Get a 45% bonus buying Marriott Bonvoy hotel points

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• BJ says:

  7 Nov7 November 05:57

  Buying points feels weird! Even though it can be the smart logical thing to do at times, in our hobby it instinctively feels (to me at least) painful and wrong, symptomatic of a failure in playing the loyalty game well despite our still winning versus paying cash. Found myself buying IHG points last night, effectively paying $190/night for a room costing $339/night + tax BFR. Clearly sensible on cost assuming there is no mega point collection bonus at time of stay and I’m not chasing status. I have Hilton and Marriott points which I could have used on better hotels but I didn’t as required stay is 4 nights so such redemption would have meant loss of value through failure to use 5th night free, so those points are best saved for another day. So buying the points should feel like a win, win, win on cost and preserving Hilton and Marriott points but it doesn’t..it hurts! Why? … my failure to get Creative with IHG choosing instead to push Hilton to the limits. Especially depressing in light of my IHG white card closed for a solitary transaction via Bendy. Loyalty morals of this sad tale: 1. Diversity in loyalty pays & 2. Ruthlessly exploit every opportunity you reasonably can at all times.

  • YC says:

    7 Nov7 November 06:47

    I have zero guilt when I buy points if it makes sense, it’s a pure arbitrage play if u are willing to pay the initial cash price (saving close to 50% is huge in ur case!). It’s very difficult to collect a ton of all points for a normal person in the uk who does not travel for work or is a business owner. Your right on diversity/convertible points. But on exploiting every opportunity, there’s a huge time expense to do this and some things are a bit grey so there is ur own risk tolerance too.

    • BJ says:

      7 Nov7 November 07:31

      Agree with all that, and I’m no longer working or in business in a way that generates hotel points. I guess I am just feeling a bit sore about putting all the Bendy eggs in one basket now,especially when I should have know better.

  • Dubious says:

    7 Nov7 November 07:09

    “Ruthlessly exploit every opportunity you reasonably can at all times.”
    Each to their own, but personaly I don’t feel ‘exploit’ is a good attitude for everyone to take and I accept you may not have meant it in the way I have interpreted this sentence.

    Persoanlly, I merely utilise the opportunities that are presented…it’s not all about maximising every last $, £ or cents for me, it’s about living life whilst getting some incremental benefit in a product or service in exchange for utilising that product or service more often. $, £ and cents can be created, but time cannot.

    • BJ says:

      7 Nov7 November 07:39

      Exploit = take advantage of. Ruthless and reasonably go hand in hand as a balance. Results much the same as you suggest 🙂 How far anyone goes will depend on resources, time and needs. And it”s only a hobby for me anyway so all within the context and constraints of much more important things. Sorry if I gave you wrong impression.

    • John says:

      7 Nov7 November 07:52

      My tummy hurts after too much exploitation of the BA lounge this morning

  • John says:

    7 Nov7 November 07:50

    It feels weird to me because if I need to cancel the stay I don’t get the money back and I’ve now bought points at a bad rate.

    • BJ says:

      7 Nov7 November 08:30

      That thought crossed my mind at the time of purchase too as it is an above average risk these days.

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      7 Nov7 November 08:50

      “if I need to cancel the stay I don’t get the money back and I’ve now bought points at a bad rate.”
      Very good point; the money saving needs to be significant for this strategy for exactly this reason. Small % does not cut it.
      More though, I find that 90%+ of the time, as soon as cash rather than just points is in play, now all options are on the table, and the chain hotel I was looking at is very likely to no longer be the best option available.

    • meta says:

      7 Nov7 November 09:09

      @John yes, which is why I have been very reluctant buying extra points during pandemic and only did it once with an outsized value for a trip I knew I would take very soon afterwards.

      @BJ Totally agree on the need to diversify points. I have been doing it in the last 5-6 years and I have been able to slowly move away from depending only on Avios or one type of hotel points. There were so many opportunities which were not mentioned here because they didn’t have a wider appeal, but worked really well for me. But then again, I also invest time.

