Travel Tips
Travel Tuesday: You Can Now Earn Marriott Bonvoy Points Via Uber
As any travel hacker, points enthusiast, or coupon clipper knows, there’s no feeling quite as great as pulling off a “double-dip.” Sure, earning one form of reward for a purchase or saving a few dollars on said purchase is nice — but it’s even better when you employ multiple tools and/or offers to further enhance your benefits. Now, Uber and Marriott Bonvoy have announced a new partnership where Uber users can easily earn bonus Bonvoy points, essentially creating a simple double-dip situation.
When you link your Marriott Bonvoy account to your Uber account, you’ll be able to earn Bonvoy points on both rides and Uber Eats orders. For Uber rides (XL, Comfort, SUV, or Black), you’ll earn 3x points per dollar spent. Meanwhile, for Uber Eats orders, you’ll earn 2x points per dollar — although there is an order minimum of $25. However, the really interesting part of this offer is the 6x points you can earn when you place eligible Uber Eats orders and have them delivered to your Marriott properties. Again, this only applies to orders above $25. What’s nice is that these points come in addition to the Uber Rewards you would normally earn.
Further sweetening the deal, members can currently earn an extra bonus for a limited time. Those who link their Marriott Bonvoy account and make a qualifying Uber or Uber Eats purchase (meaning over $25 for the latter) before May 31st can earn 2,000 Bonvoy points. With more than a month to go on this offer, you should have plenty of time to take advantage of this easy-to-score deal.
To link your Marriott Bonvoy account, open the Uber app, tap the three-lined button in the upper left to open the sidebar, and select Settings. Then, scroll down until you see Marriott Bonvoy under “Rewards” and enter your Bonvoy account number. You can also review the details of the benefit here if you need a refresher and can unlink your account should you so choose.
I actually haven’t had the chance to try out this new feature just yet (although I did link my Bonvoy account as soon as I heard about it). But, according to my friend, he was able to earn points even when tapping the Uber Cash he earned from his Amex Platinum and Gold card to pay for his order. That bit of news is key for me as that’s my primary form of payment for Uber rides and Eats these days. In fact, if this weren’t the case, I might have to disqualify the offer from “double-dip” status. Luckily, that doesn’t seem to be necessary.
While this new partnership gets an easy approval from me, it does feel as though Uber is playing a bit of catch-up. Lyft has not only had similar partnerships in place with Hilton and Delta for a while but even recently leveraged those relationships to offer users bonus points and miles when they donated to the Fund a Ride/Vaccine Access initiative (which I eventually received my points from, by the way). Of course, the other reality here is that — unless you’re using Uber an awful lot — it will take some time before the points you earn turn into anything. Still, it’s hard to be negative about getting something for nothing. Therefore, with my Marriott Bonvoy account now linked to Uber, I look forward to earning bonus points on many future orders and rides.