Earning Marriott Bonvoy Platinum with Stay Edmonton

marriott fairfield edmonton airport hotel exterior

I’m a firm believer that it is always worth it to obtain a meaningful status with at least one hotel chain for the more significant benefits, such as free breakfast and suite upgrades. For my situation, this has either been Marriott Bonvoy Platinum or Hilton Honors Diamond (thanks to the American Express Hilton Honors Aspire card (US) for this fantastic benefit).

Over the past few years, I’ve been lucky to have my Marriott Platinum status extended due to the state of travel in the world. In the years I have held platinum status, I have received some excellent suite upgrades and luxurious breakfasts as a result. Needless to say, the juice has been worth the squeeze in earning and retaining this status.

Marriott Bonvoy Status in 2023

When it comes to my plans for 2023, I wasn’t necessarily going to chase Marriott Platinum. My current plans see me staying at Hilton properties for the majority of my travels, so I figured I would take a year off from Marriott. That changed when I was approved for the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card a few weeks ago under the most recent offer of 100,000 Marriott Bonvoy points plus a free night certificate worth 85,000 points.

The Bonvoy Brilliant card grants 15 elite qualifying nights annually (as of September 2022, this card now offers 25 EQN). Additionally, I already hold the American Express Marriott Bonvoy Business credit card (US) which also grants 15 elite qualifying nights annually. Combining these two cards for the free 30 elite qualifying nights is one of the best tricks when it comes to earning Marriott Status since it gets you so close to the required 50 nights for no effort. Click to learn more about how you can fast track your way to Marriott Platinum status.

Stack those 30 nights with my five-night stay at the St. Regis in Rome, a short business trip to Vancouver, and an upcoming five-night Maldives stay, I was at 42 elite qualifying nights for the year.

marriott bonvoy credit card elite nights bonus

At this point, I figured I might as well earn an additional 8 elite qualifying nights to renew Marriott Bonvoy Platinum for 2023. In the past, I have completed a few mattress runs with points thanks to the cheap properties in Edmonton to accomplish this. 

This time, I approached it with a different viewpoint and took advantage of a combination of the Stay Edmonton promotion and Q1 2022 Marriott Bonvoy promotions to help me earn another year of Platinum status.

Stay Edmonton Hotel Promotion

Edmonton’s Best Hotels is offering a Stay Edmonton promotion throughout all of 2022. This promotion offers guests a gift card for staying a set amount of nights:

  • Stay one night: A $50 Mastercard, gas gift card, or Ultimate Dining gift card
  • Stay two nights: A $150 Mastercard, gas gift card, or Ultimate Dining gift card
  • Stay three nights: A $225 Mastercard, gas gift card, or Ultimate Dining gift card
stay edmonton promotion $225 gift card

For this promotion, I believe the digital prepaid MasterCard offers the best value due to the level of flexibility; it could be considered cash right back in your pocket and an effective discount towards the hotel stay.

When booking through this promotion, it is important to note that the promotion provider is not taking any payment. This means you will be paying the hotel directly, and can also attach your Marriott Bonvoy number to your booking to earn Bonvoy points, elite qualifying nights, and take advantage of any perks that you have due to your existing status level.

Thanks to this promotion, part one of taking advantage of earning cheap elite qualifying nights was booking the cheapest Marriott property I could find in Edmonton for three nights. For this example, I booked into the Fairfield Marriott Edmonton International Airport at an all-in rate of $389 for 3 nights.

Marriott Bonvoy Promotions (Q1 2022)

Part two of the journey in earning cheap elite qualifying nights was taking advantage of a few Marriott Promotions that were running in Q1. While Marriott’s promotions are often targeted and user-specific, many users reported receiving the below promotions:

marriott bonvoy double promotion

The promotion of significant value was the 1,000 bonus Bonvoy points per night and double the elite qualifying nights. Simply put, this means that a 3 night stay would earn you an additional 3,000 Bonvoy points and 3 elite qualifying nights (totalling 6 nights credit for the stay).

The terms of the double elite night credit offer were as follows:

marriott bonvoy double nights promotion

With a period of a few months to take advantage of this promotion, the opportunity was prime to combine this incredibly valuable Marriott promotion with the local Stay Edmonton promotion. And that was exactly what I did.

Earning 6 Elite Qualifying Nights

Let’s recap where we are at so far:

  • 3 night stay booked at the Fairfield Edmonton Airport for $389
  • $225 prepaid MasterCard selected as the reward for booking my stay through Edmonton’s Best Hotels
  • Double elite qualifying nights and an extra 1,000 Bonvoy per paid night

Two days before my scheduled stay, I emailed the hotel to have my Marriott Bonvoy number tied to my booking. They were able to do this in a timely manner and sure enough, I was able to see the booking in my Marriott Bonvoy app.

