How to earn and use a Marriott Bonvoy 35,000-point certificate

Editor’s note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with new information and offers.

Multiple Marriott credit cards stay safely in each of our wallets year after year for a few reasons. Our travel styles and goals are pretty different — Katie is a digital nomad, while Summer usually travels with her family — but we both happily renew our Marriott Bonvoy cards each year due to the value they provide us.

One of the primary ways we get value from our Marriott cards is a free night award certificate each year after renewing the card. Marriott free night awards come in various denominations. But in this story, we’ll focus on the 35,000-point certificates — offered by the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card and the Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card — and how we use them.

How to earn Marriott 35,000-point certificates

You’ll occasionally find Marriott promotions that let you earn 35,000-point certificates. But the most consistent way to earn Marriott free night awards that you can use for one night with a redemption level at or under 35,000 points is Marriott credit cards.

As mentioned above, you can earn a 35,000-point certificate at each account renewal with the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card and Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express Card. Plus, you’ll earn another free night award after you spend $60,000 in purchases on your Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex in a calendar year.

For the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless, the free night award will automatically appear in your Marriott Bonvoy account within eight weeks of your account anniversary date. Meanwhile, the anniversary free night award should appear in your account within eight to 12 weeks after your renewal month for the Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex. If you meet the purchase requirement to earn another free night award on your Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex, it should appear in your account eight to 12 weeks after you meet the purchase requirement.

Related: 3 reasons why the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless is worth the $95 annual fee

You’ll likely get an email each time a new 35,000-point certificate reaches your account. But you can also see your free night awards by logging into your Marriott Bonvoy account, clicking on your name in the upper right-hand corner and selecting “Overview.” From here, scroll down until you see a “Free night awards” tile under “Earned rewards.” Click “View awards” to see your unexpired, unused free nights and their expiration dates.

If you use the Marriott Bonvoy app, you can also see your certificates by logging in, tapping the “Account” link at the bottom right and then navigating to the “Free night awards” section.

Related: How much value does the Marriott Bonvoy program provide when you book directly?

How to use a Marriott 35,000-point certificate

To use a Marriott free night certificate worth up to 35,000 points, search for hotels using Marriott Bonvoy points as you normally would. If you’re searching for a one-night stay, select a property priced at 35,000 points per night or less. Or, since Marriott allows you to top off these certificates with up to 15,000 points, you could consider properties costing up to 50,000 points — though anything above that threshold is out of reach.

You can use the flexible dates search feature if you have flexible dates but want to use your free night award at a specific property. When you click on the date field from the Marriott homepage, check the box for “My dates are flexible” to see the award prices across various dates.

Once you find a property for 35,000 points or less (or within 15,000 points of the threshold of your certificate if you are willing to add points), choose your desired room type.

At checkout, you will see the option to pay using your Marriott 35,000-point certificate. If you select a property that costs between 36,000 and 50,000 points on the night you book, you can pay using your certificate and pay the difference with points.

You can also use multiple Marriott free night awards — or a mixture of points and Marriott free night awards — to book a stay of more than one night.

However, if the hotel has a resort fee, you must pay it even if you use a certificate to cover the points portion of your stay. And if you need to cancel a reservation made with a free night award, keep a close eye on your Marriott account to ensure the certificate is redeposited. If you don’t see it back in your account, call Marriott customer service to have it manually returned.

Related: Data shows it’s time for Marriott to update point thresholds on free night certificates

How we’ve recently used Marriott 35,000-point certificates

The best way to get solid value from your Marriott 35,000-point certificate is to aim high. Since you can now add up to 15,000 points, you should not use it for stays that cost much less than 35,000 points per night — unless you have no other use before the certificate expires. It’s better to get the full value (and add a few points, if needed) than use it for a hotel at a much lower cost.

While Marriott award prices vary by night, many appealing properties still have nights available at 35,000 points or close enough that you could add some points to your certificate to make the stay happen. For inspiration, here’s a look at how we’ve recently used Marriott 35,000-point certificates.

Summer recently redeemed 35,000-point certificates for stays at the Moxy Edinburgh Fountainbridge and Residence Inn Edinburgh, needing to top her certificates off by 12,000 and 15,000 points, respectively. Meanwhile, Katie recently redeemed 35,000-point certificates for stays at the Renaissance Concourse Atlanta Airport Hotel, AC Hotel Barcelona Forum, Four Points by Sheraton Edinburgh and Fairfield Inn New York LaGuardia Airport/Astoria. If she’d needed to book paid rates for these nights, it would have cost $167, $335, $353 and $354, respectively.

Other TPG staffers have also used Marriott 35,000-point certificates for valuable stays within the last year. For example, TPG director of travel content Eric Rosen topped off a 35,000-point certificate with 5,000 points for a night at the JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. Live that would have otherwise cost him $340. A few months earlier, he topped off another 35,000-point certificate with 9,000 points for a night at The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte that would have otherwise cost him over $700.

TPG director of content Carly Helfand snagged nights at the Hotel Telegraaf, Autograph Collection in Tallinn, Estonia, and the Residence Inn Bend in Oregon by topping up 35,000-point certificates with 15,000 points. In Tallinn, doing so allowed her to successfully book every hotel on her trip with points, while in Bend, she avoided paying over $500 for the summer weekend night.

Finally, TPG senior editorial director Nick Ewen booked the Residence Inn Miami Aventura Mall for Taylor Swift’s last Miami concert with a 35,000-point certificate that he topped off with 11,000 points. By doing so, he snagged a room that would otherwise have cost $903 on that concert night.

Related: 5 ways to maximize Marriott Bonvoy award night redemptions

Bottom line

Annual hotel award night certificates often make it easier to say yes to hotel credit cards with annual fees. After all, it’s common to get a couple hundred dollars in value when redeeming these certificates.

If you don’t have a card offering you a Marriott 35,000-point certificate each year, now is a good time to add one to your wallet. The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card currently offers a limited-time welcome offer of a $150 statement credit after making your first purchase in your first 12 months from account opening and 100,000 bonus points after you spend $3,000 on purchases in your first three months from account opening.