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Formerly known as Suite Night Awards, Marriott Bonvoy® Nightly Upgrade Awards are available as a choice benefit for Platinum Elite and Titanium Elite members. Platinum Elite members must earn at least 50 elite night credits each year, while Titanium Elite members must earn at least 75 elite night credits each year.
The change from Suite Night Awards to Nightly Upgrade Awards was nominal in many ways. In fact, Nightly Upgrade Awards are more useful than their predecessor and a win for Bonvoy elites who value the additional use options, though the fact they now confirm later is a drawback.
Here's what you need to know about Nightly Upgrade Awards and how to use them with Marriott Bonvoy.
Page Contents
How To Earn Nightly Upgrade Awards
Only Platinum Elite and Titanium Elite members qualify for choice benefits. Each year following earned elite status, these elites can choose one benefit. One of the options is five Nighly Upgrade Awards.
As the screenshot below shows for 2025 (status is earned in 2024), there are seven choice benefits for Platinum Elites and nine total choice benefits for Titanium Elites. Platinum Elites get to choose one from the first list while Titanium Elites get to choose one from each list. The most valuable choice benefits at the Platinum Elite level are adding elite night credits (to get you closer to Titanium) and Nightly Upgrade Awards.
You can earn elite night credits in several ways, including the old-fashioned way of staying in Marriott Bonvoy hotels. To make this easier, you can take advantage of a promotion that's seeming to become a yearly trend: double elite night credits on stays.
The easiest way to earn status — or at least jumpstart the process — by holding the right card.
Related: Choosing the Most Valuable Marriott Bonvoy Annual Choice Benefits
Marriott Bonvoy status from credit cards
Marriott Bonvoy has four personal and one business credit card offered by American Express and Chase. Each card provides 15 elite night credits per year, with the exception of the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card. It provides 25 elite night credits.
When you hold at least one personal card and one business card, you can earn a total of 30 elite night credits (or 40 if you have the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card and a business card). You can only earn elite night credits from one personal card, no matter how many you hold. That's 30 of the 50 elite night credits necessary to reach Platinum Elite Status.
Some Bonvoy credit cards come with complimentary Silver or Gold Elite status, but only one comes with complimentary Platinum Elite status: the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card. While this seems ideal, you still need the requisite number of elite night credits (50 or 75) to choose a choice benefit from the list above. Just receiving Platinum Elite status automatically isn't sufficient. However, this card does provide an annual Earned Choice Award if you make $60,000 of purchases in a calendar year. One option on that list is Nightly Upgrade Awards, so there exists another path to unlocking this benefit.
Related: How To Earn Marriott Elite Night Credits
How To Find Nightly Upgrade Awards in Your Account
Annual Choice Benefits become available shortly after earning Platinum Elite or Titanium Elite status. Marriott states on its website that you'll receive a congratulatory email within 48 hours of earning status. The email will contain a link to choose your benefits. If you do not choose your annual choice benefits, Marriott will automatically assign you Nightly Upgrade Awards.
Related: The Complete Guide to Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status
How To Use Nightly Upgrade Awards
You can apply your upgrade awards to an existing reservation made with points or cash. Ensure the reservation is attached to the Bonvoy account from which you'll redeem the Free Nightly Upgrade Awards. Log into your account and choose the trip you want to apply an upgrade award to under My Trips.
Click on View/Modify Room under the reservation. This link is highlighted in the red box in the above screenshot. The next page will show your reservation details. If you're able to apply Nighly Upgrade Awards (sometimes you won't be able to), you'll click on Start Upgrade Request, as highlighted in the screenshot below.
The following page will show you which rooms are available for your request. In the case of this reservation, there are five rooms available to use your nightly upgrade on. As this screenshot shows, they're not all suites. That's a change from the previous Suite Night Awards. You have more room types to choose from, but now they include non-suite options.
After choosing your room, you have to click the button labeled Submit Upgrade Request to finish. If accepted, your upgrade will clear within three days of check-in. That's another change; Suite Night Awards previously cleared within five days of check-in, meaning you might know about your upgrade sooner.
What stays are eligible for using Nightly Upgrade Awards?
Nightly Upgrade Awards can be used for eligible stays, one per night. An eligible stay is any stay on which you would otherwise earn Bonvoy elite night credits. This includes stays booked through Marriott's website and mobile app; paid stays; Cash & Points stays; points stays; stays redeemed with free night certificates; and Marriott STARS rates through a travel agent.
Third-party bookings, such as those made through an Online Travel Agent (OTA) such as Priceline, are not eligible for Nightly Upgrade Awards.
What hotels are eligible?
You can use Nightly Upgrade Awards at many of Marriott's over 30 hotel brands and collections. They are not available to use at the following brands, however:
- All-Inclusive Resorts
- Bulgari
- Design Hotels
- Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy®
- Marriott Executive Apartments
- Marriott Vacation Club
- Marriott Grand Residence Club
- The Ritz-Carlton Club
- Ritz-Carlton Reserve
- The Ritz-Carlton Residences
- The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection
- Sheraton Vacation Club
- The Phoenician Residences, a Luxury Collection Residence Club, Scottsdale
- Westin Vacation Club
- MGM Collection with Marriott Bonvoy
Sometimes, independently owned Marriott Bonvoy properties may not accept Nightly Upgrade Awards. Unfortunately, you may not know if the hotel you're booking accepts them until you've already booked and then try to redeem the award. You could call the property ahead of time to see if they would accept your upgrade awards or not.
Note that Nightly Upgrade Awards are eligible at EDITION and Ritz-Carlton properties (unless listed above), while the previous Suite Night Awards weren't in the past.
What rooms are eligible?
According to the terms of Nightly Award Upgrades, you can use upgrade awards for premium rooms and standard suites. However, individual properties decide which rooms to make available for these awards, so rooms you expect to see in the list sometimes aren't.
Nightly Upgrade Award requests for an eligible room can clear as early as five days before arrival for all brands except for EDITION, the Ritz-Carlton, and the St. Regis. These three brands begin clearing Nightly Upgrade Awards three days before arrival. Upgrade availability is checked each day until 2 p.m. local time one day before arrival. If there is no upgrade available, your awards will be credited back to your account.
Awards must be used for the entire stay; thus, if you have fewer awards available than the number of nights in your reservation, you can't use them for that stay. Upgrade awards are not guaranteed and can only be canceled and redeposited to your account if you cancel the whole reservation.
When applying a Nightly Upgrade Award, be sure that the rooms you request still have what you need. Don't lose the fold-out bed you want for your kids when moving to a “nicer” room. For example, my family of four gets two beds on every stay, so I never choose “one king suite” options when trying to use Nightly Upgrade Awards. That room type won't work for us.
Final Thoughts
The ability to upgrade your hotel stay as an elite status or credit card benefit is fantastic. For me, credit card points already unlock travel experiences for me and my family that we otherwise couldn't afford. Elevating my hotel experience by upgrading my room for no additional fee is right up there with airport lounges on the list of benefits I enjoy most. Every small convenience helps in the overall experience.
While some bemoan the shorter lead time before check-in with the new Nightly Upgrade Awards, this hasn't reduced how much value I get from them.
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