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Transferring hotel points to airlines is almost never worth it, but a new promotion from United is one scenario where it’s not necessarily a bad deal, but only when it comes to one hotel program.
The Deal
- Get 30% bonus MileagePlus miles when transferring hotel points to United.
- Direct link to offer.
Key Terms
- To qualify for this offer, members must register for the promotion between September 1, 2022 and 11:59pm EST on September 30, 2022 (“Promotional Period”).
- A member must earn award miles as a result of one or more points to miles conversion transactions from any combination of MileagePlus hotel partner programs that offer a points to miles transfer program that are conducted during the Promotional Period (“Qualifying Activity”) in order to qualify for MileagePlus Hotel Points-to-Miles bonus miles (“Bonus Miles”). Qualifying Activity must be completed by 11:59pm EST on September 30, 2022.
- At the conclusion of the promotion, all miles earned by each member from Qualifying Activity will be multiplied by 30% to determine the eligible bonus up to a maximum of 25,000 bonus miles. Bonus miles will be credited into the member’s account on or before January 31, 2023. The maximum bonus miles that can be earned by a member under this promotion is 25,000. MileagePlus will not be responsible for technical problems with partner miles postings, or failures or delays in miles postings by hotel partners, that would render any points to miles converted as ineligible under this promotion.
Quick Thoughts
There are numerous hotel programs from which you can transfer points to United:
- Marriott Bonvoy
- Accor Live Limitless
- Hilton Honors
- IHG One Rewards
- Radisson Rewards Americas
- World of Hyatt
- Choice Privileges
- Wyndham Rewards
- Shangri-La Circle
However, it’s only the first program on this list – Marriott Bonvoy – that’s worth considering for this promotion. That’s because the other programs transfer to United at such a poor rate, it would be a terrible redemption value even with the 30% bonus miles.
Marriott is the exception though for a couple of reasons. For starters, when transferring 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points to airline partners, you receive 25,000 miles. Although the normal transfer ratio is 3:1, specifically transferring 60,000 points at a time earns you 5,000 bonus miles, hence the total of 25,000.
The other reason is that Marriott and United have a more in-depth partnership, such as Marriott Titanium members getting complimentary Silver status with United. Another part of that partnership is that you get a 10% bonus when transferring Bonvoy points to MileagePlus. That bumps up the 25,000 miles you receive for every 60,000 points transferred to 27,500.
As a result, the 30% bonus from this new promotion means 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points becomes 35,750 United MileagePlus miles as the 30% bonus is added to the already-boosted total of 27,500 miles. That doesn’t make this a spectacular opportunity, but if you happen to be flush with Marriott points and are short on United miles, it’s not a bad redemption option either.
Note that you have to register for this transfer promotion, so do that before transferring any points over.
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Sorry, I meant 35,750 x3 or 107,250
I transferred 180,000 Marriott points with the promotion and received only 82,500 United miles (posted as 66,000 and 16,500). It looks to me that I received the 10% United Bonus but it instead of 30%, I received 25% and I did not receive the 5000 miles per 60,000 miles extra bonus. Did anyone receive the full amount of 37,500 miles for every 60,000 Bonvoy points? I was expecting to receive 37,500 x3 = 112,500 miles total.
Did anyone get the 30% bonus on united side? I haven’t gotten it yet and its been over a month since the transfer
Transferred on Sep2/3 , points on United finally posted today.
But i got only 27500 from 60k Marriott transfer. No bonus posted 🙁
9/1/2022
RewardsPlus 2K Transfer
22,000 miles
9/1/2022
RewardsPlus 2K Transfer
5,500 miles
I did register before initiating the transfer
Initiated the transfer on September 3. Points deducted from the Marriott account same day.
Today is September 9. No transfer in points in United yet :/
On 9/9 posted 27,500 points. 30% bonus points did not posted… yet?!
I’m in the same boat. How long did it take for the 30% bonus to post? Did you have to call and pester them about it?
I still haven’t received bonus points :/
I see now the terms say “Bonus miles will be credited into the member’s account on or before January 31, 2023.” So I guess just keep to wait a bit.
I wanted to do 2 transactions, but since bonus miles did not post on time, I decide to wait.
Right, we still have a chance to get bonus miles by 1/31/23
Still nothing…….
richard
Still waiting for the 30% bonus. Did a similar promotion yrs ago with united. Waited almost 3 months until early Jan for the 25,000 bonus back in 2018
FYI Apparently Marriott to UA takes about 3 days.
Steven- 2 questions: 1) In your scenario is the bonus miles considered 8,250? So, would you be able to transfer 180,000 and come away with 107,250 (24,750 in bonus miles). (2) I am pretty flush with bonvoy points and do not have other United miles. Do you think I could get good enough international business class redemption on the 107k united miles, to make this worth while?
Sorry, Stephen, not Steven
1) Yes, transferring 180,000 Marriott Bonvoy points would get you 107,250 United MileagePlus miles.
2) There’s certainly the potential to get a good redemption with United miles in business class. I’d be wary about transferring speculatively, but if you have a ton of Marriott points that would otherwise go unused, I guess it could make sense. You can find some more information about best uses for United miles here, but with no award chart it’s not as straightforward as being able to say you can redeem for this, this or this. https://frequentmiler.com/united-mileageplus-complete-guide/#Best_uses_of_miles
Thanks. I agree on speculative xfers.
Add in the AMEX to Marriott bonus (1000:1250) and that makes it not horrible either. If my math is right, that makes 48,000 AMEX points 27,500 United miles. Not great, but better than most AMEX>UA transfer via intermediaries.
It would actually be better than that as it would be 48,000:35,750 due to the 30% bonus, so closer to 1:0.75. Still not great, but if you’re flush with Membership Rewards and want to keep Ultimate Rewards for Hyatt, I guess it has the potential to make sense.