You Can Now Top Off Marriott Free Night Certificates With Points

Last year, Marriott Bonvoy announced that it would be adding a highly desired feature to its program — the ability to add points on top of a free night award certificate in order to stay at a higher category property, or even the same category property that happens to be on peak pricing.

Now, the ability to top off your Marriott Bonvoy free night certificates is finally here, so let’s review everything you need to know about this new redemption option.

Table of Contents

How To Top Off Marriott Bonvoy Free Night Awards
Rules for Top Off Redemptions
Final Thoughts

How To Top Off Marriott Bonvoy Free Night Awards

The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman. Image Credit: Marriott

Fortunately, Marriott Bonvoy has made it super simple to add points on top of a free night award redemption. All you need to do is go through the process of redeeming a free night certificate as you normally would by searching for a 1-night stay at a property you would like to visit.

Once you’ve selected the property, if the hotel in question has a higher award cost than what your certificate allows for (35k, 50k, 85k), you’ll automatically receive the option to redeem your free night award plus however many points are needed on top.

We’ve got to give props to Marriott Bonvoy here for making the redemption process quite straightforward. That said, there are some rules you’ll want to be aware of when you’re planning your redemptions.

Hot Tip: Check out our guide to the best U.S. hotels to redeem a Marriott Bonvoy free night certificate at for max value!

Rules for Top Off Redemptions

Naturally, all of the standard rules still apply to free night award certificates. For instance, the hotel must have availability for the night you want to stay, you must complete your stay before the expiration of your free night certificate, and you can’t use a free night award to stay 2 nights at a less expensive property (for example, one that costs 15,000 points per night).

The newest rule, though, is that you can only apply up to 15,000 points on top of your Marriott Bonvoy free night award certificate. Here is some quick math on what that looks like:

35,000-point certificates earned from the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card and Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card can be used at properties costing up to 50,000 points per night.
40,000-point certificates earned through an annual choice benefit can be used at properties costing up to 55,000 points per night.
50,000-point certificates earned through the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card can be used at properties costing up to 65,000 points per night.
85,000-point certificates earned from a Marriott Bonvoy card welcome bonus can be used at properties costing up to 100,000 points per night.

Final Thoughts

While the jury is still out on how hard award travelers will be hit by Marriott Bonvoy’s move to dynamic pricing, this change to free night certificates is definitely a favorable one and significantly increases the flexibility and usefulness of these certificates moving forward.

6 comments

RW Canfield August 2, 2022

What was the official start date of the Top Off program?
We booked on April 17 with a live service rep requesting to use with our 2 Free nights. After our stay- they said our certificate couldn’t be used because the hotel was 40,000 pts. Instead deducted 80,000 pts from our account.
Not nice!

Jarrod West August 8, 2022
Hi RW,
To my knowledge, the ability to top off your awards went live about 3 months ago.
Reply
- Dan November 15, 2022
  I’ve read various articles on this new feature, but there’s one question I haven’t seen specifically addressed. Does this policy apply to all types of free nights, or only anniversary related free nights?
  For example, I believe the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless currently has a sign-up bonus of 3 free nights, up to 50k/night. Can those be topped up to 65k/night rooms by supplementing with points? Or does it only apply to the 35k point certificate you would get after one year as a cardholder?
  Reply
  - Jarrod West November 15, 2022
    Hi Dan,
    It should apply to all free night certificates, including those received as a welcome bonus.
    Reply

Charlie February 14, 2023

Today I tried to redeem two Free Night Certificates [value up to 35,000 points each certificate] for two nights in a Marriott where the price for the two nights I wanted was 68,000 points. I was refused on the basis that although those nights were available for point redemption, they were not the cheapest nights available and the Free Night Awards are only available for the cheapest nights the hotel offers. If I wanted the upgraded rooms I would have to use “regular” points. What a sneaky little ruse and a great way to get me to move my stay to another chain I have points with in the same location! To be fair to the Marriott rep he said he was very upset he could not help me as there was obviously something wrong with the Marriott system. Again to be clear I was not seeking to take advantage of the new system to top up awards, just use slightly under the full value of the awards!

T February 20, 2023

I just tried to book a room in Lyon using my free night certificate and points, but only the points option (41,000 points) is showing. No option to use my certificate plus points to top-off. I’ve tried changing the dates and still no top-off option. Not sure why and not ready to deal with a call to customer service.