take a look at some of the best ways to earn 10,000 or fewer Marriott Bonvoy points.

Top Up Airline Mileage Balances

Marriott Bonvoy has numerous airline transfer partners, most of which transfer at a 3:1 ratio. This isn’t as good of a transfer ratio as other transferable points currencies like American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, or Citi ThankYou Points, but the program has some unique transfer partners not found anywhere else.

Some of these unique partners include JAL Mileage Bank, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, and American Airlines AAdvantage. These programs do not transfer in from other points programs, making them tough to earn without either flying their specific metal or opening a co-branded credit card.

Hot Tip:

Marriott points transfers often take 24 or more hours to process. Make sure to transfer your points as soon as you have a redemption in mind so you can secure your award ticket before it sells out.

We recommend transferring a small balance of Marriott Bonvoy points to one of these hard-to-earn airline programs when short on points for a specific redemption. However, we do not recommend preemptively transferring points without a specific purpose, as this makes the points less flexible and can leave them vulnerable to devaluation.

Book a Night at a Cheap Points Hotel

Marriott Bonvoy members can redeem as few as 7,500 points for a 1-night stay during standard times in the Marriott brands portfolio. While 7,500-point hotels are generally midrange properties in smaller cities, they can be a particularly good deal when booking during peak travel times or at the last minute.

Further, there are deals to be had among these properties. For example, Four Points by Sheraton Fargo Medical Center is a cheap hotel in the medical district of Fargo, North Dakota. When you book enough in advance, a 1-night stay costs $124. A redemption, on the other hand, could cost as little as 8,000 points. This gives travelers a point value of 1.55 cents each!

With this in mind, make sure to do your research before booking Marriott stays with points. It can often be a better deal to pay cash for these hotel stays and save the points for a more lucrative redemption in the future.

Book a Cash + Points Stay

Can’t find any cheap hotels that fit your travel schedule? Consider booking a Cash + Points redemption instead.

These redemptions let travelers use a mixture of cash and Marriott Bonvoy points to stay at a nicer hotel. It’s important to note that these redemptions can have varying value, similar to booking the cheapest award nights with points above.

Again, make sure to do your math before booking a Cash + Points award. These have the potential to give you good value but sometimes fall short when a hotel is already low-priced to begin with.

Additionally, note that not all stays are eligible for Cash + Points redemptions. You can find them by checking the Use Points button when searching for a Marriott hotel — when available, Cash + Points redemptions are displayed above the hotel’s standard points cost.

Transfer Your Points to Another Marriott Bonvoy Member

One of the nice things about the Marriott Bonvoy program is that you can transfer your points to other Marriott Bonvoy members for free.

Marriott Bonvoy members can transfer up to 100,000 points per calendar year to another member and receive up to 500,000 from other members. However, both the sending and receiving accounts must be in good standing and have been open for at least 60 days.

This can be helpful if you have a friend or family member who needs to top up their balance before making a large redemption or if you want to take advantage of a travel companion’s elite status.

To transfer points, call Marriott Bonvoy at 801-468-4000 with both account numbers ready.

Donate Your Marriott Bonvoy Points to Charity

Alternatively, you can use Marriott Bonvoy points for a charitable donation to one of Marriott’s charity partners. Currently, Marriott has relationships with a number of different charities and foundations, including:

• American Red Cross
• International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
• Marriott Disaster Relief Fund

These are the current redemption rates available:

Donating Marriott Bonvoy points to charity lets travelers have a real impact on these organizations and the people they help support. Visit Marriott’s donation page for more information and instructions on how to donate points to charity.

Redeem Your Marriott Bonvoy Points for Merchandise

You can also use your Marriott Bonvoy points to purchase gift cards and other merchandise in Marriott’s online store. Marriott even has a special section of this store that’s dedicated to redemptions of 10,000 or fewer points.

However, whether you should redeem Marriott Bonvoy points for gift cards or merchandise is another matter.

We looked through the Marriott web store and found that most of these redemptions give travelers far less value than redeeming for a cheap hotel or Points + Cash redemption.

On the gift card side, a $10 Sephora gift card costs 5,000 points at the web store. This yields a value of just 0.2 cents per point — 1.23 cents per point less than the Fargo hotel redemption we mentioned earlier.

Merchandise redemptions can be even worse. A Melissa & Doug USA National Parks Floor Puzzle is 10,000 points on Marriott’s store. This same jigsaw puzzle is $11.99 on Amazon, giving you a redemption value of less than 0.12 cents per point.

Bottom Line:

To get reasonable value from your points, steer clear of merchandise and gift card redemptions and focus on travel rewards instead.

Use Marriott Bonvoy Points for Instant Redemptions at Hotels

Finally, Marriott Bonvoy points can be used to cover spa treatments, dining expenses, bar tabs, and other on-property purchases made during stays at a participating Marriott hotel.

To do this, simply charge an on-property expense to your room and ask to use points to cover the charge at checkout.

You can redeem points at the following rates:

Points	Dollars
250	$1
1,250	$5
2,500	$10
5,000	$20
12,500	$50
25,000	$100
125,000	$500

Generally speaking, these redemptions do not make for a good deal. Redeeming 5,000 points for a $20 credit gives a value of just 0.4 cents per point. Though this is better than a merchandise redemption, it’s still noticeably less valuable than a free night at the cheapest Marriott hotels.

Final Thoughts

In this article, we’ve looked at the best ways to redeem 10,000 or fewer Marriott Bonvoy points. There aren’t a ton of options available, but we’ve highlighted ideas that could provide relatively good value for such a limited number of points.

Stick with booking free cheap nights if possible. Generally speaking, these provide the best deal and can save you a decent chunk of change if you’re traveling during peak seasons or booking at the last minute.