What Marriott Bonvoy unlocks

Marriott Bonvoy's reach splits across hotels, a cruise line, and car-rental brands, and the quickest hotel results come from Gold Elite rather than the top Ambassador tier. Wyndham Rewards matches Gold Elite straight to Diamond, worldwide, free, with no card required — though it only holds for 90 days unless you log 10 qualifying nights to carry it through the following December. Choice Privileges uses that same Gold Elite trigger for a once-per-lifetime match to Platinum, but that route only runs in the US and Canada. A follow-up stay at a Cambria hotel can, in theory, bump that Choice match up to Diamond, though FrequentMiler reported this February that Choice quietly dropped the offer, even as Choice's own site still lists it.

Ambassador Elite status opens a route into cruising, too: it matches free into MSC Voyagers Club Gold, and that status carries into a second match that lands you at Gold in Explora Club (Explora Journeys). Both legs are once-per-lifetime moves, and the MSC leg lapses if you go three years without sailing with them.

Platinum Elite forks into two rental-brand chains. One runs through Sixt Platinum — a status that never expires — into Avis President's Club, good for about a year before you'd need to re-verify. The other runs through a Hilton Honors Gold match into National Emerald Club Executive Elite, though that leg only works in the US and Canada. Separately, Ambassador Elite carries a standing deal with Hertz in the US and Canada: President's Circle status holds for as long as you keep Ambassador Elite, rather than expiring on its own, and that Hertz status opens a further match into Enterprise Plus Platinum, provided you keep up 24 rentals or 85 rental days a year to renew it.