You can now add up to 15,000 points to Marriott Free Night Awards — sharply increasing the value of Marriott cards

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• Most Marriott credit cards come with Free Night Awards worth between 35,000 and 50,000 points.
• Marriott now allows you to combine these certificates with up to 15,000 Marriott points.
• Two Marriott cards offer limited-time bonuses that include Free Night Awards — and their values are boosted by this new benefit.

In February 2022, Marriott announced a new benefit coming to its loyalty program. Before the end of April, members would gain the ability to combine Marriott Free Night Awards with up to 15,000 points.

In the nick of time, on April 29, Marriott launched this benefit to its members. This is a huge development, as it affords you a much larger selection of hotels to redeem your Free Night Awards with.

Nearly all Marriott credit cards offer a Free Night Award after each account anniversary. With the ability to increase the value of this award with Marriott points, your Marriott credit card immediately becomes more versatile.

Combine your Free Night Awards with up to 15,000 Marriott points

Here's a quick refresher of which currently available Marriott credit cards offer Free Night Awards after each account anniversary:

• Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card — Free Night Award worth up to 50,000 points
• Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card — Free Night Award worth up to 35,000 points
• Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card — Free Night Award worth up to 35,000 points

With this new ability to "top-up" free night certificates up to 15,000 points, you can now reserve hotels costing between 50,000 and 65,000 points, depending on which card you have.

Two Marriott credit cards currently offer limited-time bonuses which include free night certificates.

The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card comes with Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card.  This free night is worth up to 85,000 points — but you can combine it with 15,000 Marriott points to stay at the best Marriott hotels in the world.

For example, below is a random night during peak ski season at the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch in Colorado. This date sells for $1,500+ per night — but you can book it for 97,000 points instead. By adding 12,000 Marriott points to the Amex Bonvoy Brilliant's 85,000-point certificate, you could book this hotel for (nearly) free. 

The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card comes with Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card.  You can add 15,000 points to each of these certificates and book hotels costing up to 65,000 points per night.

Here is a prime example as to why this "certificate top-up" feature is so helpful. The JW Marriott Venice costs between 50,000 and 70,000 points. Here's a calendar vew of available dates in July.

As you can see, there are only two dates with the lowest price of 50,000 points. Previously, these two dates would be the only times you could redeem your Free Night Award for a stay at this hotel. But now that you can add up to 15,000 points to your certificate, you can stay any date of the entire month!

Bottom line

In truth, this "top-up" benefit appears better than it is. Marriott ditched its award chart in February and now uses "dynamic pricing" to determine its award rates. There have proven to be pros and cons (mostly cons) to this new pricing method — but one downside is that many hotels are now just expensive enough to fall outside the specified Free Night Award ranges.

To soften this blow, Marriott now allows you to add up to 15,000 points to Free Night Awards. Again, this is particularly helpful when the hotel you want to book is now just a few thousand points pricier than the maximum value of your certificate.