Marriott Bonvoy Moves From Suite Upgrades To Night Upgrades

Marriott Bonvoy has officially changed Suite Upgrade Awards to Night Upgrade Awards.

For context, Marriott Platinum members get a Choice Benefit when they hit 50 nights and one of those options has been 5 Suite Upgrade Awards. Additionally, if you earned Marriott Titanium status, you'd get another Choice Benefit at 75 nights. Again, you could choose 5 Suite Night Awards.

Each one could be used to upgrade a single night of a hotel stay, in theory. However, many hotels rejected requests to use them and some hotels weren't even eligible. Thus, this "benefit" was often frustrating to use for members.

As of today, Marriott has moved to Night Upgrade Awards which allow you to request upgrades to higher category rooms in addition to suites. I imagine they're hoping this will help more upgrades clear to limit customer frustration. However, I would expect properties to clear upgrades into nicer rooms while still playing games with upgrades to suites.

On the positive side, Night Upgrade Awards will be available at five additional brands:

• Aloft
• EDITION
• Element
• Protea Hotels
• Ritz-Carlton

Members will now receive a confirmation or denial of an upgrade three days prior to arrival. Previously, it was five days prior to arrival. One would hope that later notice will mean that properties will be able to more accurately project what rooms/suites will be available. Though, I wouldn't be surprised if they still choose to leave suites empty and try to upsell people at check-in.

As with many program changes, we'll see how it's implemented.

Direct link to Choice Benefits page