Marriott is running a promotion where if you transfer your Marriott points to American Airlines you’ll receive a 20% bonus. This is for both regular transfers and Marriott’s Hotel + Air packages where you receive a certain number of miles based on the package selected. This promotion runs through November 14, 2016. This is similar to the Marriott to United transfer promotion that I wrote about last week, although you’ll end up with slightly less miles with this current promotion.
Is this promotion worth it?
When you transfer your Marriott points to American miles you’ll earn at the following rate:
That means, if you transfer 140,000 Marriott points you’ll receive the regular 50,000 miles plus 10,000 bonus miles, for a total of 60,000 American miles. With the United promotion, you’ll about the same number of United miles, but it will require less Marriott points to get there. If you value your United and American miles the same, then the United offer is much better. With that being said, neither of these offers are at a rate I’d transfer at, but it all depends on how you value your Marriott points and American/United miles.
Now, and even better opportunity is when you redeem for a Hotel + Air package. These packages allow you to redeem for a 7 night stay at a specific Marriott category plus a certain number of airline points (depending on the package selected).
You’ll then receive a 20% bonus on the airline miles transferred to your account as part of this package. So let’s say you are looking to redeem for a 7-night stay at a category 6 hotel and 70,000 miles. That will cost you 250,000 Marriott points. With the current bonus, that will actually yield you 84,000 American miles. With this promotion there is no cap to the number of bonus points you can earn (unlike the United promotion). Typically, Marriott Hotel + Air packages is a great use of Marriott points, so if you have a 7-night stay coming up, I highly suggest looking into this option. A 7-night stay at a category 6 hotel will typically cost you 180,000 Marriott points (taking into consideration the 5th night free). So for only 70,000 more points, you are ending up with 84,000 miles (with this partner and bonus). That is a great transfer ratio since American miles are worth way more then Marriott points. Just keep in mind though that the 7 night certificate you receive has to be used for one consecutive 7-night stay (although only needing 5 or 6 nights at the hotel can still hold value).
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