Marriott Bonvoy ends transfer bonus for American, Delta and Avianca (Korean too)

Update 11/7/22: Marriott has announced that it is also ending the points-to-miles transfer bonus for Korean Air SkyPass, effective December 1, 2022. American, Delta and Avianca ended on 11/1. I’m sure there will be more to follow.

One of the many uses of Marriott Bonvoy points is that they are transferable to a diverse selection of 38 different airline partners. In most cases the transfer ratio is 3 Marriott points to 1 airline mile. However, if you transfer 60,000 points, you’ll get 25,000 miles instead of 20,000, making the transfer ratio 3 to 1.25, a much better deal and something that can be useful in obtaining some hard to come by currencies like JAL (particularly for those folks that are awash in Marriott points – unlike me).

Earlier this week, Marriott suddenly announced that it was ending the the 5,000 miles conversion bonus with American, Delta and Avianca, effective November 1, 2022. It appears that, for the moment, the bonus remains intact for the other 35 partners.

The News

• Starting November 1st, Marriott Bonvoy members who convert 60,000 points to airline miles will no longer receive the a 5,000 mile conversion bonus, reducing the maximum conversion rate to 3:1 from 3:1.25.

See Marriott’s full list of airline transfer partners here.

Quick Thoughts

I’ve only taken advantage of Marriott’s points-to-miles transfer once, as it’s more difficult for me to efficiently generate their points (as opposed to Hilton and Hyatt). That said, there’s a significant chunk of folks that linger with 7- and 8-figure balances for which this avenue has been a productive use…especially as Bonvoy award prices climb.

While this announcement doesn’t effect the utility of the points-to-miles transfers as a whole, it does hamstring the value of two of the three biggest domestic partners (United, on the other hand, currently has a 10% bonus for Marriott transfers). My assumption is that Delta and American were two of the more popular destinations and Marriott no longer feels the need to encourage their use.

This devaluation came as somewhat of a surprise, and I suspect that it may be a harbinger of future change.  Hilton has already battered its airline transfer chart to the point of irrelevance and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Marriott follow suit, especially once the program moves to full dynamic pricing next year.