Introduction

Marriott Bonvoy will sell you points all day. The base rate is $12.50 per 1,000, which works out to 1.25 cents per point. The average redemption value on a Bonvoy point in 2026 is somewhere between 0.7 and 0.82 cents. Do that math for a second: at sticker price, you are paying roughly 60% more for the points than they are worth on average. So the answer to "should I buy them?" is almost always no.

Almost. Because Bonvoy runs a buy-points promo nearly every quarter, and a few times a year the math flips hard in the buyer's favor. There is one right now, in fact: a 40% bonus running through June 23, 2026, with the annual purchase limit raised above the normal 100,000. That changes the question from "should you buy points" to "when, exactly, is buying Marriott points the right move." This guide is that answer, with the math worked out, the redemptions named, and a few honest opinions about where Bonvoy points actually pay off.

The Current Promo: 40% Bonus Through June 23, 2026

Marriott's Q2 2026 buy-points promo is live. The headline numbers:

  • Bonus: Up to 40% on point purchases
  • Minimum buy: 2,000 points
  • Window: April 23, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. ET through June 23, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. ET
  • Annual limit: Increased above the standard 100,000 points per calendar year for the duration of the promo

Effective cost with the 40% bonus is 0.89 cents per point. That works out to $625 for 70,000 points instead of 50,000. That is the price you want to be working with, not the 1.25-cent base rate.

One quirk worth knowing: the bonus is targeted. Log in, head to the "Buy Points" page, and your offer might be 30%, 35%, 40%, or, for a few lucky people, 50% to 60%. There is no public way to tell ahead of time what tier you will see. If you are on the fence, log in and check yours before doing any of the math below.

The Cadence: When Marriott Runs These Things

Marriott has run six to eight buy-points promos a year for as long as I have tracked them. The pattern roughly:

  • January and February: Post-holiday push
  • April through June: Spring and summer trip planning (where we are now)
  • August and September: Fall booking window
  • November: Black Friday and holiday season

Most of them top out at 30% to 40%. The full 50% bonus on the marketed offer is rare, usually one or two per year, often tied to Black Friday or a big aspirational booking push. If you do not have an immediate redemption in mind and the current bonus is below 40%, wait. The next one is rarely more than three months away.

Buy-Points Math: The Only Equation You Need

The whole question of whether to buy points collapses into one calculation:

Cost per point bought vs. value per point redeemed.

If you are buying at 0.89 cents per point (40% bonus) and redeeming at 1.5 cents per point, you net 0.61 cents per point in your favor. Every 100,000 points you redeem is $610 of value beyond what you paid for the points.

If you are buying at 0.89 cents and redeeming at 0.6 cents (which is where most standard Marriott properties land), you are setting fire to about 30 cents on every point. The cash booking would beat you.

Here is how to compute your own redemption value:

  1. Find the cash rate for the room on your dates (taxes excluded, since you will pay taxes on award stays too in some markets).
  2. Find the points cost for the same room on the same dates.
  3. Divide cash by points. That is your cents-per-point value.

Anything above 1.0 cpp and the buy is interesting. Above 1.2 cpp with a 40% bonus and you are getting a deal. Above 2.0 cpp and you have found one of the redemptions worth building a trip around.

Where the Math Actually Works: Sweet Spot Redemptions

Marriott killed its published award chart in March 2022 and moved to fully dynamic pricing. Categories still exist internally (1 through 9, roughly 5,000 to 152,000 points per night), but the program does not publish them. In practice that means standard hotels track close to cash rates (bad for points buyers) while aspirational properties price below cash when those cash rates blow up. That gap is where the buy-points math comes alive.

St. Regis Maldives Vommuli

This is the redemption that broke my brain on Bonvoy. Cash rates at the Vommuli during peak season run $2,000 to $3,500 per night for the entry-level villa. Award nights have been booking in 2026 anywhere from 110,000 to 150,000 points depending on dates. AwardWallet's user-redemption data shows an average value of 2.77 cents per point on Maldives redemptions since January 2025. Stack the fifth-night-free benefit on a five-night stay and the effective per-night cost drops 20%.

Run the buy-points math at 40% bonus:

  • Five nights at 120,000 points/night = 600,000 points
  • Fifth night free brings it to 480,000 points
  • At 0.89 cpp, that is $4,272 to buy in
  • Cash rate for the same trip: roughly $12,500
  • Net value: $8,228, or about 1.71 cpp on the points you bought

The annual purchase limit is the real constraint here. Even with the Q2 2026 increased cap, you cannot buy 480,000 points in a single stretch. But you can buy what you need to top off an existing balance, which is the more realistic scenario.

