Marriott news: transfer Emirates miles (handy if expiring), 37th Bonvoy brand launched

Two bits of Marriott Bonvoy news in brief:

Transfer Emirates Skywards miles to Marriott Bonvoy

Marriott and Emirates have had a partnership for many years called ‘Your World Rewards’ – our most recent article on it is here.

The benefits are:

• If you are an Emirates Skywards Silver, Gold or Platinum member you receive 1 Skywards mile for every $1 you spend in a Marriott Bonvoy hotel

• Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite, Platinum Elite, Titanium Elite or Ambassador Elite members receive 3 Marriott Bonvoy points per $1 spent on Emirates flights (base fare only)

These are both attractive offers, especially the latter given our 0.5p valuation of Marriott Bonvoy points – a value you can easily beat on a good day.

In fact, if you are spending a lot on Emirates flights then you should look for ways to get Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status. The quickest option is via The Platinum Card from American Express which offers it as a benefit. Our full review of The Platinum Card is here.

You can now convert into Bonvoy too

The Marriott / Emirates partnership has now expanded to allow you to convert Emirates Skywards miles into Marriott Bonvoy points.

(The reverse has always been possible. Marriott Bonvoy points convert into 40 airlines at 3:1, with a 5,000 mile bonus for every 60,000 Marriott points sent over.)

The rate is 3 Emirates Skywards miles to 2 Marriott Bonvoy points.

The minimum transfer is 3,000 Skywards miles.

This isn’t great – we’d normally value an airline mile at 1p and a Bonvoy point at 0.5p, so you are losing 2/3rd of their value.

However …. Emirates Skywards miles have tough expiry policies. There is a three year hard expiry unless you have Skywards Platinum status. By ‘hard’ expiry, I mean that – irrespective of your activity in the interim – your miles still expire.

As it happens, the other ‘easy’ route to dump expiring Emirates miles – converting them to Heathrow Rewards credit – was recently closed. It offered similar value to this deal, getting you 0.33p per mile.

Converting small amounts of expiring Emirates Skywards miles to Marriott Bonvoy points is now the best way to use them.

You can convert via this page of the Emirates website.

Marriott launches its 37th brand – ‘Series’

Marriott has launched its 37th brand – because 36 clearly wasn’t enough – called ‘Series’.

I can best describe it as ‘a low rent Global Hotel Alliance’.

The idea is that existing chains of two-ish star hotels can join Marriott en-masse. The press release uses phrases such as ‘basics done well’, ‘clean, comfortable rooms’ and ‘a simple and approachable experience for travelers with a focus on fundamentals and well-executed basics’ – think ‘ibis Budget’ territory.

(There’s good news though. The brand guidelines insist on ‘private in-room guest bathroom, no shared bath facilities’.)

The first chain to sign up is called Fern. Operating in India, Fern consists of six sub-brands with over 80 hotels, of which three (The Fern, The Fern Residency, The Fern Habitat) will join Marriott. Fern will not become an official Marriott brand – Marriott will not be franchising it elsewhere – but the existing Fern properties will become bookable via Marriott.

Series will have ‘industry leading affiliation cost structures’. This presumably means that it will earn reduced Marriott Bonvoy points (probably 5 per $1) and potentially only 0.5 elite nights per night stayed.