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Marriott Bonvoy doesn't have the most lucrative travel rewards, with an average redemption value of 0.7 cents per point in Personal Finance Insider's most recent valuations. Nonetheless, the program offers a variety of good (and sometimes great) redemption options, including hotel rooms, transfers to airline partners, and access to special events. Amex is an Insider partner.

Read on to learn which of them you should target and avoid in order to maximize your return.

We're focused here on the rewards and perks that come with each card. These cards won't be worth it if you're paying interest or late fees. When using a credit card, it's important to pay your balance in full each month, make payments on time, and only spend what you can afford to pay.

Best ways to use Marriott points

In March 2022, Marriott ditched its award charts in favor of dynamic award pricing. That change made exceptional deals harder to find, but there are still plenty of opportunities to blow past the average redemption value when you use points to book rooms at properties under the sizable Marriott umbrella.

Use Marriott points for stays in expensive destinations

For example, consider a long weekend stay in late April 2023 at the Residence Inn Maui Wailea. You can book three nights in a one-king studio for 164,000 points.

Marriott Bonvoy

In contrast, a paid stay in that same room would cost $2,759 after taxes and fees. That yields a redemption value of 1.68 cents per point, which is nearly 70% more than our high valuation of 1 cent apiece for Marriott Bonvoy points.

Marriott Bonvoy

Get a fifth award night free

A great feature of Marriott Bonvoy is the Stay for 5, Pay for 4 benefit that gets you a free night during stays of five consecutive nights or longer. Adding that free night is an easy way to boost the value of qualifying awards redemptions.

For example, a stay in March 2023 at the Tucson Marriott University Park costs 120,000 points regardless of whether you book four or five nights.

Marriott Bonvoy

The cash price for four nights is $1,480 after taxes and fees, which yields a redemption value of 1.23 cents per point. However, adding the fifth night raises the cash price to $1,802 while the award price remains the same, boosting the redemption value to 1.5 cents per point.

Marriott Bonvoy

Book with a mix of cash and points

One more option for booking with Marriott is Cash + Points awards, which let you reduce the cash cost of your stay by using points to cover a portion of the bill. For example, this three-night stay in a one-bedroom king suite at the Residence Inn Omaha Downtown in November has a cash price of $576 after taxes and fees.

Marriott Bonvoy

If you want to use points instead, you could either redeem 79,000 points to cover the entire stay or book a Cash + Points award for 39,500 points and $177 after taxes and fees. Booking a regular award gives you a redemption value of 0.73 cents per point. However, booking the Cash + Points rate saves you $399 in exchange for 39,500 points, which yields a superior redemption value of just over 1 cent per point.

Marriott Bonvoy

Cash + Points bookings are not always available, and unfortunately, the cash portion doesn't earn points, but these awards can be handy if you don't have enough points to cover your whole stay.

Transfer points to airlines for premium flight awards

Marriott allows members to transfer points to over 35 airlines at a baseline ratio of 3:1 in most cases. Transfers of 20,000 points get a 25% bonus, and transfers to United Airlines get a further 10% bonus, improving the rate to as low as around 2.2:1. This creates opportunities to get an excellent return when booking high-end airline awards.

For example, here's a Japan Airlines business class flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo in November that can be booked with 60,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles plus a $5.60 security fee.

American Airlines

You could transfer 150,000 points from Marriott to get the requisite 60,000 miles and book this flight, which would cost $4,049 if you paid cash and booked directly with Japan Airlines. That yields a lofty redemption value of just under 2.7 cents per Marriott point.

Airline transfers are also useful when you need only a small number of miles to top off your frequent flyer account for an award. It's hard to pin a redemption value on using your Marriott Bonvoy points this way, but the ability to transfer can make the difference between booking or not booking an award flight.

Read Insider's guide to earning and redeeming Marriott Bonvoy points for more ways to maximize your rewards, and find out how to earn more points in our roundup of the best Marriott credit cards.

One major drawback is that transfers from Marriott to airline partners don't go through right away. You can expect the process to take several days on average, so there is some risk of award availability disappearing while you wait. The more valuable the award, the more likely it is to be gone when the miles show up in your frequent flyer account.

Get access to special events

Finally, a less intuitive award option that can also offer a great return is Marriott Bonvoy Moments, which lets you redeem for access to experiences, activities, and events. For example, this package for two tickets to a Lakers game in a luxury suite costs 50,000 points. 

Marriott Bonvoy

At the time of writing, a pair of comparable tickets on the second-hand market was going for $770, yielding a redemption value of 1.54 cents per point.

Average-value redemption options

The redemption options discussed above are your best bets for maximizing Marriott Bonvoy points, but none of them are universally high-value, and they will commonly provide a lower return in normal circumstances. When booking award stays, you can expect to get closer to our average valuation of 0.7 cents per point.