Ritz-Carlton Maldives Fari Islands

The newer Ritz on Fari Islands has been pricing around 100,000 to 130,000 points per night against cash rates north of $1,800. One Mile at a Time clocks it around 1.2 cpp average and AwardWallet has individual bookings closer to 1.5 cpp. Smaller scale than the St. Regis premium, but same playbook. And Ritz-Carlton's points-stay benefits (club access at select properties, the upgrade lottery) make these redemptions feel like a different program from the Courtyard you stayed in last month.

St. Regis Bora Bora

The standout overwater redemption in the Pacific. 100,000 to 120,000 points per night against cash rates that can hit $2,200 in peak season. Stack the fifth night free and a 40% bonus buy-in, and you are inside a $1,400-per-night-equivalent overwater bungalow for what amounts to airfare-only out of pocket on the points side.

Ritz-Carlton Reserves

The Reserve collection (Dorado Beach, Phulay Bay, Mandapa Ubud, the Zadún in Cabo) runs higher point costs of 100,000 to 145,000 per night, but cash rates often clear $2,000. The Reserves also extend Bonvoy elite benefits like Suite Night Awards in ways the standard Ritz portfolio doesn't, which matters if you have status.

European Luxury Collection and St. Regis Properties

St. Regis Venice, the Gritti Palace, the Hotel de la Coupole in Sapa, the Castiglion del Bosco. These sit in the 80,000 to 110,000 range against cash rates of $1,200 to $1,800. Solid 1.0 to 1.3 cpp territory.

The pattern is consistent: high cash rates plus inelastic award pricing plus the fifth-night-free multiplier. Standard Marriotts don't have any of those three things going for them. Don't buy points to stay at a Courtyard.

The Fifth Night Free Multiplier

This one benefit is the difference between buying points making sense and not. Five-plus night award stays pay for four nights of points and get the fifth free. That is a 20% discount on top of whatever cpp value you are already pulling.

Example: a property running 80,000 points per night with 1.0 cpp baseline value.

  • Without fifth night free: 80,000 points/night × $0.80/night cash value = breakeven at 1.0 cpp
  • With fifth night free, five nights: 320,000 points covering five nights of $80 value = 1.25 cpp

If you can structure your trip as a five-night minimum at a high-cash-rate property, you are picking up a free 20% on your points. That is how the St. Regis Maldives math gets to 2.77 cpp average.

Better Ways to Get Marriott Points

I have said this twice already but it bears spelling out: for most people, most of the time, buying points is not the move. Earning them is.

Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express

Top-of-stack premium card. Current welcome bonus has run as high as 185,000 points, $650 annual fee, 25 elite night credits annually (gets you to Platinum status before you stay a night), $300 dining credit, free anniversary night at properties up to 85,000 points.

Effective cost to acquire those 185,000 points via the welcome bonus, treating the dining credit and free night as offsetting the annual fee: roughly 0.35 cents per point. That is 2.5x cheaper than buying with the 40% promo bonus.

The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant is the right card if you stay at Marriotts often enough to use the Platinum benefits: Suite Night Awards, late checkout, lounge access at participating brands.

Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful (Chase)

The newest of the bunch. $250 annual fee, welcome bonus has been at 125,000 points plus a free night, 3x at gas stations, dining, and grocery. Those are categories no other Marriott card hits, and the 3x grocery is the one that makes this card stick in your wallet for everyday spend.

Marriott Bonvoy Bevy American Express

$250 annual fee, welcome bonus around 100,000 points plus a free night, 6x at Marriotts, 4x at restaurants and grocery. The middle-ground card if Brilliant is overkill and Boundless is too entry-level.

Marriott Bonvoy Boundless (Chase)

$95 annual fee, welcome bonus typically 100,000 points after spend plus an additional free night. The starter card. The annual free night certificate is worth more than the annual fee at most properties, which makes this one of the simplest "keep forever" cards in the Marriott stack.

Why the Comparison Lands So Hard

A 100,000-point welcome bonus from the Boundless costs you roughly $95 in annual fee. Call it 0.095 cpp acquisition cost. Buying those same 100,000 points at the 40% bonus costs $890. The credit card route is almost 10x cheaper. If you have not exhausted Marriott credit card welcome bonuses in the past two years (and you are not over Chase's 5/24 cutoff), that is where every conversation about getting Marriott points should start.

