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Update 6/18/2024: Marriott and Korean Air terminated their transfer partnership as of June 17, 2024.
Quietly and only in an email to some members, Marriott Bonvoy announced the ending of its standing conversion bonus for four partner airlines. Effective October 31, 2022, you will no longer receive a 5,000-mile bonus when you transfer 60,000 Marriott points. For now, the change only affects 4 of the more than 40 Marriott airline transfer partners.
How the Marriott Airline Transfer Bonus Works
Currently, you can transfer your Marriott points to 40 airline partners. Points transfer to all partners at a ratio of 3:1, except for United Airlines and Air New Zealand. Points transfer to United Mileage Plus at an improved rate of 3:1.1 (update: this has since been changed). While points transfer to Air New Zealand at a rate of 200:1.
The standing conversion was a remnant of the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) program, which was incorporated into the Marriott program when they merged back in 2016. To reward members who transfer larger balances, you'll earn a 5,000-mile bonus when you transfer 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.
At the standard 3:1 transfer ratio, you would otherwise receive 20,000 miles for transferring 60,000 points. However, with the in-built bonus, you generally receive 25,000 miles when converting 60,000 to a partner airline (or 27,500 United miles).
Which Airlines Are Affected
Marriott has not mentioned the upcoming change on its airline partner transfer page or its terms and conditions page. However, it did send out an email to some members indicating the change is coming into effect on October 31, 2022. The four airline programs that will be ineligible for the bonus are:
- American Airlines AAdvantage.
- Delta SkyMiles.
- Avianca LifeMiles.
- Korean SKYPASS.
Interestingly it seems that Marriott is trying to keep these changes relatively quiet. Marriott isn't making the announcement public. Instead, members who have previously transferred points to the four airlines have received an email notifying them of the change.
Our Take
This move is terrible news and could be an omen of worse to come. Is this the first step to Marriott ending the transfer bonus facility altogether? Only time will tell. The bonus is a relic of the SPG program, is Marriott trying to kill it off? Other relics like the Travel Packages were initially devalued from the SPG version before being eliminated entirely.
Hopefully, Marriott won't entirely kill off the bonus since it is one of the great features of its program. In the meant time, if you were planning on transferring some points to one of the four affected programs, you might want to hurry. Making your transfer before the deadline can save you thousands of points!
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