Marriott has a new offer (that they’ve also run in the past) that’s available only to new members of the Marriott Rewards program currently — MegaMiles.
While there’s an offer being sent out by Marriott’s airline partners like Virgin America, contra The Points Guy it is not actually targeted in that anyone can join as a new member and get the bonus miles being offered.
In fact, even if you click a link to join sent to you by Virgin America, you can still select any mileage-earning partner of Marriott’s to use in earning bonus miles.
MegaMiles is being offered to new members who join and opt to earn miles.
For stays between February 1 and April 30, new members can earn 5,000 bonus miles with every other paid stay starting with the second stay, up to 50,000 bonus miles.
In the past, promotions under the name ‘MegaMiles’ have offered double miles, 2000 miles per stay up to 50,000 miles, and triple miles.
You cannot earn the MegaMiles promotion and the MegaBonus free night promotion, because the latter requires you to earn Marriott points (“Members electing to earn miles are not eligible for this promotion”). You have to choose one or the other.
This is actually a pretty good rate of return for short, inexpensive stays. 20 one-night stays at an average of $100 all-in would yield 50,000 miles for $2000. Call those miles worth $750, and you’ve got a 37.5% rebate. Make your reservations through a rewards portal, pay for your stay with gift cards that earned 5 points per dollar, etc. and you’ve got a great deal.
It doesn’t work out to be quite as lucrative (and in most cases isn’t “mattress run-worthy,” staying just for the miles) for longer and more expensive stays.
Still, some will find the offer more attractive than the MegaBonus 2 stays earns a free night at a mid-tier category hotel.
- You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
