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Thanks to the Marriott and SPG program merger, details regarding point transfers to airline miles have changed. Accordingly, I’ve updated our transfer guide with all of the latest and greatest information:
Click here to see the updated guide: Marriott and SPG Transfer Partners
Three to one, but still the same
The newly combined Marriott / SPG program offers a huge number of airline transfer partners. In most cases, the transfer ratio is 3 to 1. For example, you can transfer 3,000 rewards points into 1,000 airline miles. And when you transfer 60,000 points at a time, you’ll get 25,000 airline miles (in most cases — see “Exceptions” below).
Those who were used to the old SPG program may think that this is a devaluation, but it’s not. Previously, we could transfer 1 Starpoint to 1 airline mile, or 20,000 Starpoints to 25,000 airline miles. With the Marriott Rewards merger, Starpoints were tripled into rewards points. So, the same transfer ratio applies: 20,000 Starpoints = 60,000 rewards points = 25,000 airline miles.
The real devaluation was with the SPG credit card’s earning rate. Previously, the card earned 1 Starpoint per dollar, but it now earns 2 rewards points per dollar. That’s a 33% devaluation. On the other hand, when earning points for stays, most members will earn more points in the new program than they did before.
New Partners
SPG already had a huge list of airline partners, but now the list is even longer since they’ve combined the SPG and Marriott partners into one giant list.
Exceptions
There are three exceptions to the 60K to 25K transfer ratio…
United 10% Bonus
When you transfer points to United Airlines miles, you get a 10% bonus. So, 3,000 rewards points becomes 1,100 United miles; and 60,000 rewards points becomes 27,500 United miles.
JetBlue 50% Penalty
JetBlue points aren’t super valuable, but for some reason the transfer ratio to JetBlue points is poor. Instead of 3 rewards points to 1 mile, JetBlue requires 6 rewards points to get 1 mile. Please, please, please don’t do this transfer.
Air New Zealand Airpoints
I don’t know anything about the Air New Zealand program, but obviously their points aren’t valued anywhere near airline miles. I say this because the standard transfer ratio is: 200 rewards points to 1 airpoint.
Much more in our guide
Please check out our transfer guide for tips, and a list of our favorite transfer partners.
Click here to see the updated guide: Marriott and SPG Transfer Partners
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[…] Marriott Transfers to Airline Miles […]
I’m baffled why JetBlue thinks their rewards program is special and has a 50% penalty on rewards transfers. If they had some value I’d understand, but being only about $0.014 per mile they seem to have made the penalty so no one would actually transfer Marriott Rewards points
Yeah it’s ridiculous. They should have just stopped offering the option at all.
Greg, this is slightly off-topic, but would appreciate your (and/or your colleagues’) views on the following Marriott/SPG merger-related questions which I am guessing may be on the minds of many of my fellow readers:
1) My SPG data did not merge correctly (I am missing elite nights, have been given too many lifetime nights, and am missing points in the 3x conversion to rewards points). I also have requested (but not yet received) 30,000 points to downgrade my Tier 1-3 Travel Certificate to Cat. 9. Marriott’s Status website now says that all sites and apps are fully functional. I think now is probably the time to reach out and ask them to correct these errors. Do you disagree?
2) Marriott is offering that I combine my Marriott and SPG accounts. I feel like I should wait to do so until the information in both accounts displays properly (combining won’t help me with status, I am Platinum already in both accounts, but would not be Platinum Premier by combining). Do you disagree?
3) Once I am ready to combine accounts, there is the question of choosing which account you want to maintain, the Marriott or the SPG. LoyaltyLobby points out that because Marriott assigned new membership numbers to the SPG accounts, all of the data maintained by individual hotels concerning the frequency of past stays by SPG guests is gone already since they are using a new number. So maybe that fact tends in favor to retaining the Marriott account number. On the other hand, I am a SPG loyalist and have a sentimental attachment to SPG… Any thoughts here?
I (and I am guessing others) would be grateful if you could share your views on these points.
Thanks!
1) I would strongly recommend that you wait a week or two before calling. They are still flailing around trying to fix things
2) I don’t think that combining accounts now will hurt. It might even help.
3) I don’t think it matters. Once you have a single merged number you can stil choose to log in from the SPG side for sentamental reasons if you want
Marriott website showing conversion rate to United miles as 60,000 points to 22,000 miles and not 27,500!
Someone wrongly programmed a – insured of a +
My Amex SPG spending points posted on my Amex account but is not reflected on my SPG/Marriott account. Not sure what to do? My Amex SPG still has my old SPG/Marriott account number…how does this get fixed to my new SPG/Marriott account #?
Thx
Marriott/SPG is still flailing around trying to fix things. I’d wait a week or two before calling
The other devaluation as an elite is being able to transfer 1 MILE (or 3 MR points) just to keep accounts alive
Is that gone as well now?
Would love to know the answer to this question!!!
Any updates????
Yes, I’m pretty sure that’s gone.
Marriott says up to 30 days to transfer to air partners. What is your experience in terms of actual time to transfer, for example, to Emirates?
Based on past experience, each airline transfer is different. Some are instant, some take a day or two, others can take longer. Since the merged program is so new (and transfers aren’t yet working), we don’t have any useful datapoints yet
Still can’t transfer points to ANA since merger. Get error message still.
Thanks for that info. I’m not surprised. Lots of Marriott things aren’t working yet.
28000 united miles + 3 nights in category 1 or 7 nights in category 4?
Which is more useful?
It depends