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Open a Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card and earn 3 Free Nights (each valued up to 50,000 points) after you spend $3,000 on purchases in your first 3 months from your account opening. The fine print says you can’t add points to these certificates. Additionally, you’ll receive a free night certificate worth 35,000 points every year on your card anniversary! For only a $95 annual fee, you’ll earn up to 17X total Bonvoy points per $1 spent at over 7,000 hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy® with the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Card.
How we’re using this exact points/free night combo for NYC
We haven’t been to NYC since my husband ran the marathon in 2015 (see photo above). I was excited when I saw the current Boundless credit card offer, because it’s the exact combo of points we used to book a Spring 2022 weekend in NYC (100,000 Marriott points and our Boundless 35,000 annual free night certificate)! We’ve had our Boundless card for a few years and never gotten around to using the points we earned opening it–until now.
The reason for our upcoming trip: Middle School Kid Trip With Mom & Dad. We did one for our oldest years ago, and we’ve wanted to do something similar for our middle daughter BUT she’s been in middle school during the pandemic! Now, for her 14th birthday, we’re taking her to NYC, which was one of the top two places she requested when we asked.
Here’s a breakdown of how we booked this weekend in NYC using points & miles:
Flights
For flights, we booked roundtrip Alaska air nonstop flights PDX-EWR (Newark airport) for a couple reasons: they were the best Alaska flights available, and we opted for Jersey City the first night so we could easily use our 35,000 Boundless free night certificate (it’s hard to find places in Manhattan to stay for 35,000/night–but starting sometime in April 2022, you can add points to your Boundless free night award and book up to 50,000 point rooms!).
We paid for my spouse’s flight to EWR on our Alaska card, and used an Alaska companion fare to buy my ticket (we each hold an Alaska credit card which means we have two annual companion fares every year). We typically don’t use reward miles to book flights for ourselves unless we’re flying internationally; by purchasing domestic Alaska tickets on our Alaska cards, we accrue more miles and maintain our elite status.
For our daughter’s fare, we used Alaska frequent flyer miles (we like to use miles for our kids’ flights because they don’t travel enough to have frequent flyer accounts).
Hotels
Our flight gets into EWR at 7pm, and we’ll stay the first night at a Jersey City Marriott property. We’re traveling with a couple of our best friends who lived in both NJ & NYC for over a decade, and they’re excited to show us views from nearby Liberty state park before we head into the city the next day.
Supposedly, some of the rooms at this Marriott have Empire State Building Views–we’ll definitely be trying our best beforehand to request an upgrade! This property is also highly rated for its proximity to the PATH train, which gets you right into Manhattan in 10 minutes for $2.75 (or you can take a ferry for $7).
The second two nights, we’ll be at a Marriott near Times Square, which we booked using 90,000 Marriott points. When I asked my daughter what she wanted to see in NY, Times Square was at the top of her list.
MISC
Our daughter’s best friend will be traveling with us, and they’re both excited to see their first Broadway show while we’re there. We used the Visa Infinity concierge service through our Capital One Venture X Card to book show tickets for “Six” while we’re there.
The other perk we’ll be using from our Capital One Venture X is our Priority Pass. On the way out of Portland, we’ll have lunch at Caper’s Cafe and stock up on any snacks or beverages we want for the plane; in Newark Airport, there’s a Lufthansa Business Lounge in Terminal B that we could visit on our way out (although Alaska flights depart out of Terminal A so I’m not sure how that will work). We’re departing on an evening flight after our last day in the city and will likely play it by ear. Read more about Priority Pass here:
Open a Capital One Venture X and earn 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 in six months.
TAKEAWAYS
Open the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless and on your one year anniversary when your free night hits, you too could book a weekend trip to NYC! And if Priority Pass and the Concierge Service seem tempting to you, consider the Capital One Venture X.
Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post. The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date; however, some of the offers mentioned may have expired.
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