NEW: Convert Avios to Marriott Bonvoy hotel points – but is it worth it?

Qatar Airways Privilege Club has extended its partnership with Marriott Bonvoy. You have always been able to convert Bonvoy points into Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios at the usual 3:1 rate, but now you can do it the other way.

Yes, you can convert your Avios into Marriott Bonvoy points. Details are here.

Why are we not more excited? Because, frankly, the conversion rate is weak.

2 Avios gets you 1 Marriott Bonvoy point.

We value Avios at 1p when used for premium cabin flights, and Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.5p. This means you would be giving up 2p of Avios to get 0.5p of Marriott points.

Now, my Bonvoy valuation is possibly too low. If you pick and choose when to redeem, you can get 1p per Marriott point. My spreadsheet of my last 9m (!) redeemed Marriott points shows I got 0.77p of value, although sometimes I valued a stay at below the cash price because the cash price was one I would never have paid.

(Yesterday I was looking at The St Regis in New York for next year, for example. A three night stay is 400,000 Bonvoy points or £4,300, so 1.1p per point. However, if I had to pay cash I would go elsewhere – I could find something equally plush for £750 per night.)

Even at 0.77p per Marriott point, you’d only be getting 0.38p per Avios if you converted.

Let’s say you did value a Marriott Bonvoy point at 1p – and I’d be questioning you carefully if you believed that was routinely possible. You would still only be getting 0.5p per Avios.

A more sensible option would be to conserve your Avios and transfer across American Express Membership Rewards points to Marriott (at a 2:3 ratio) or buy Marriott Bonvoy points in a promotion when you can get them for around 0.8p.

There are now four ways of converting Avios to ‘big six’ hotel points:

• Qatar Airways Privilege Club to Marriott Bonvoy
• Qatar Airways Privilege Club to Accor Live Limitless
• Finnair Plus to Accor Live Limitless
• Finnair Plus to IHG One Rewards

None of these deals offer good value. I’ll do a longer article in a few days showing you why in more detail.

The only ‘Avios to hotel’ offer I can wholeheartedly recommend is using Finnair Plus Avios for Scandic and Sokos hotels in Scandinavia, which can be great value as I wrote here.

Full details of the new ‘Avios to Bonvoy’ conversion deal are on the Qatar Airways website here.

PS. The weak Avios to Bonvoy transfer rate has got me worried about the upcoming ‘Nectar to Marriott Bonvoy’ transfer rate when the new partnership launches. It really needs to be 1:1 in both directions if it is to get any traction. After all, a Nectar point is worth 0.5p of hard cash and our fair value of a Marriott point is also 0.5p. If Marriott’s financial model says 1:1 doesn’t work, it should scrap the financial model and think about the marketing benefits instead.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous 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:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.