Transferring Marriott points

Marriott’s loyalty program, Marriott Bonvoy, offers members several ways to earn, redeem, and transfer points. As one of the largest hotel loyalty programs in the world, it’s easily accessible, with 30 brands across different price points to cater to all types of travelers.

You can also transfer Marriott points to more than 40 airline loyalty programs, mostly at a 3:1 ratio. Plus, you get a bonus (5,000 bonus points) for each 60,000 points that you transfer.

See Related: What are Marriott points worth?

A great introduction to Marriott Rewards

Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card
Why should you get it? With up to 17 points per dollar on Marriott hotel purchases, 2 points per dollar on other purchases and a free night certificate on your card anniversary, you can easily score a few free hotel nights with the card in the first year. Learn more	More things to know: For a limited time, earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening Up to 17 points per dollar at hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy 2 points per dollar on other purchases Free Night Award each year on your account anniversary (worth up to 35,000 points) Automatic Silver Elite status

How do you transfer Marriott points?

Once you’ve created an account with an airline loyalty program, simply go to Marriott’s point transfer page, enter your frequent flyer number, select the number of points you want to transfer – anywhere between 3,000 and 240,000 points per day – and hit submit.

According to Marriott’s terms and conditions, your points will be automatically deposited into your frequent flyer account within the following six weeks. Since this is a pretty long time to wait for points to transfer (Marriott members who have tried the program claim that the transfers usually occur much faster), you can call Marriott’s customer support to see if you can get the transfer expedited for a fee.

You should be completely certain that you want to transfer your points before you submit a request. Once your points are transferred, you can’t transfer them back.

See related: Which Marriott credit card is the best for you?

Is it worth it to transfer Marriott points?

The best thing about transferring points with Marriott is that it gives you the flexibility to use your points for something besides Marriott stays. If you want to use points for a trip where you don’t want to stay at a Marriott hotel, or if you need points to top off a balance in an outside loyalty program to make a redemption, it can make good sense to transfer Marriott points.

That said, if you are strictly interested in redeeming Marriott points for the highest value and are weighing the value of using points for Marriott stays against the value of transferring points to an outside frequent flyer program, you’ll find that you lose value on your points by transferring to most of Marriott’s partners.

As you’ll see from our sampling of Marriott’s frequent flyer partners below, though the value per mile for most frequent flyer programs is higher than the value of Marriott points, you end up with an overall lower value than 0.8 cents per point with most partners once you factor in the transfer ratio (even if you also factor in Marriott’s transfer bonus):

If you want to use the transfer option to get a better value than Marriott’s 0.8 cents per point, you’ll have to calculate the value of each fare to make sure it’s really worth it before you transfer points.

You can find a full list of Marriott’s transfer partners with transfer ratios on Marriott’s point transfer page.

Tips for transferring Marriott points

• Be sure to create an account with your target frequent flyer program before you try to transfer points.
• Transfer points to airline miles in increments of 60,000 points to earn the 5,000 mile bonus.
• Since Marriott points take a while to transfer and transfers are nonreversible, make sure there are plenty of seats available on your prospective flight, as well as on other flights on the same airline, to ensure you still have options once your points are transferred. Also, check to see if the airline will allow you to hold the award seat while you’re waiting for your transfer. (Some airlines, such as American, allow you to hold award seats.)
• To get the best value on your Marriott points, be as flexible as possible and look for special deals within each airline’s award chart – if you’re open to various dates and destinations, you can do much better than 0.8 cents per point.

Bottom line

Transferring points with Marriott is a great option that gives you far more flexibility than the average hotel rewards program. In fact, if you are a deal-chaser who is savvy with airline miles, you can use this option to stretch your points even further and get a much better value than 0.8 cents per point.

See related: How to earn the most Marriott points, Best ways to redeem Marriott points, Marriott elite benefits