Question Of The Week: Is There A Weird Marriott Points Expiration Policy?
Our question of the week is…an odd one: is there a weird Marriott points expiration policy? Why are separate expiration timeliness affecting points in the same account for this user? I’ll admit that this question made me equal parts amused and confused.
The Question
Our question of the week comes from Jared in our Facebook group:
How do marriott expiration work? Just got notice that 65k of my 100k will expire. I had stays couple months ago.
Marriott Points Expiration Policy
Jared’s question is about when Marriott points expire. A 2nd part of this question is why some of his points (more than half) will expire but not others.
Here’s the Marriott points expiration policy on their website:
If your Marriott Bonvoy™ Account does not have Qualifying Activity for 24 Consecutive Months, your Points will expire:
If a Member does not maintain an active status for five (5) consecutive years, the Member’s Account may be deactivated.
Once Points are forfeited, the Points cannot be reinstated, but a Member can earn new Points, unless that Member’s Account has been deactivated.
Marriott also notes that not all activities count for keeping your account active. Gifting points or receiving points as a gift both will not count.
Thus, a hotel stay that earns points should count. Earning points via spending on a Marriott credit card should count. Even earning points from the recent Uber and Marriott joint promotion should count. Any of these should keep your account active and avoid points expiration.
But there are 2 really crazy things here:
- All points in Jared’s account should expire or extend together. It’s 1 account. Either t activity on the account or there isn’t.
- Marriott announced that points expiration is paused. No points should expire until March 31, 2022.
What To Do
There’s definitely something strange here. Jared needs to point this out to Marriott. “Earn some points to keep your account active” is the response for normal situations. This isn’t a normal situation.
My guess is that the recent computer updates that Marriott did to extend points and free night awards messed up Jared’s account.
I recommend contacting Marriott on Twitter about this. They should be able to straighten this out. Going this route avoids waiting on hold on the phone.
Final Thoughts
This is definitely a weird situation in Jared’s question about the Marriott points expiration policy. The policy and what’s happening with Jared’s account clearly aren’t the same. He had recent activity, which should keep his points from expiring. Even if he didn’t, points aren’t supposed to expire right now. Marriott needs to put some eyes on this.
If you wind up in a similar situation–with Marriott or any loyalty program–where your points are doing something funny, you should always ask them to look into it.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the old king of travel rewards cards. Right now
bonus_miles_full
Learn more about this card and its features!
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
One exception I know of are points purchased thru Vistana, one of Marriott’s timeshare arms. Rates are great but a firm 6-yr expiration.