Marriott Stay and Delta flight earn 5,000 Bonus Skymiles

Earn 5,000 Delta Skymiles per Marriott stay by completing a Delta flight between November 1, 2010 and January 31, 2011. There is no earning limit for this offer.

Registration is required through Delta and your Marriott Rewards earning preference must be set to earn miles to earn this offer. Be aware that setting your Marriott Rewards earning preference to miles will make you ineligible for the MegaBonus Visa offer for the September 15 – Jan 15 period.

But if you already earned two free nights from MegaBonus, then you have a reason to move on to another offer.

This is another poorly rolled out hotel loyalty promotion.

Since the Delta promotion started this week on November 1, there has not been a clear answer to the question as to whether one Delta flight needs to correlate to one Marriott stay for each 5,000 miles bonus or if one Delta flight during the promotion qualifies all Marriott stays for the 5,000 miles bonus during the promotion period.

Marriott Concierge on FlyerTalk indicated one flight and one stay are needed for each bonus, yet there is no definitive answer after six days of this promotion.

The promotion terms and conditions do not clearly address the issue and members calling both Marriott and Delta are not getting the definitive answer.

Update November 16 – FlyerTalk members report Delta states one ticket will earn one 5,000 mile bonus for one Marriott brand hotel stay. One way tickets are the best way to maximize this bonus.

Priority Club offered a promotion recently for $50 in checked bags credit per roundtrip flight. The terms clearly stated a hotel stay needed to be within three days of flight to qualify and only one checked bag fee per roundtrip flight would count. Marriott and Delta left the promotion terms and conditions vague. 

Here are the relevant promotion terms: 

“Eligibility:

To participate in this offer, eligible members must register online at delta.com/flyandstay and complete a qualifying Delta flight and Marriott International stay by January 31, 2011.

Bonus Offer:

To participate in this worldwide public offer, you must be a new or existing SkyMiles member and a new or existing Marriott member and complete a qualifying Delta flight and Marriott International stay between November 1, 2010 and January 31, 2011 to earn 5,000 bonus miles. A qualifying flight includes any Delta or Delta Connection® carrier flight. Codeshare flights operated by carriers other than the Delta Connection carriers are excluded from this offer. One-way travel will also qualify for the bonus miles. Bonus miles may be earned multiple times. Bonus miles do not count toward Medallion® qualification or Million Milerâ„¢ status.â€

Land of Confusion

The term stating one-way travel also qualifies for bonus miles highlights the confusing aspect of this promotion regarding the one flight-one stay terms.

          Am I eligible for two 5,000 mile Marriott stay bonuses per roundtrip flight?

If not, then I should book two one-way Delta tickets. 

There is no timeframe delineated in the Delta promotion terms for how closely correlated in time a flight needs to be with a Marriott hotel stay.

           Can I fly Delta this weekend and will my hotel stay at Christmas count for the 5,000 miles bonus? 

There are many unanswered questions for this Delta offer.

Loyalty Traveler Advice 

My advice based on past experience with airline and hotel loyalty promotions is sign up early for this offer. I have seen members get better promotion terms in the past by signing up for offers early when the terms were vague. Some registrants were grandfathered into a promotion with more favorable terms that were later clarified and made more restrictive. (2004 – United Airlines gave members 4x bonus miles when the offer was meant to be 3x bonus miles. Members who registered early before promotion terms clarified got 4x miles.) 

Bottom Line: This could be one of the best promotions of the year if it turns out that one Delta flight qualifies for multiple 5,000 mile bonus Marriott stays. But I don’t read it that way due to the promotional ad wording shown below.

I would book all one-way flights on Delta to have twice as many separate ticket numbers to correlate to Marriott Hotel stays. You should be assured of 5,000 miles per Marriott brand hotel stay for at least as many separate Delta tickets you have purchased and flown.

Delta-Marriott Fly and Stay 5,000 Skymiles Promotion link