AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. Terms Apply to the offers listed on this page. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here's our complete list of Advertisers.
One of the reasons Marriott Bonvoy points are so valuable is the ability to transfer Bonvoy points to over 40 airlines. But unfortunately, that long list of transfer partners just got a little shorter. As Marriott confirmed to AwardWallet, the JetBlue TrueBlue program is no longer a partner for point transfers or Hotel + Air packages as of July 1, 2021.
In addition, Marriott removed the South African Airways' Voyager program from its list of Hotel + Air package partners on July 1, 2021. The struggling Voyager program had already left the list of Bonvoy point transfer partners back on March 1, 2021.
Marriott Bonvoy Transfer Partners Recently Lost
With the loss of JetBlue, the Marriott Bonvoy has now lost five airline transfer partners since April 2020:
- JetBlue TrueBlue — effective July 1, 2021
- South African Airways Voyager — effective March 1, 2021
- Air China PhoenixMiles — effective August 26, 2020
- China Southern Airlines Sky Pearl Club — effective August 26, 2020
- China Eastern Airlines Eastern Miles — effective April 10, 2020
It's never great to see a major transfer partner program lose transfer partners. However, none of these losses are significant for U.S.-based travelers. Of these five losses, only JetBlue TrueBlue is a U.S.-based airline, and none of the other airline programs are appealing for U.S.-based travelers. But, as we'll show you below, JetBlue was never a good option for transferring your Bonvoy points anyways.
Even after these losses, you can still transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to 40 airlines. For 17 of these airlines, Marriott Bonvoy is the only major transferrable point partner — from American Airlines AAdvantage and Alaska Mileage Plan to Japan Airlines Mileage Bank and Korean Air SKYPASS.
Why Marriott Losing JetBlue as a Transfer Partner Doesn't Hurt the Bonvoy Program
Marriott Bonvoy points transfer to almost all airline partners at a 3:1 transfer ratio. But, that wasn't the case for point transfers to TrueBlue. The 6:1 transfer ratio meant you'd need to transfer 6 Bonvoy points to get 1 TrueBlue point.
Based on recent AwardWallet user redemptions, JetBlue TrueBlue points are only worth 1.38¢. Meanwhile, AwardWallet users average 1.00¢ per Bonvoy point for recent Marriott redemptions. That means with a 6:1 transfer ratio, you'd have to give up 6¢ in value toward Marriott hotel stays for just 1.38¢ in value toward JetBlue flights.
Since JetBlue TrueBlue is a fixed-value program, there's no way to get outsized value from TrueBlue points. So, it only made sense to transfer Bonvoy points to TrueBlue to top off your account to have enough points for a particular redemption. But thankfully, JetBlue has plenty of other transfer partners you can still use.
JetBlue's Other Transfer Partners
JetBlue is a transfer partner of most major transferrable points. However, as with Marriott, the transfer rate isn't always the best:
- American Express Membership Rewards (5:4)
- Capital One Venture Miles (4:3)
- Chase Ultimate Rewards (1:1)
- Citi ThankYou Points (1:1 for Citi Prestige® Card and Citi Premier® Card cardholders; 5:4 for Citi ThankYou® Preferred Card and Citi Rewards+® Card cardholders)
Anytime you need to find a transfer partner to top off one of your loyalty programs, check out AwardWallet's Transfer Times tool. Just enter the airline or hotel program to filter for the program you need:
Bottom Line
Marriott's impressive list of airline transfer partners has been scaled back over the past year. The JetBlue TrueBlue program is the latest loss. However, none of these recent losses puts a dent in the value of the Marriott Bonvoy program. You can still transfer Bonvoy points to 40 airlines, or redeem points for Marriott hotel stays at an average of 1¢ per point.
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Never have used Jet Blue. I will not miss this.
Argh! Timing is rough as JetBlue expands their service into Canada. Marriott transfer would have given us more options to top up JetBlue balances.
I tranfer my marriot points to AA always because its to hard to get enought points to spend on hotel nights.
That’s a shame. Probably not something I might have ever needed, but now that it’s not there…
Been on vaca for a little while and this was a informative piece to come back to. It seems that come programs are streamlining what they think is dead weight. It makes ya wonder what else will occur this year.
Pandemic and the slow crawl out to post-pandemic, we’d benefit by asking ourselves “what else will occur this year” pretty much across all industries, travel and beyond. Lots of change afoot.
As you wrote: “none of these losses are significant for U.S.-based travelers.” Condolences to others for whom these losses actually are significant.
I wonder why they’ve done this?
It is certainly a loss to lose transfer partners. However in this case it is minimized since the transfer partners are either not appealing to US centric members or the points do not give equal value when you transfer them. Still Marriott is always known for being one of the most valuable points for transferring to partner airlines.
No great loss here to Marriott and you can add JetBlue points in so many other, better ways. JetBlue points did get a bit more desirable though now that they’re flying to the UK.
It is never good to have less choice, but this is not a big deal. There are still many transfer partners, but in general whatever currency you have should remain in that program except for transferrable points, which is why they are so valuable.
They probably cannot agree on a contractual rate.
I thought United was the ONLY hotel + air package partner.
United is the preferred Hotel + Air Package partner. But, you can still book with few dozen airlines: https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/redeem/travel/packages.mi
Meh. I don’t like JetBlue much anyway, so this is no great loss.
Thats to bad, JetBlue was a great US based airline partner to have.
Agree that it’s not really a big loss. Hope it’s not a slippery slope and Bonvoy won’t lose more partners in the future!
Bonvoy strechting? Reinforce the perks, Marriot.
Definitely not a loss. Always considered this to be one of their worst partnerships
Bad news for True Blue Customers.
Marriott should have provided more notice. This would have allowed folks to make a final purchase if they wanted too, before the option ended,