Amex to Marriott 30% bonus. Worth it?

[Swiss Jim]

I tend to focus on Hilton & IHG as Diamond in both. However, I’ve liked the various Marriotts I’ve stayed in. 30% seems a decent incentive – not sure if targeted. Worth it? Thinking it’s not likely to be followed by a devaluation, but who knows. I’ve about 250,000 membership points I’ve been wondering what to do with. This could allow me to close account and start the 2 year clock ticking… No sensible way of transferring same to IHG and I’ve more Hilton points than I know what to do with.

[Guernsey Globetrotter]

The bonus means you’re getting 39,000 Bonvoy points for every 20,000 Amex, so nearly 2 for 1. Given the usual valuation on here of 0.5p per Bonvoy point that’s close enough 1p per Amex point converted which I’d say is an acceptable return.

In addition, there are lots of opportunities for outsize value redemptions in the Bonvoy scheme. For instance, 512k points gets you 5 nights in September at the St. Regis NY with Marriott’s stay 5 pay 4. The cash rate is nearly £6k for that period. We had a lovely time there last summer burning through a load of points.

Off to Domes Miramare Corfu this month and have made a decent saving with a points booking there too. You can get 5 nights there for 252k points and the cash price in August is over £500 per night.

If you don’t need the Amex MRs for airmiles then I’d say this is the best alternative conversion at the moment.

[davefl]

Makes it worthwhile to transfer to Marriott and then to an airline you can use them with that you can’t usually get points. My preferences are United or AA, some great redemption opportunities on AA such as 55k+£264 to go UK-DOH-JNB on Qatar one way.

There’s usually a Marriott to United bonus in the autum if you want to play the waiting game and get a double uplift

[BBbetter]

How many SQ miles do we get if we transfer 20k MRs through Bonvoy in this offer?

Surely those who want SQ miles must be jumping at this offer?

[Andrew J]

To note for those wanting to use the
points quickly:
*30% bonus points may take up to 8 weeks to appear in your Marriott Bonvoy Account.

[davefl]

BBbetter wrote:

How many SQ miles do we get if we transfer 20k MRs through Bonvoy in this offer?

Surely those who want SQ miles must be jumping at this offer?

It’s only really worth doing it in chunks of 60k Marriott to an airline where you’ll get 20k+5k bonus (unless it’s United where you get a 10k bonus).

So 31k MR = 60450 Marriott = 25k Airline of your choice (apart from New Zealand/United)

https://www.marriott.com/en-gb/loyalty/redeem/travel/points-to-miles.mi

[jsto]

I just carried out a test transaction and the bonus points posted straight away.
Transferred across 1,200 MR points and my Bonvoy balance increased by 2,340 within a minute or so

Andrew J wrote:

To note for those wanting to use the
points quickly:
*30% bonus points may take up to 8 weeks to appear in your Marriott Bonvoy Account.

[Froggee]

I am indeed pretty tempted by this as optionality for Krisflyer miles. It somewhat gets over the sting of 2:3 on membership reward transfers, roughly splitting the difference to the old 1:1 rate. So obviously:

“We regret that we are unable to retrieve your account information at this time. Please try again later or call 0800 917 8053 for assistance (Ref: MbrPart4).”

[meta]

I’m tempted to transfer the majority of my stash for ANA RTW ticket.

[memesweeper]

davefl wrote:

So 31k MR = 60450 Marriott = 25k Airline of your choice (apart from New Zealand/United)

and American Airlines (no bonus last time I checked)

[davefl]

Apologies yes, Delta, AA and Avianca don’t get the 5k bonus.

[David]

Over in the US the Chase Ultimate card is offering a 70% transfer bonus to Marriott.
Perhaps there’s a Marriott devaluation on the way…

[Maples]

David wrote:

Over in the US the Chase Ultimate card is offering a 70% transfer bonus to Marriott.

There seems to be a 30% bonus for Avios as well. Surely there’s also devaluation coming, right?

[meta]

They have regular offers like that in the US, almost every month.

[Skywalker]

@meta true – look at the latest one in the US

[NickandJan]

We transferred 130k Amex points to Bonvoy on Wednesday 31st for a stay at Ritz Carlton Orlando, no mention of a bonus, what a lovely surprise to receive 60k bonus points! Would have been kicking ourselves if we missed out.

[RG]

Is it one and done this offer? or any transactions between now and the end date? Could do with a few points to make a booking but might transfer more later, but unsure on the latter.

[RussellH]

RG wrote:

Is it one and done this offer? or any transactions between now and the end date? Could do with a few points to make a booking but might transfer more later, but unsure on the latter.

I transferred some MR points on Friday as a test and a bigger chunk yesterday.
Both transferred instantaneously at the bonus rate of 400 MR=>780 Bonvoy

[RG]

RussellH wrote:

RG wrote:

Is it one and done this offer? or any transactions between now and the end date? Could do with a few points to make a booking but might transfer more later, but unsure on the latter.

I transferred some MR points on Friday as a test and a bigger chunk yesterday.
Both transferred instantaneously at the bonus rate of 400 MR=>780 Bonvoy

Ta!

[AVN37]

Hi all,

Just looking to sense check something with the more experienced lot here: Does this 30% bonus combined with the Avios Boost at 0.92p = 1 Avios mean that you can effectively get Bonvoy points for ~0.47p each if you

1) Divide the amount Bonvoy points need for the reward stay I’m after by 1.95 to find out how many Avios I need
2) convert 1/4 of that from MR to Avios (assume a previously empty Avios account)
3) go for the 3x boost at the 0.92p rate
4) take the total amount of Avios in the account, convert it to Bonvoy points with the current 30% bonus at a resulting rate of 1.95x and thus get exactly the target amount of Bonvoy points

Let’s say I’m looking for Bonvoy redemptions in the 150k points (total, not per night) ballpark, does anyone see any issues with doing all of the above over the course of a few days?

Thanks!

[BBbetter]

AVN37 wrote:

4) take the total amount of Avios in the account, convert it to Bonvoy points

Did i miss something? When did Avios become convertible to Bonvoy points?

[AVN37]

Yeah I just realised the whole thing doesn’t make sense, I got carried away on a non-sensical whim 🙈 no delete button for the post, unfortunately. Sorry, ignore me!