Book weekday stays with Marriott points

This mid-week stay at The Westin Dublin in June 2023 is a good example: A single night in a classic queen room costs 71,000 points.

Marriott Bonvoy

In comparison, the cash price for an equivalent booking at the time of writing is 588 euros (roughly $570). That yields a redemption value of just under 0.83 cents per point, which is above our average valuation but well below the high valuation discussed in the previous section.

Marriott Bonvoy

Transfer Marriott points to airlines for economy-class flights

Transfers to airline partners generally offer a lower return when you're booking economy flights. This round-trip Alaska Airlines itinerary from Seattle to New York costs 25,000 Alaska MileagePlan miles plus $11.20 in security fees, or $417.21 if paying cash. If you transferred 60,000 points from Marriott to get those 25,000 miles, you'd net a redemption value of around 0.68 cents per point, which is just below our average valuation.

Alaska Airlines

Similarly, Cash + Points awards and Marriott Bonvoy Moments may offer an average (or below average) return, so compare with the cash price and calculate the redemption value to determine whether using points is your best option.

Low-value ways to use Marriott points

All of the options mentioned above can provide poor value in select circumstances, but the redemption options described in this section do so with few exceptions.

Book travel directly

You can use points to book flights, rental cars, and cruises through Marriott's partnerships with Switchfly and Cruise With Points, but these redemption options are below average at best.

This economy flight from Boston to Phoenix cost either 165,000 points or $652.20, which yields a return of fewer than 0.4 cents per point. That's well below our low valuation of 0.5 cents, which is the minimum threshold we recommend for using Marriott Bonvoy points.

Marriott Bonvoy

Even worse, the travel search engine Marriott uses won't always return the best available prices — this Delta itinerary was $20 cheaper when booking directly, so Marriott may charge you extra for the "privilege" of getting poor value for your points.

Use points for shopping

You can also redeem Marriott Bonvoy points for gift cards and merchandise, both of which provide a poor return. Gift card redemptions top out at 0.4 cents per point (for Marriott gift cards), with some going as low as 0.2 cents per point. This $100 Amazon gift card costs 30,000 points, yielding a dismal 0.33 cents per point.

Marriott Bonvoy

Redeeming points for merchandise provides a return in the same ballpark. Given how many superior opportunities there are in the Marriott Bonvoy program, we recommend ignoring redemptions like this one that give you a return significantly under 0.5 cents per point.

Other factors

Redemption rates aren't the only variable we use to assess the value of points and miles. Here's how Marriott Bonvoy performs across other facets of the program we take into consideration:

• Expiration policy (+) — Marriott Bonvoy points expire if your account is inactive for 24 consecutive months. The clock resets with any qualifying activity, which includes earning or redeeming points, as well as transferring points in or out of the program. Keeping points active under these terms is fairly easy.
• Award Availability (Neutral) — Marriott has a "limited blackout dates" policy that allows properties to limit the number of standard rooms available for redemption. In practice, award availability is adequate in normal conditions, but can be frustratingly scarce around popular dates and destinations even when standard rooms are available to book with cash.
• Airline transfers (++) — Most hotel programs allow members to transfer points to airline partners, but Marriott offers by far the best ratio at 3:1 for most transfers. That still isn't great, but as shown above, it's good enough to be useful.
• Sharing/pooling (+) — Marriott Bonvoy members can transfer up to 100,000 points annually to other members at no cost. The minimum transfer is 1,000 points, and members can receive a maximum of 500,000 points annually. This policy is good, but it would be much better without the 100,000-point cap.
• Ease of accumulation (+) — Marriott has solid earning rates on paid stays, with bonuses as high as 75% for elite members and frequent promotional offers. You can also earn points with an assortment of Marriott Bonvoy credit cards, and you can transfer points in from Chase Ultimate Rewards® and Amex Membership Rewards at 1:1 (or occasionally better when a transfer bonus is in play).
• Resort fees on award stays (-) — Some hotel loyalty programs waive resort fees on award stays, which can save members hundreds of dollars on longer stays. Unfortunately, Marriott isn't one of them.

Charging resort fees on award stays is the only clear negative among these miscellaneous factors, but Marriott could greatly improve the Bonvoy program by making award availability more reliable. The relatively strong airline transfer ratio provides a solid floor of value.

Bottom line

Marriott Bonvoy isn't the most valuable hotel loyalty program, but Marriott's large global footprint combined with the relative ease of earning points makes it a highly useful one for frequent travelers. The ability to exchange points for airline miles at a reasonable rate gives the program added utility as a way to keep frequent flyer accounts active and book award flights when a good opportunity arises.