Analysis of Marriott Travel Packages: 5 Night vs. 7 Night

Last week I wrote “Marriott 5 Night Travel Packages exist, but they’re secret.”  5 night Marriott Travel Packages aren’t advertised.  They’re meant only for Marriott Vacation Club owners.  But, in some cases, Marriott Rewards representatives will let people book these packages anyway.  Based on the comments in the aforementioned post, it looks like Marriott representatives are more likely not to allow it unless you are a vacation owner.  Still, some people have been persistent and have succeeded.

In todays post, I’ve splattered carefully laid out the results of Excel analyses that I’ve been playing around with.

I examined Marriott’s Travel packages from two distinct points of view:

1. You want to book a 5 or 7 night stay with points. Is it worth paying more points to get miles too?
2. You want to convert points to miles in the most efficient way possible.  Are the Travel Packages a good option?  If so, which one?

The most interesting result, to me, is the finding in the second analyses that shows that one can convert Marriott points to airline miles at favorable rates.  That finding isn’t particularly new, but the tables below show exactly which packages offer the best conversion rates.  I expect that many people will find those useful.

What the heck are Marriott Travel Packages?

Marriott Travel Packages are options for redeeming points not just for a hotel stay, but for airline miles too.  For example, you can redeem 250,000 Marriott points for a 7 night category 6 hotel certificate plus 70,000 airline miles. The certificate is valid for a year, but you can call towards the end of the year and ask for an extension.  The miles go to your loyalty account and can be used at any time for any purpose.  It is the airline miles, that make Marriott Travel Packages valuable.  If you weren’t interested in the miles, you could spend fewer Marriott points for the same stay.

Starting with a 5 or 7 night stay

Assuming you plan to use points to book a long stay, anyway, let’s look at the value of travel packages…

5 Night Travel Package:

This chart shows the number of Marriott Rewards points needed for each package.  On the right side of the chart, I’ve displayed the number of points needed for regular award stays.  The column labeled “Non Package Per Night” shows the number of points normally needed for a one night stay.  The column labeled “Non Package 5 Nights” shows the number of points normally needed for a 5 night stay (Marriott gives the 5th night free).

Next, I calculated the incremental points needed to book a travel package vs. non package 5 night stay.  For example, the Category 6 5 Nights + 50K miles package costs 180K points whereas five Category 6 nights bought separately would cost 120K points, so the incremental difference is 60K points.

Incremental points needed for package vs. non package 5 night stay:

As you can see above, the extra points needed to book a 5 night travel package instead of a regular 5 night award stay varies by hotel category.  Categories 6 and 7 packages charge the fewest extra points.  In those cases, the number of extra points required is slightly higher than the number of miles received (with the exception of the 5 Nights + 132K United mile category 6 and 7 packages).  Still, exchanging Marriott points at close to 1 to 1 to airline miles is a good deal.  Category 9 premiums, though, are much higher.  For example, to get 50,000 miles, the incremental cost is 95,000 points.  In that case, the incremental cost is almost double the number of miles received. That’s far worse than the near 1 to 1 exchange that is available for category 6 and 7 packages.

Let’s see how 7 night packages compare:

7 Night Travel Package:

This chart shows the number of Marriott Rewards points needed for each package.  On the right side of the chart, I’ve displayed the number of points needed for regular award stays.  The column labeled “Non Package Per Night” shows the number of points normally needed for a one night stay.  The column labeled “Non Package 7 Nights” shows the number of points normally needed for a 7 night stay (Marriott gives the 5th night free).

Incremental points needed for package vs. non package 7 night stay:

As you can see above, with 7 night packages, the incremental points needed to get airline miles is consistent across hotel categories and it exactly matches the number of miles received with most mileage programs.  If you spend 100,000 extra points for 7 nights, you get 100,000 miles.  With United miles, the ratio is better.  You get 10% more United miles than the incremental number of Marriott points spent.

Interim Summary

As long as you value airline miles higher than Marriott points (and you should), those who plan to book a 7 night award stay would do well to book a 7 night travel package instead.  If you were planning a 5 night stay, though, whether or not the travel package makes sense depends upon the number of miles you want and which category hotel you book.  With category 6 and 7 stays, the incremental cost of the package is close to 1 to 1 to the number of miles received, so those packages are a good value.  Category 5 and 8 stays are also worthwhile, but not as much so.  Category 9 stays are trickier to evaluate.  In those cases, you’ll have to value airline miles almost twice as much as hotel points to justify the extra cost of the travel package.

Exchange Points for Miles

Another way to look at Marriott Travel Packages is that they provide a way to convert Marriott points to airline miles at a favorable rate.  If you exchange points to miles directly (found here), you’ll pay 140,000 Marriott Rewards points for 50,000 miles (or 112,000 points for 50,000 United miles).  That’s comes to 2.8 Marriott points per mile (or 2.25 points per United mile).

Let’s look at the points to miles conversion rates with Travel Packages.  If we ignore the value of the 5 or 7 night stay itself, then we can calculate the points to miles ratios:

5 Night Travel Package, points per mile (smaller is better):

7 Night Travel Package, points per mile (smaller is better):

Cells in green are the packages in which the conversion ratio of points to miles is better with a travel package than without a travel package even when we assign zero value to the 5 or 7 night stay.  As you can see above, conversion ratios for 5 night packages go as low as 1.96 Marriott points per mile (and 1.78 Marriott points per United mile).  These ratios beat out the 7 night stay ratios which go as low as 2.25 points per mile (and 2.05 points per United mile).

Interim Summary

With both 5 and 7 night packages, it’s possible to exchange Marriott points for airline miles at a better rate than if you exchanged the points directly.  If you don’t care about the stay itself, then go for the cheapest category: category 1-5.  The category 1-5 packages have the best points to miles ratios.  However, all of the cells shown in green, above, are packages in which you’ll get more miles from your Marriott points through the package than through a direct conversion of points to miles.

Wrap Up

The analyses above are the results of thought experiments in which I looked at the value of different travel packages from two opposite points of view.  One point of view assumes that a person is planning a Marriott reward stay.  In that case, I looked at the incremental number of points needed to book a travel package instead of an award stay.  With that analysis, I found that both 5 and 7 night travel packages could be worthwhile, but that 7 night packages represent a better incremental value than 5 night packages.  The main takeaways from this analysis are:

1. If you’re planning a 5 night award stay, and you value miles more than hotel points, and you have extra points available, then consider a travel package, especially if you plan to book a category 6 or 7 hotel
2. If you’re planning a 7 night award stay, and you value miles more than hotel points, and you have extra points available, then go for it.

In the second analysis, I assumed that a person’s primary goal is to convert Marriott points to airline miles.  If they get a 5 or 7 night stay out of the deal, it’s a bonus.  From that point of view, some travel packages offer better value than directly converting points to miles.  And, of course, 5 night packages offer better conversion rates than 7 night packages, and category 1-5 packages offer better rates than higher level packages.

In real life, I expect that most people will find themselves somewhere in between the above two viewpoints.  Maybe, for example, you like the idea of converting Marriott points to Southwest points to secure a Companion Pass, but you also like the idea of getting a free hotel stay out of the deal.  In that case, I would look at it like this: start with a category 1-5 package offering as many miles as you can afford.  The price, in points, for that package can be thought of as the price you pay for the miles.  Then, upgrade to the category you really want.  The incremental cost of the higher category package can be thought of as the price you pay for the hotel stay.  Whether you pick a 5 night package or a 7 night package will depend on how many nights you actually want.  If you don’t have a preference, and if you can find a willing Marriott Rewards agent, then go for the 5 night package – it will be cheaper.

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