Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

How to earn miles with 38 different airlines with the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card

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The Marriott Bonvoy American Express lets you earn miles with 38 different frequent flyer schemes if you convert the Bonvoy points. This is a benefit which no other UK credit card can match.

For 25 of these airline schemes, the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card is the ONLY way of earning their miles via a UK credit card.

You might not realise it but, for example, if you are after Air Canada or Air New Zealand miles, this Credit Card is your only route to earn them from day to day spending.

With the Marriott Bonvoy card recently doubling its sign-up bonus to 40,000 Marriott Bonvoy points (offer ends 8th November) I wanted to take another look at this unique feature.

How to use the Marriott Bonvoy American Express credit card to earn miles with 38 different airlines

I am obliged to remind you at this point that the representative APR on this Card is 44.0% variable, including the £75 annual fee, based on a notional £1,200 credit limit. The interest rate on purchases is 26.6% variable.

You can find out more and apply for the card here.

Which 25 airline currencies can only be earned from the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card?

Here is the full list of Marriott Bonvoy airline partners (you can also see it online here) and the transfer rates.

For the 25 airlines below, the Marriott Bonvoy American Express is the ONLY UK credit card which can be used to earn their miles, when you transfer your Marriott Bonvoy points.

The conversion rate is 3:1, except for Air New Zealand which is 200:1 and United MileagePlus which is 3:1.1.

  • Aegean Airlines
  • AeroMexico ClubPremier
  • Air Canada Aeroplan
  • Air New Zealand Airpoints
  • Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
  • American Airlines AAdvantage
  • ANA Mileage Club
  • Asiana Airlines Asiana Club
  • Avianca LifeMiles
  • Copa Airlines ConnectMiles
  • FRONTIER Miles
  • Hainan Airlines Fortune Wings Club
  • Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles
  • InterMiles
  • Japan Airlines JAL Mileage Bank
  • Korean Air SKYPASS
  • LATAM Airlines LATAM Pass
  • Multiplus Fidelidade
  • Saudia Alfursan
  • Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards 
  • TAP Air Portugal
  • THAI Airways Royal Orchid Plus
  • Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
  • United MileagePlus
  • Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer

For completeness, Marriott Bonvoy can also be converted into the following frequent flyer programmes. There are other options for earning these miles from a credit card, such as American Express Gold or Platinum, and in most cases at higher rates.

The conversion rate from Marriott Bonvoy in all the programmes below is 3:1.

  • Aer Lingus AerClub
  • Air France/KLM Flying Blue
  • British Airways Executive Club
  • Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
  • Delta SkyMiles
  • Emirates Skywards
  • Etihad Guest
  • Iberia Plus
  • Qantas Frequent Flyer
  • Qatar Privilege Club
  • Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
  • Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
  • Vueling Club

How many miles does the Marriott Bonvoy American Express earn?

You earn 2 Marriott Bonvoy points for every £1 you spend, with 6 points per £1 when spending in Marriott hotels.

These transfer to airline miles at 3:1, as the list above shows, so you are getting 0.66 miles per £1 spent.

If you move 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points to an airline at once you get a 5,000 miles bonus.  60,000 Marriott points will therefore get you 25,000 airline miles.  This is 0.833 airline miles per £1 spent on the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card.

For someone collecting American Airlines miles, Air Canada miles etc this is a straightforward way of picking them up at an attractive ‘0.833 miles per £1’ rate.

How to use the Marriott Bonvoy American Express credit card to earn miles with 38 different airlines

And don’t forget the sign-up bonus ….

If you qualify, the sign-up bonus is currently worth 40,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.  This converts to 13,334 airline miles.

40,000 Marriott Bonvoy is a special offer which runs until 8th November 2022. The standard bonus is just 20,000 points.

You must spend £3,000 within three months to receive the bonus.

If you collect, say, Air Canada miles, this is one of the very few ways in the UK to give your account a quick boost.

Of course, you can also use them for Marriott hotels where 40,000 Bonvoy points should get you at least £200 of value.

