Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
This week, Air Canada Aeroplan announced that Aeroplan Elite members can now convert points to Marriott at a 1:1 ratio, with a minimum transfer of 500 points and maximum of 100,000 per day / 250,000 per week. This is a bad deal unless you really need a very small number of points to top off for a value award, and even then I don’t know how quickly the points would transfer, so I’d be pretty hesitant to take them up on this transfer.
It’s always kind of nice to see additional options for redeeming points, but this isn’t a very good option in most cases.
That’s at least in part because Aeroplan points have a wide range of high-value uses — it isn’t terribly hard to get 1.5c per point or more out of your Aeroplan points (and significantly more than that for most premium cabin international partner awards). By contrast, we value Marriott points at less than 1cpp. In fact, Marriott periodically sells points for less than 1c per point. Even at full price, Marriott charges just 1.25c per point. Trading 1 Aeroplan point for 1 Marriott point is therefore a pretty poor value for Aeroplan points. You’d generally be better off holding your Aeroplan points and simply buying the Marriott points you need in most cases.
That said, if you’re flush with Aeroplan points and you need a very small number of Marriott points to top off for an important award redemption, this might be one way to get the points you need without spending cash out of pocket. However, keep in mind the fact that transfers likely won’t be instant — so I’m not sure how long you may be waiting for that transfer to complete.
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Or if you have a small number of orphaned AC points that you will never ever use?
The other direction is 3:1.
Even with SPG boost, transferring to Marriott is bonvoying to intrinsic value.