As I mentioned previously, the stay is charged at the hotel’s point-of-sale. This means you are able to earn multipliers on the hotel spend for this stay, depending on the credit card that you choose to apply.

With that being said, I checked into the hotel, went up to the room, put the “do not disturb” sign on the door, and drove back home.

marriott fairfield edmonton airport hotel bedroom
Yes, I messed up the bed before leaving, as is tradition when it comes to mattress runs.

I’ll admit, I was late to the game on taking advantage of this promotion combination as I wasn’t sure if I would be chasing status for 2023 and as a result, I only had around two weeks to participate in the promo. At the end of the day, my total out-of-pocket costs turned out to be $164 for a three-night stay after all discounts. 

This means I paid a rate of ~$27 per elite qualifying night, which was more than reasonable in my eyes. I also received around 10,000 Marriott Bonvoy points for the stay. Not to mention, these elite qualifying nights also pushed me even closer to Marriott Bonvoy Lifetime status as well.

A close friend was able to complete a three-night stay for $96 (after the prepaid Mastercard discount) earlier this year. A $16 per elite qualifying night cost is outsized value, showcasing that even greater value could be extracted from this promotion than what I was able to manage personally.

Is Chasing Hotel Status Worth It?

Ultimately, when it comes to any loyalty program your travel habits will dictate if it is worth chasing status. Is Marriott your main hotel chain, as it tends to be for many miles and points enthusiasts in Canada? Then it might be worth chasing status. The same thing can be said for other hotel loyalty programs, like Hilton and Hyatt.

I think it is worth chasing and holding status with at least one hotel chain at all times. For any hotel loyalty program, the real break-even of value in status tends to be the tier at which you can receive complimentary breakfast and other perks, which would be Marriott Platinum and Hilton Honors Gold status

Upon reaching those levels, that is when I tend to stop the status chase. Unless there is an easy opportunity to achieve higher status, such as Hilton Diamond with the Aspire card, I find it isn’t worth bothering.

Long-term, earning status with Marriott will also help you in continuing to work towards Marriott lifetime platinum status. While it takes 10 years of holding Platinum status and 600 elite qualifying nights, it is definitely attainable over time.

marriott bonvoy lifetime elite status requirements

Conclusion

While this brief mattress run still leaves me a few nights short of renewing my Marriott Platinum status, I have a couple of business trips coming up later this year to get me over the 50-night requirement.

Unfortunately, this promotion can no longer be taken advantage of since the Marriott double elite qualifying nights promotion ended on May 4th, nonetheless, I thought this article was important to share since it focuses on one aspect that is so important in this hobby: synergy. While many promotions or opportunities may look good on their own, you should always be looking for ways to combine them or double-dip where possible.

And who knows, the Stay Edmonton promotion does run until the end of December 2022. Maybe we will see another strong Marriott promotion to couple with it in the coming months!

Josh Bandura

Josh Bandura

Co-Founder at Frugal Flyer
Josh has been involved in the miles and points game since 2015 but has scaled up his knowledge and points earning potential in recent years. With a consistent attitude of "min-maxing" in many aspects of his life, Josh has transferred this mindset over to the miles and points game. Always looking for the next big opportunity, he aims to share content on a variety of topics including his travels, miles and points, and most importantly, how to get the most out of your credit cards

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13 comments on “Earning Marriott Bonvoy Platinum with Stay Edmonton

  1. How do you tie your room to your Bonvoy number. I tried it and I was told they don’t do that for 3rd party bookings. How did you email the hotel and get them to tie in your bonvoy number with the “edmontonsbesthotel” booking? I don’t see a email listed. I read up and I was told they don’t count 3rd party stays on your elite nights. Please help me i have one booked in 2 days and want to make sure this is not a waste of time and money.

    Reply
    • Hi Greg,

      I actually just completed two stays at the Four Point Sheraton Gateway in Edmonton under the promotion. I had luck in messaging the property on Facebook with my Bonvoy number and they added it no problem. I have already received EQN and point credit for my stay completed last week.

      Reply
  2. Pick the CAA option. They never ask for proof. Calling in I found was easier to attach your BV number also.

    Reply
    • Thanks for the tip Alonso – I also had a friend use the CAA rate with similar results.
      Calling in would be another option, else as a last resort just having it added at the front desk works just fine.

      Reply
  3. Generally I also take at least one Keurig pod and all of the coffee mate creamers from the room before bolting as well. Towel and comforter mussing is mandatory.

    Reply
    • Everyone has their things they look for and take home haha. Word has it, another Frugal Flyer writer has an obsession with hotel branded pens….

      Reply