Eligibility for the bonus is restricted.  You only qualify if you have not held ANY personal American Express Cards in the previous 24 months.

You CAN still apply for the card even if you don’t qualify for the bonus, of course.  You will receive all of the other benefits, including the 15 free elite night credits and Silver status.

Conclusion

The ability to earn miles in 38 different frequent flyer schemes at a decent rate is a low profile benefit of the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card.

For 25 of these airlines, including high profile carriers such as American Airlines and United Airlines, this is the only UK credit card which lets you earn their miles from your daily spending.

You can apply for the card here.

You can find out more about how Marriott Bonvoy works in our review here.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2023 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher for spending £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher for spending £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and unbeatable travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 points bonus and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and a £200 Amex Travel credit every year Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

1% cashback and no annual fee Read our full review

Category

Marriott Bonvoy, Marriott Bonvoy American Express

Comments (25)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • YB says:
    16 Oct16 October 08:56

    Got the other two emails, but not this article this morning? Came to the website to read it.

  • bigsi says:
    16 Oct16 October 09:13

    I need a chunk of AA miles. Is there any other way to get them?

    • Rob says:
      16 Oct16 October 09:53

      Not unless you convert from another hotel scheme. AA is very restrictive in its outside partners.

      There is hotel booking portal via Rocketmiles which can be a decent deal if there is a good ‘first user’ offer on, but obviously any hotels booked via that don’t get you hotel points or any elite benefits you’d normally get.

    • Chrisasaurus says:
      16 Oct16 October 12:47

      Big loss % (and may even be better to buy them) but Amex MR to Bonvoy to AA is at least quick

      • Joshua says:
        17 Oct17 October 01:10

        Do these transfers count as “Loyalty Points” towards status with AA?
        Since there is no other credit card way of earning these points in the UK it’s much harder to now to get status with AA.

      • polly says:
        17 Oct17 October 12:58

        Yes, we usually use bonvoy points to keep our a miles alive, but won’t be keeping them going much longer.

  • memesweeper says:
    16 Oct16 October 10:06

    Assuming you could get 1% back on another Amex, I wonder if any of these airline miles offer such great “outsized” value that holding the Marriott just for collecting airline miles long term is worth it? Certainly not Avios. Aeroplan maybe…? Trouble with this idea for me is I always spend all my Marriott points in their hotels.

    • Rob says:
      16 Oct16 October 11:47

      If I was spending £100k per month on a card then there is real value here because you could build a big balance with any airline. For most it is just a way of topping up some odd currency (eg AirNZ) they have.

  • LST says:
    16 Oct16 October 11:21

    Still bitter that he earning rate was cut from 3 to 2 per £!

  • flyforfun says:
    16 Oct16 October 13:37

    I wish I’d know this sooner. I’ve hit may BAPP £10K threshold for the year, and the Barclaycard BA one too. So, I’ve just been “wasting” spend! 😀

    Shame about already being excluded from the promotion if you already have a Amex card, however I need to keep my AA miles alive and this seems a good way to do it.

    What does the “elite night benefit” entail? Just spent 2 nights at a Courtyard by Marriot in Hamburg and it was fine. Basically just slept and showered there, was out most of the time at work or dining. The bed could have been comfier though. Better mattresses at Premier Inn!

    • Rob says:
      16 Oct16 October 15:47

      You get 15 elite night credits towards Marriott status, which immediately get you Silver (benefits not huge, I admit) and puts you 15 nights nearer Gold and higher.

  • Chancer says:
    16 Oct16 October 19:08

    On the tangent of Marriott status, has anybody here experienced both platinum and titanium, and if so was titanium notably better than platinum please?

    • Rob says:
      16 Oct16 October 21:40

      Been both, general view is that there is no real difference. However, I had 15 suite night awards to burn this year, all of which have cleared so far (2 left) so not many ‘normal’ stays.