Transfer Partners: The Honest Take

I am going to be direct: Marriott is the program you transfer out of, not into. The 3:1 ratio from Amex Membership Rewards is brutal. You are throwing away two-thirds of your point value. Chase doesn't transfer to Marriott at all. The only flexible-points route into Marriott worth running is buying through a portal (Chase Travel, Amex Travel), but the redemption rates there don't beat a direct cash booking when Marriott runs corporate promos.

The reverse is sometimes interesting. Marriott points transfer to a long list of airlines at 3:1 (with a 5,000-point bonus on every 60,000 transferred). The transfer-to-United partners or transfer-to-Aeroplan-for-Star-Alliance sweet spots can work, but I cover those in a separate piece on Bonvoy transfer strategy. For hotel redemptions specifically, the answer is: get Bonvoy points via Marriott credit cards or actual stays.

Who Should Actually Buy Marriott Points

If you have read this far, the persona is narrow. Buy points only when all of these are true:

  • The current promo is at 40% or higher (yours, after logging in)
  • You have a specific high-cash-rate redemption identified at St. Regis, Ritz, Edition, or Luxury Collection
  • That redemption is showing 1.2 cpp or higher in your actual math
  • You are stay-length-shy of the fifth-night-free benefit (a five-plus-night booking)
  • You have already burned through your Marriott credit card welcome bonus opportunities for the past 24 months
  • Award space is confirmed available on your dates. Log in and load it into the cart before you buy

That is a tight filter. Most people don't hit it. The ones who do are usually closing the gap on a balance: buying 40,000 points to top off 350,000 they already have, not buying 200,000 from scratch.

Who Should Not Buy Marriott Points

Equally important. Skip the buy if any of these is true:

  • You haven't applied for the Boundless, Bevy, Bountiful, or Brilliant in the past 24 months. Those welcome bonuses get you 10x more points per dollar than the buy-points page.
  • Your target redemption is a Category 1 through 5 property. The cpp math at Courtyards, Fairfield Inns, and Sheratons rarely clears 0.7 cpp.
  • You're booking one or two nights. No fifth-night-free benefit, narrower cpp math, almost never worth it.
  • You don't have a specific stay in mind. Speculative points-buying is the worst version of this hobby. Marriott's program changes (dynamic pricing has moved redemption costs up before with little notice) and you are gambling that the redemption you eventually want will price the same as it does today.

The Mechanics: How to Actually Buy

If you have made it through all the math and the buy is real:

  1. Log in at marriott.com → My Account → Buy Points
  2. Check your specific bonus tier (it will not always be the full 40%)
  3. Select your purchase amount (2,000 minimum for the current promo)
  4. Pay with a credit card that codes Marriott as travel: Chase Sapphire Reserve at 3x, Amex Platinum at 5x on Marriott prepaid, Capital One Venture X at 2x on everything. The points earned on the purchase shave a few more cpp off your effective cost.
  5. Points hit your account within 24 hours, occasionally up to a week during high volume.
  6. Book your award stay immediately. Don't sit on the balance.

Two things that surprise first-time buyers: purchased points are non-refundable, and they don't count toward elite status qualification. They redeem identically to earned points otherwise, including for the fifth night free, points + cash bookings, and award reservations at Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection sailings.

My Honest Take

Marriott Bonvoy is the program I love to redeem but hate to earn. The redemption ceiling at St. Regis, Ritz, and the Luxury Collection is genuinely world-class. 1.5 to 2.5 cpp redemptions exist and they sit at properties most travelers would otherwise never book. But the earn side is a slog. Base earning at Marriott properties is fine. Transfer partners are bad on the way in. Buy-points pricing without a promo is dramatically worse than the welcome bonus economics of the affiliated credit cards.

So my actual advice on "should you buy Marriott points?" sounds like this: probably not, and if you should, only during a 40%-or-higher bonus, and only because you found a specific aspirational redemption that you can't access any other way. If you are still building out your Marriott portfolio, every point you need is sitting in a welcome bonus you haven't claimed yet. Open the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless or the Bevy, spend the minimum, take the 100,000-plus points, and use those for your first big award stay. Come back to the buy-points page only when you are 30,000 points short of a Vommuli booking you have already loaded in the cart.

That is when buying makes sense. Almost never any other time.

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