AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. Terms Apply to the offers listed on this page. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here's our complete list of Advertisers.
Dining rewards programs are a great way of double-dipping when you dine out. And Marriott's Eat Around Town program is making dining out especially rewarding for the next month.
During the month of October, Eat Around Town members will earn 8 Marriott Bonvoy points for every dollar spent at participating restaurants. That's in addition to the points and miles you'll earn from your credit card.
This is a great way to earn points while getting out of the house…or ordering in if you prefer.
Marriott Eat Around Town Promotion
- All members will earn 8 Marriott Bonvoy points per dollar spent at participating restaurants when using a linked credit card. That's double the typical 4X earning rate.
- Promotion runs from October 1 to October 31, 2021
- You must be a Marriott Bonvoy member and enroll in the Eat Around Town program
- Your bill must be paid with your registered credit or debit card at the time of your visit
- Eligible charges include food, drink, tax, and tip as charged to the registered card
After October 31, Marriott Eat Around Town members will continue to earn points based on your Bonvoy elite status. Non-elite members will earn 4X Marriott Bonvoy points. Bonvoy elite status members (Ambassador Elite, Titanium Elite, Platnum Elite, Gold Elite, or Silver Elite) get a 50% bonus. That's 6 Marriott Bonvoy points per dollar spent.
If you're not an Eat Around Town member yet, you can earn 6,000 bonus points by dining three times within the first 60 days. To get the bonus, you'll need to complete a survey about your experience and remain opted in to receive emails from Eat Around Town.
Related: Earn Up to 8,000 Bonus Points with Hotel Dining Programs New Member Bonuses
Eat Around Town Terms and Conditions
- Not valid on orders placed through third-party online ordering or delivery sites.
- Takeout and/or delivery may not be available at all restaurants.
- Please note that some restaurants only offer rewards on certain days of the week or up to a maximum spending amount per month.
- Marriott Bonvoy points earned through Eat Around Town do not count towards elite tier qualification in the Marriott Bonvoy program.
- Please allow six to eight weeks from the completion of your Eat Around Town transaction for your points to appear in your Marriott Bonvoy account.
- The offer is not transferable, is not valid for groups, and cannot be combined with other select offers.
- Other limitations may apply. Terms and Conditions are subject to change.
What is a Dining Program?
Many of the top airline and hotel programs offer additional points when you dine at an eligible restaurant and pay with a credit card you link to the dining program. This strategy is often called “double-dipping” because you get extra points from the dining program on top of the points you already earn (from the bank) when you pay with a card that earns more than one point per dollar at restaurants. You can learn more about which card to use for dining in our dedicated post of the best rewards cards for dining & restaurants.
Unfortunately, you can't triple-dip by adding your credit card to multiple dining rewards programs. Most of the airline and hotel dining rewards programs use the same back-end system. So, your card will be automatically unenrolled from one program if that card is added to another dining rewards program.
Cards Offering Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status
It pays to be a Marriott Bonvoy co-branded credit cardholder. Just by having one of the Marriott credit cards, you'll get (at least) Marriott Silver Elite status. That qualifies you for the 6X earning rate on Eat Around Town purchases after this promotion expires. And it's an especially good time to become a Marriott cardholder. All four co-branded credit cards are currently offering excellent welcome bonuses.
- For a Limited Time Only! Earn 125,000 Bonus Points and 1 Free Night Award (value up to 50,000 points) after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
- 1 Free Night Award (valued up to 35,000 points) every year after account anniversary.
- Earn up to 17X total Bonvoy points per $1 spent at over 7,000 hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy® with the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Card.
- 2X Bonvoy points for every $1 spent on all other purchases.
- Automatic Silver Elite Status each account anniversary year. Path to Gold Status when you spend $35,000 on purchases each account year.
- 15 Elite Night Credits each calendar year.
- No Foreign Transaction Fees.
- Earn unlimited Marriott Bonvoy points and get Free Night Stays faster.
- 6X Bonvoy points per $1 spent at over 7,000 participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels
- 2X Bonvoy points for every $1 spent on all other purchases
Marriott Bonvoy credit cards from Chase and American Express aren't the only way to earn Marriott elite status. Premium cards such as the The Platinum Card® from American Express and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express grant cardmembers Bonvoy Gold Elite status.
