You can purchase as few as 1,000 points and as many as 100,000 points per calendar year. NerdWallet values Marriott points at 0.9 cent apiece, which means that 1.25 cents is on the steeper end.

In addition to gift cards, you can redeem Marriott points for merchandise from online merchants like Apple, Dyson, GoPro and The North Face. Marriott cleverly divides the merchants by category and ...