Award Success: Rare Marriott Bonvoy Suite Night Award Confirmation

As part of our Award Success series, I’d like to highlight a rare success of applying my Marriott Bonvoy Suite Night Award certificates, which I selected last year for my 50-night choice benefit.

While these certificates have been around for a while, succeeding in having them confirmed by Marriott / the hotel has actually been challenging to impossible in most cases.

The system with the suite night awards was never perfect because it’s not the property that processes these upgrades, and it somehow creeps through the system without the hotel having any influence on the confirmation (aside from controlling the inventory itself).

I only use these upgrades at hotels where a suite is something I really want and one such example is the Four Points Phuket, where I have spent many, many nights so far.

The hotel became extremely popular in recent years (it opened during Covid in 2020 and rates were so affordable that I spent several months here in 2020/2021/2022), and suites are often sold out. Even as a regular guest it’s not a given that you get upgraded to a suite.

As such, it’s a good tool to have in reserve to try and make sure you get a suite confirmed, because the standard rooms are rather compact and aircon needs to run constantly.

I requested all available suite types at this property and then rolled the dice which one will be available (if any).

An email confirmation was quickly received:

And eventually the upgrade was confirmed 24h before my arrival:

This is the room I received – a 1 BR Suite on one of the upper floors:

My favorite is one of the pool access suites, but those are hard to come by, and I’m glad that the hotel had any suites at all.

There are some hotels where I’m a high frequency guest and where I never have to worry about my upgrades as long as I have a status that guarantees me these benefits (Lifetime Platinum) but of course a hotel wants to make money and if they are able to sell these suites then they can’t give them away for free aymore.

Resort hotels often sell out of suites much more so than city hotels. If you have the choice to pick your 50-night benefit, I think selecting the 5 Suite Night Awards as a backup for advance elite upgrades is a wise choice.

Here is our previous coverage about the SNAs:

Marriott’s “Suite Night Awards” to Transform into “Nightly Upgrade Awards” in 2024

What To Select For Your 2023 Marriott Bonvoy 50 Night Elite Choice Benefit?

What choice is the best one for you depends on the number of nights when you hit the thresholds. In 2024, I decided not to go for Titanium anymore as I needed 19 more nights, even if I had selected the five elite nights for my elite choice.

Since I’m already Lifetime Platinum and the benefits are only marginally different, I decided to just get my 5 Suite Night Awards and then upgrade those stays that are important to me or apply them at hotels that are notoriously difficult for suites (such as the JW Marriott Singapore or Resorts).

Conclusion

For the first time this year, I was able to have three of my Marriott Bonvoy Suite Night Awards confirmed, and it’s for a nice resort stay in Phuket, at the Four Points, where I live to stay every once in a while.

We covered the Suite Night Awards and the Bonvoy Program features regularly in the past and other members also reported that using them can be challenging.

I think the best way to view these upgrades is to consider them a backup for the upgrades you usually get as Platinum/Titanium. Oftentimes when the system hasn’t confirmed the upgrades, I still received an upgrade at check-in or the evening before (you can always chat with the hotel via the app to request a suite upgrade).

Source