    • ChrisC says:

      7 Nov7 November 09:28

      Paying points + cash for a room is not the same as buying points outright and then using those for the room.

    • BJ says:

      7 Nov7 November 13:51

      Referring the various comments above, I think most of us can still do ok if we cancel and get the refund as points. Certainly I would expect to do so sooner or later in London which works for me, if not most HfP readers given the proportion that are London-based. However, the problem remains that if purchasing the points initially resulted in a near 50% discount on the room rate then settling for even 25% following a points refund and use elsewhere is going to feel disatisfying.
      In tbe absence of accelerate I now struggle to collect meaningful amounts of IHG so diversification is limited to Honors and Bonvoy, having not made hay…

• Simon says:

  7 Nov7 November 06:42

  Just a word of warning on the Singapore Airlines transfer promotion- when I did it while it gave me the extra 15% miles, it DIDN’T give me 15% Elite miles (which are in fact different things). I might just have a glitch if others have been successful- possibly test before sending a lot over if status is your intention (wasn’t for me, just needed to top up my account for a flight).

  • Axel Heyst says:

    7 Nov7 November 09:07

    The 12% or 15% of Elite bonus miles should post at the end of the year according to the T&Cs.

  • Alan says:

    7 Nov7 November 09:21

    FAQ #17 says they’re eligible, but see the table there for the timeline. @Rob you should probably update the article again re this? 😉

    “17. Are Bonus Miles earned under this Campaign eligible to accrue PPS Value or Elite miles under the KrisFlyer “Unlock Status Credits without Flying Campaign”?

    Bonus KrisFlyer and KrisPay miles from conversion under this Campaign will be eligible to accrue PPS Value or Elite miles under the KrisFlyer “Unlock Status Credits without Flying” campaign. The earning of status credits will be subject to the Terms and Conditions of the KrisFlyer “Unlock Status Credits without Flying” campaign.”

    • Rob says:

      7 Nov7 November 10:08

      Ok

• Lloyd says:

  7 Nov7 November 08:54

  I recently transferred points from my Amex business gold to my international dollar card with the intention of then transferring them to krisflyer, only I didn’t get the uplift, I now have the same number of points on my dollar card as I transferred from gold. Have amex made a mistake? Feel kind of bad calling them and telling them I expected more points!

  • meta says:

    7 Nov7 November 09:02

    Why would you feel bad? You should explain to them that you have earned them in £ and you expected that to be reflected in currency exchange. Amex have their FX rates, FX fees, etc…

• Andrew says:

  7 Nov7 November 09:43

  Remember that if you have Virgin FlyingClub Gold, possibly through the BA status match earlier this year, then reciprocal agreements with SQ mean you get most of the elite benefits when flying with them.

• Paul Pogba says:

  7 Nov7 November 13:07

  AA Aadvantage are moving towards an ability to earn status by earning loyalty points/miles too, are we likely to see any similar moves from BAEC?

  • John says:

    7 Nov7 November 15:29

    I think the US airlines move in sync and BA won’t necessarily copy them

• Ian M says:

  7 Nov7 November 13:52

  Very tempting offer from Singapore Airlines! It’s been a while since I did a transfer from Amex MR UK to the International US Dollar Amex. Can someone who’s made a MR transfer from Amex UK to their International US Dollar recently let me know how long this takes? Wondering if I’ll have time to make that transfer + take advantage of the transfer bonus on offer before 22nd November!

• Lee says:

  8 Nov8 November 05:58

  Does the 12% bonus count for marriott to krisflyer transfer?

  • Ian M says:

    8 Nov8 November 06:55

    “Remember that only ‘bank’ points (HSBC or American Express if you live in the UK) count.”

  • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

    8 Nov8 November 08:24

    The SQ article linked above by Rob in turn links to the following list of bank transfer partners that earn the bonus and Marriott is not on it:
    https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/sg/ppsclub-krisflyer/latestnews/kf-bonus-miles-conversion-2021/?affiliate_id=11001&affc=6cb5a35d-91b1-479a-905c-0d2a130548a6

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