Marriott quietly announced a useful change for travelers who collect Free Night Awards (FNA).

Starting now, members can add up to 25,000 Marriott Bonvoy points to a Free Night Award when redeeming it for a hotel stay.

Previously, the maximum top-off amount was 15,000 points.

This change increases the flexibility of Marriott’s free night certificates and may help members redeem them at more hotels.

A Quick Background: Free Night Awards and the 15K Top-Off Rule

Back in 2022, Marriott introduced a feature that allowed members to top off their Free Night Awards with additional points.

The rule was simple:

• A Free Night Award could be topped off with up to 15,000 points
• The certificate still had to book a standard room
• The total redemption value was limited to the certificate value plus the extra points

For example:

This feature made the certificates significantly more useful because hotel pricing had already begun drifting upward.

The New Change: 25K Point Top-Off

Marriott has now increased the top-off limit.

Members can add up to 25,000 points to a Free Night Award instead of 15,000.

Here’s what the new redemption range looks like:

This change applies to all Free Night Awards, and it is effective immediately.

Members don’t need to do anything special. When searching for hotels using a certificate, the system should automatically allow the higher top-off amount.

What This Means for Travelers

In theory, the new 25K top-off limit should make Free Night Awards easier to use.

However, there’s an important reality many Marriott members have noticed over the past few years: point prices have been steadily increasing.

Even with the previous maximum of 100K (85K + 15K), it was already becoming harder to redeem certificates at some higher-end properties.

The new 25K top-off increases flexibility, but the additional points still have to come from the member’s account. In other words, Marriott isn’t increasing the value of the certificate itself — it’s simply allowing members to contribute more points to complete the booking.

My Take

Personally, I think this change is helpful, but it’s also a partial solution.

Increasing the top-off limit does make Free Night Awards easier to use, especially at properties where pricing fluctuates slightly above the certificate value.

However, the more meaningful improvement would probably be raising the base value of the certificates themselves.

For example, increasing the 85K certificate slightly would better reflect the current pricing trends across Marriott’s luxury properties.

Of course, that would also increase Marriott’s costs, which likely explains why the company chose the top-off adjustment instead.

Final Thoughts

The increase from 15K to 25K top-off points is a welcome improvement for Marriott Bonvoy members.

It won’t completely solve the challenge of finding good redemptions in an era of rising point prices, but it does provide a bit more flexibility when trying to use Free Night Awards.

For now, at least, those extra 10,000 points of flexibility might make it easier to finally redeem some certificates that were just slightly out of reach.