Our Take
With only 11,000 restaurants participating nationwide, your favorite diner might not be on the list. However, this is still a great way to earn some more Marriott Bonvoy points in October. If you're a member, I'd recommend checking out the map for where you live and see if any of the restaurants you like or have always wanted to go to are participating.
Don't forget to check out our guide on the Marriott Bonvoy Program to know which cards to use, how to maximize your points, and what other rewards are available.
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Seems that the Hilton program is running a promotion as well. Have been trying to split my purchases at participating restaurants between the two. It seems the big difference is the once a month credit using the Hhonors card.
There has got to be a way to expand this feature to Canadian restaurants too!!!
Marriott Eat Around Town is probably my favorite of all the dining programs (They are actually all the same program for the most part) because Marriott tends to have specials that target people who are already members whereas the others seem to have bonuses for those signing up. I live in an area that doesn’t have any participating restaurants but I always use the program as a tool to find places when I travel. I have been to some really great places I would have never found any other way. To find the restaurants, the MileagePlus X app has a tool that shows if any are close by. They obviously intend for the program to be used with MileagePlus dining but since they are the same restaurants, it works for whichever program your card is enrolled.
I get emails from AA, UA, and Delta about new additions to their restaurant lists for this kind of thing. They are all the same. I know I am not enrolled with Marriott but I find that I do not really go to any restaurants that are on the list. It’s tempting to go when I’d earn points but I am on the fence.
Great way to extend your Bonvoy points expiration date and pick up some extra points along the way with something you’re going to do anyway….love using the dining programs for pushing out those expiration dates!
Only earning points from stays and using points for stays will extend the expiration dates. No?
Great bonus especially for Marriott elite members
The should allow dining points to extend the expiration date of the account balance.
Going to be the size of a house with all the dining offers throwing around points right now!
This is an awesome way to extend Marriot Bonvoy points without buying them. Thanks for the helpful info!
This sounds like a great deal – will it be available in Canada?
Hopefully soon! For now these dining programs are definitely targeted at US residents though.
I love the dining rewards program and earning Marriott points is particularly useful because they are flexible points. Unfortunately there aren’t a lot of restaurants that participate where I live. However, it has been a great way to find restaurants in the towns where I travel for work, as well as getting the extra points. When there is a bonus, that makes it even better.
Thanks for sharing this deal. A shame not to be able to use it in Europe.
Not that it has been relevant during COVID, but these are always easy ways to extend your points expiration. Also at the end of the day, points are points.
A very easy way to get marriott points with a little effort. No minimum purchase required.
Not a bad program, need to weigh the value vs. the Hilton Dining program and just getting cashback for dining with Rakuten.
I hope all of this doesn’t cost the restaurants too much though.. sometimes I feel bad!
Cash is definitely king. Nowadays I’d much rather have cash in hand than hotel or airline points.
How much does Marriott profit from running the loyalty program itself?
A US only offer again, I wish these types of promotions and programmes could make their way to Europe
This might be worth registering for for me. I currently have another hotel dining programme active, probably IHG, but I rarely earn anything.
.
IHG also have their OpenTable reservation thing which I’ve got more use out of – just in May I was able to reserve a restaurant at a Marriott hotel I was staying at, charge the meal to my room, and earn IHG points for the reservation, and Marriott points for the meal. I was pretty pleased with that combination!
It is too bad that these points cannot extend the expiration date of the account balance.
Really? I’m not seeing anything that says that they wouldn’t. It should count as normal activity.
Nice option to earn points and share a dinner with family or friends
My 10x points offer on my Bonvoy Amex card doesn’t end until the end of this month, so this offer stacks with that. (As long as you eat at a restaurant that participates in the Rewards Dining Network) Unfortunately, in some areas there are no restaurants at all. I was going to have a great time stacking these offers at my closest and favorite restaurant that participated but then I discovered that it has permanently closed due to the pandemic. Very disappointing.
Many of these restaurants will probably never open again. What a shame.
This is a nice little bonus. I give Marriott credit for encouraging spending. If only their bonus offers for stays were as lucrative. Hint hint, Bonvoy 🙂
Saw this as soon as the month started and I noticed that it pretty much replaces the 10x Points per $ bonus that was on the Marriott Bonvoy cards. Unfortunately Eat Around Town is a bit more limiting in restaurant choice, but it does offer more flexibility for what credit cards you can use.
Is there a list of restaurants anywhere?
They’re usually embedded deep within the website somewhere but I’ve only used United’s program (but aren’t they all run by the same company?).