Bonvoy Bonding
Today in a 1:1 meeting I did a bit of Bonvoy bonding with my boss. Bonvoy is the new name of Marriott's guest loyalty program. (Previously it was called Marriott Rewards; apparently the leadership thought that name was too ordinary and lexicographically un-invented.)
The conversation started when we were talking about vacation plans. She gushed about how she had enough Marriott points to book two rooms at a resort for her family for 5 days. "It was 280,000 points!" she exclaimed. She was also proud of booking seven frequent flyer tickets with American Airlines to get her family to the resort.
"I'm a points and miles hound, too," I said with a gentle chuckle as I opened the Marriott app on my phone and held it up to the camera for our videoconference. It showed my Lifetime Titanium status and account balance of over 600,000 points.
Her eyes widened as her chin dropped. "Six hundred thousand points? You can do a lot of damage with that! And I don't even know what Titanium is, how do you get that?"
I briefly explained what the requirements are for the various elite levels of Marriott's Bonvoy program, including how to get a leg up on them by carrying the right credit card(s). "I have a Marriott card!" she exclaimed. So I coached her on how to get maximum value from it, including considering looking for an offer to upgrade to the next higher level card for a bonus of 100,000 points. "Nowadays the airlines and hotels are making it easier to accumulate points from their credit cards than from actually flying or staying with them," I noted.
We talked a bit longer as she started looking up credit card offers on her computer. She found a few of the offers for Marriott affinity cards and resolved to call the bank and apply. Have I just made a convert to the game of What's in your wallet?