Which nine airlines let you convert their miles to Marriott Bonvoy hotel points?

Marriott Bonvoy has been slowly rolling out the ability to convert airline miles into its hotel points.

Historically this has not been possible with airline miles. The action always used to be one-way – from hotel points into airline miles, not vice versa – but Accor Live Limitless blazed a trail for accepting transfers FROM frequent flyer schemes.

With Marriott launching a new transfer deal with Emirates (see our article here) I thought it was worth looking at all of the airline schemes which convert into Bonvoy points.

Which nine airlines let you convert miles into Marriott Bonvoy points?

There are now nine airlines which partner with Marriott Bonvoy to convert their miles into hotel points.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that the deals are generally poor value.

However, small amounts of airline miles rarely have much value. Unless you can get enough to redeem for a premium cabin, you are always going to struggle to get a great deal.

Airline miles also often have tough expiry policies.

In both of these situations, converting into Marriott Bonvoy points may be your best worst option.

Emirates Skywards miles into Marriott Bonvoy points

This is the newest partnership, launched last month.

The conversion rate is 3:2, with a minimum transfer of 3,000 Emirates Skywards miles.

This is probably the most useful of the Marriott partnerships for a UK reader, because Emirates Skywards miles expire three years after you earn them.

You can find out more on the Emirates website here.

United Airlines MileagePlus miles into Marriott Bonvoy points

The conversion rate is 1:1, which is very good.

There is a transfer cap of 50,000 miles per year.

However …. you must have United Premier Silver status or above in order to do this.

The good news is that Marriott Bonvoy Titanium Elite members can get a status match to United Premier Silver (see this article) which would allow you to transfer United miles.

For everyone else, this isn’t a transfer offer you’ll be allowed to take part in.

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles into Marriott Bonvoy points

The conversion rate is 2:1, with a minimum transfer of 3,000 KrisFlyer miles.

The exchange rate is bad, to be honest. If you value an airline mile at 1p and a Marriott Bonvoy point at 0.5p, you’re losing 75% of the value.

However, like Emirates, Singapore Airlines has a hard expiry policy of three years. You need to use them or lose them, and this is probably the easiest way to use them.

You can find out more on the Singapore Airlines website here.

Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios into Marriott Bonvoy points

This is obviously the most relevant option for UK readers of HfP. At the same time, it is less likely that a HfP reader would be actively looking for a way to dump their Avios at a weak rate.

The conversion rate is a poor 2:1.

The minimum transfer is 1,000 Avios, which gets you 500 Marriott Bonvoy points.

As with the Singapore Airlines example, you are losing 75% of the value of your Avios if you convert to Marriott.

You don’t even have the excuse of looming expiry, because Avios don’t expire as long as you have earned or spent a point in the last 36 months.

If you did want to transfer, you would need to move your Avios from a British Airways, Iberia, Finnair, Aer Lingus or Loganair account into a Qatar Airways account first. This HfP article how to transfer Avios between British Airways and Qatar Airways.

Full details are on the Qatar Airways website here.

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles into Marriott Bonvoy points

The conversion rate is 2:1, with a minimum transfer of 2,000 Asia Miles.

Again, the exchange rate is bad if you value an airline mile at 1p and a Marriott Bonvoy point at 0.5p.

Asia Miles do not expire as long as you have an earn or spend transaction in the last 18 months, so there is no need to transfer out to ward off a looming expiry date.

You can find out more on the Cathay Pacific website here.

Air Canada Aeroplan points into Marriott Bonvoy points

Finally, of those relevant to the UK, there is the partnership between Air Canada and Marriott.

The conversion rate is 1:1, with a minimum transfer of 500 Aeroplan points.

The exchange rate is one of the better ones, compared to airlines with a 2:1 ratio or 3:2 ratio. The small minimum transfer amount is good as it allows you to empty out modest balances.

There’s a snag though – you must have elite status in the Air Canada programme to transfer to Marriott.

This makes the whole process relatively pointless. Surely anyone with elite status in Aeroplan would want to conserve their Aeroplan points for flight redemptions, where they can get the most value?

Other partners

We are not going to go into these deals in details because they are not relevant for the UK market, but you can also convert:

• Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles into Marriott Bonvoy at 2:1 (this may change following the acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines by Alaska Airlines)

• Japan Airlines JAL Mileage Bank at 4:3

• ANA Mileage Club at 1:1

Full details are on the ‘miles to points’ page of the Marriott website.

Conclusion

On paper, having the ability to transfer airline miles into Marriott Bonvoy hotel points is a good idea.

In practice, in most cases the exchange rate is too poor to justify it in normal circumstances.

It IS worth doing if you only have a very small mileage balance (although United and Air Canada insist you have elite status first) or if the airline has an extreme miles expiry policy (looking at you, Emirates and Singapore Airlines).

You can find out more about these conversion deals on marriott.com here.

PS. Marriott and Nectar are still planning to launch a two-way conversion deal. It was meant to launch in Q1, which didn’t happen, but it IS still on the way. The rate is unknown.