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Despite the ongoing issues with the merger of Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest, some IT and marketing resource seems to have been diverted to put together a promotion for the new combined programme. The promotion will run from 26 September 2018 until 31 January 2019 and will be called Megabonus in More Places.

The promo will have two separate elements:

• 2,000 bonus points on all stays of two or more nights
• 1,000 bonus points per brand, starting with the second brand

Registration is required. You can do that by clicking here and logging in to your Marriott account.

The terms and conditions are not particularly clear with respect to “qualifying stays”. It isn’t immediately obvious whether:

• The brand stays also need to be 2+ nights long
• Whether stand-alone, unmerged SPG and Marriott Rewards accounts can “double dip” the brand promotion

Nonetheless, this promotion is particularly weak. Staying at all 29 brands would result in a bonus of 28,000 points, barely enough for a free night at a Category 4 hotel.

And at my relatively generous valuation of 0.8 cents / 0.6p per point, you would receive a rebate of £12 for a 2-night paid stay. That won’t move the needle AT ALL if you are staying at a £150-200 per night property!

Marriott is also planning to run a competition between 4 October and 1 November 2018 and UK residents will be able to participate. Details are limited, so we’ll write about it closer to the end of September…

Make sure to register for this promotion, even if you have no stays planned. You never know when a trip will come up at the last minute…