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Today, Chase launched a 70% transfer bonus to Marriott Bonvoy, meaning you’ll get 1.7 Bonvoy points for every Ultimate Reward point that you transfer until August 14th.
Chase runs transfer bonuses to Marriott Bonvoy a couple of times each year, but they’re usually in the 20%-50% range. As best I can recall this is the best Chase-Marriott transfer bonus we’ve ever seen…and it might just make it worth it for some folks to take advantage.
The Deal
- Get a 70% bonus when transferring Ultimate Rewards to Marriott Bonvoy.
- Expires August 14th, 2024
Key Terms
- Get 70% Bonus Marriott Bonvoy points when you transfer Ultimate Rewards points between 12:00 AM ET on August 1, 2024 and 11:59 PM ET on August 14, 2024.
- Bonus points will be awarded by Marriott Bonvoy in your Marriott Bonvoy account when your transfer is complete. Promotional offer terms and conditions apply.
- All Ultimate Rewards points transferred to your Marriott Bonvoy® account will be subject to the Terms and Conditions of Marriott Bonvoy® and cannot be transferred back to your Chase Ultimate Rewards account.
Quick Thoughts
A 70% transfer bonus rate sounds very compelling…and it is historically. However, this will most likely still be a suboptimal redemption for most folks. Our Reasonable Redemption Values (RRV) pegs Marriott points at 0.7 cents each, so even after you account for the bonus, you’re still getting ~1.2 cents of average value per Ultimate Reward (UR) point.
Having said that, for folks who “cherry pick” rewards, our analysis showed that the top 20% of redemptions average 0.88 cents per point or better, a value which would bring the transfer bonus up to ~1.5 cent per UR – almost the same as our RRV for Ultimate Rewards.
Because of Marriott’s labyrinthine rules governing who’s eligible for the welcome bonus on a new card, many folks can find themselves in a place where it’s difficult to acquire large amounts of Marriott points quickly. If you just need to top up your Marriott account for a specific high value redemption, or if you have a bunch of Ultimate Rewards and consistently get high value for your Bonvoy points, a 70% transfer bonus could be worth considering. Still, it’s not going to be one of the most valuable ways to use UR points.
One oft-forgotten feature of Marriott Bonvoy is that it allows transfers to a massive variety of airline programs, including some who don’t partner with Ultimate Rewards like American, Alaska and Japan Airlines. The ratio is 3-1, but for most airlines you get a 5,000 miles bonus for every 60,000 Bonvoy points that you transfer, or 60,000 Bonvoy points – 25,000 airline miles. The 70% transfer bonus means that you could indirectly access these programs from Chase at around a 1.0 – 0.7 transfer ratio. Again, this isn’t great in comparison to all of Chase’s 1-1 transfer partners, but if you have a boat load of UR and need JAL or Alaska miles, it might be worth the premium.
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Marriott redemptions are nuts. I don’t find anything worthwhile. Even with the multiplier IHG and Hyatt redemptions seem much more reasonable.
Just transferred a boatload of points to book 5 nights at the St Regis Bora Bora. Accounting for the 5th night free it came out to a rate of 61k UR/night, decent for a $2k/night resort. It’s definitely our most extravagant redemption to date and something I would have never dreamed of doing a couple years ago. The knowledge I’ve learned through the FM community has me confident I’ll be able to build back our points balances quickly for the next journey.
thinking about doing the same for a stay end of august
Do any companies transfer points to Marriott Vacation Club?
I know we usually aren’t supposed to transfer points without a redemption but we are Marriott Platinum and frequently make use of the 5th night free. Stayed at the Kenya/Masai Mara lodge in March for 300k Marriott points.
Is there a point when the transfer bonus is good enough to transfer some points without a redemption in mind?
Thinking about staying there. How was it? Worth using that many points and how the heck did you get there.
[…] to transfer some points over, with Amex, Capital One and Chase running transfer bonuses. I find the Chase transfer bonus to Marriott tempting, as Chase is currently offering a transfer bonus of 70%. Also, you can potentially unlock a way to […]
maybe i missed it, but what is the process to do tis transfer
5th night free may add value for some
I was considering the Ritz Half Moon Bay for this Saturday and don’t have any Marriott cards, only having Chase UR points. This transfer bonus comes at a good time for me since that hotel is already way up in price. Is there a better way to get a Saturday in the future for less without having to use UR points? Not even the Ritz card’s annual certificate (plus top off) can get me there unless I open up to other days.
“The ratio is 3-1, but you get a 5,000 miles bonus for every 60,000 Bonvoy points that you transfer, or 60,000 Bonvoy points – 25,000 airline miles”
You might want to caveat the 5,000 mile bonus is available for most, but not all airlines. Calling it out as you mention AA twice in that paragraph as an example, but they stopped offering the 5k bonus miles on transfers back in 2022, and several other airlines don’t have it either.
Good catch Ben, I forgot that not all airlines participate in that bonus 5K miles.
Based on the 70% transfer bonus to Marriott, you would need to transfer 36,000 Chase UR to Marriott (36,000 x 1.7 = 61,200), then convert 60K Marriott to 25K airline miles. Exchanging 36K Chase UR for 25K airline miles is not super enticing unless you have an immediate need.
Occasionally, United has an increased transfer bonus from Marriott to United, so if that occurs during this transfer bonus period, it could work in your favor, but you can always transfer Chase UR to United 1K to 1K directly.