Leveraging travel rewards can be a lot of fun, if done the right way. I switched from Hilton to Marriott this last year for hotel stays when I travel. I had heard a lot about Marriott having much better rewards. So far, I agree the rewards they have are pretty awesome.
I was checking the Marriott app the other day to notice that I was about to have a free 40,000 night expire! I couldn’t believe I was about to lose out on free money! With that in mind I started thinking of a cool place to go for a short getaway. Work has been stressful the last month or two as we are gearing up for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
How I earned the free night certificate?
There is something very slick Marriott has started doing. Marriott has a part of the app where they put there promotions. They don’t always advertise the promotions themselves. This particular one I don’t blame them. One day when I was looking on the app, I noticed a promotion for stay 2 nights for one free night up to 40,000 points! Not only was this promotion out there, but you could earn up to two free nights! With how much I travel for work, this would take me one week to earn both free nights. The next week, I booked two different two night stays…and boom,o 40,000 points.
What to be careful of!
Here is something to be very careful of! It sounds so simple, but still something worth noting.
Don’t forget about your certificates! I waited till the last minute to book this hotel room. The certificate expired on 10/14/19 and I booked the room on 10/13/19…not much room there. To be honest, I forgot that I even had the certificate and was luckily looking through the app and saw it! Don’t forget about any of the rewards you have and make sure you use them! That is $225 in free money that could have been gone forever.
What the expiration dates mean?
Here is another thing I learned from the process. If the expiration date says 10/14/19 that means you have to use it by 10/13/19. I also learned this the hard way. I called Marriott last night because I had a second night to use and I was planning to book another hotel room last night. When I opened the app it showed the certificate expired.
I called Marriott and let them know that I thought the expiration date meant by the certificate must be used by that day at 11:59 pm. That was not the case. I asked if there was anything they could do for me.
The lady I spoke to told me she would try to re-issue the certificate. Luckily she was able to do this! Not only was she able to re-issue the ticket, but she also put the new expiration date a year from now! Double win!
Key Takeaways:
- Don’t forget to look at the Promotions section of the app for your rewards programs
- Don’t forget your certificates do have expiration dates!
- Take time to get away and relax. You deserve it.