      My personal view is that I have the credit card and can get Platinum (upgrade, lounge access) with 35 nights per year, which has been doable in recent years. I got Titanium due to the double elite nights offer last year but am not concerned about it lapsing.

      • Chancer says:
        16 Oct16 October 22:05

        Thanks Rob. I’ve always just used Hilton Group, but recently I’ve been looking at some countries on the world map in terms of future holidays but finding no stay options, so thinking of branching out.

        The main topic is also another potential attraction ie Bonvoy points convert to air miles at realistic rates.

        Being a US Amex customer, I could get platinum straight away by signing up for the revamped Brilliant card for $650/year. If I then spent about another $200 total I could get this UK card and the US business Marriott card, leaving only a 20 natural nights per year target to hit titanium.

        Not sure whether to bother with either option though, as over the years I’ve seen a lot of negative comments about Marriott service standards, especially since Starwood died, plus the thought of those compulsory resort fees is off-putting.

        I take it from what you said above you wouldn’t rate the status highly enough to spend circa $850/year to get titanium back and then hold it easily?

        • Rob says:
          16 Oct16 October 22:32

          I doubt you’d double up on elite nights from a US and UK personal card (you do double up on personal and business card nights).

          The only value over Platinum to me would be the 5 extra suite night upgrades, which I’d value at around £50 per night (assuming they all got used). I wouldn’t put value on better treatment as Titanium.

          I’m ignoring lifetime status here, as whether you are thinking about that would depend on where you were in terms of lifetime nights and elite years to date.

          • Chancer says:
            17 Oct17 October 14:05

            Thanks Rob. I’ll weigh it up a bit more, but probably going to go for it, following more research on the Brilliant card. The restaurant credit not as good as the Marriott credit it replaces, but works in McDonalds, Costa etc. apparently. Between that and the annual 85k night voucher, looks at least cost neutral on the fee, if not profitable. If I get my wife to do it, then we’d have Priority Passes for a family of six…we’ll have to go about creating a fourth child to take full advantage!

            I’d get that one first, then try the UK one. If the night credits don’t stack I can just cancel the UK one. If it does stack then I’ll go for the business card/chase titanium. If I do go through with it I’ll report back how it goes.

            Thanks also to Harry T for sharing his experience on Marriott status.

    • Harry T says:
      16 Oct16 October 23:05

      Best reason to be titanium now is cos every Tom, Dick and Harry is Platinum, especially with it now being obtained in the USA via a credit card (also due to all the double nights promos and free nights during the pandemic). Personally I have found that I have been better treated with upgrades as Titanium than Platinum. The extra points earning adds up too, if you stay a lot. I have made good use of the extra SNAs; others prefer the free night certificate.

      I’m Hilton Diamond, Marriott Ambassador and IHG Diamond Ambassador – I have found Marriott the best of the bunch for elite treatment by far. I also value the 4pm late checkout guarantee a lot. If you stay in the USA, all of them will be disappointing as the general attitude and “service” culture is toxic and dire there. Although I’ve heard good things about Hyatt and I would be interested in them if I was USA based. If you are a Marriott elite in Europe and the Middle East, you will be well cared for.

  • Paul says:
    17 Oct17 October 08:12

    Oh dear just received this from Marriott 🙁“Beginning October 31, 2022, the 5,000 bonus points-to-miles incentive with American Airlines will end. However, the everyday benefits you’re accustomed to receiving will continue, and you can still convert points to miles on a 3:1 basis.
    Marriott Bonvoy® remains committed to enhancing your travel experiences with our global airline program. Look for more information and additional program benefits in the future.”

    • polly says:
      17 Oct17 October 13:02

      Nothing in my inbox yet… that 5k bonus miles was a useful plus…bummer

  • James says:
    17 Oct17 October 20:28

    Out of interest. Can you convert avios or any airlines point to Marriott convey?

    • Rob says:
      17 Oct17 October 20:38

      Titanium (not sure about Platinum) can convert United to Marriott at 1:1, max 50,000 per year.

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