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American Express just launched another bonus for transferring Membership Rewards points to Marriott Bonvoy. And this time it's even better. Typically, points transfer from Amex to Marriott at a 1:1 rate. For this promotion, you'll get 1.4 Marriott points for every 1 Membership Rewards point after the 40% bonus. As you'll see below, that's not the best deal, but this offer may still be worth taking advantage of.
Amex-Marriott Transfer Bonus Offer Terms
- Get 1,400 Marriott Bonvoy points per 1,000 Amex Membership Reward points transferred
- Offer valid until June 15, 2021
- Transfers must be made in increments of 1,000 Membership Rewards points
- Amex notes that transfers may take 5 days. However, AwardWallet points transfer tracking shows that a 1-day transfer time is typical.
- This transfer bonus only appears when users log in. So, it's possible that this transfer bonus is targeted.
Note that you will need to reenter your Marriott Bonvoy membership number into Amex if you have not transferred Membership Rewards points to Marriott since January 1, 2015.
Is This Marriott Transfer Bonus Worth It?
This Marriott transfer bonus doesn't provide a compelling opportunity for many travelers. Marriott Bonvoy points are generally worth around 0.8 cents each. So, even after the transfer bonus, you're only getting 1.12 cents in value per Membership Rewards point. There are a lot of other uses for Membership Rewards points that provide a higher value.
However, transferring points can make sense depending on your situation. If you have an immediate need for Marriott points—or are using your Marriott points for very high value—it can make sense to take advantage of this promotion.
I had a good friend spend a couple of weeks in the Maldives. If you wanted to follow suit and take a much-needed vacation, you can use your Marriott Bonvoy points at one of six Marriott properties in the Maldives:
You'll need to transfer at least 36,000 Membership Rewards points (before the transfer bonus) per night to book the least-expensive property. That's not bad for an overwater villa. However, hotel rates in other destinations have cratered due to the pandemic. So, you'll want to do the math to see if it makes more sense to book with cash or use points through Amex Travel instead.
Earn Marriott Bonvoy Points Through Credit Card Bonuses
If you need more Marriott Bonvoy points, there are plenty of ways to do so through credit cards. You can currently earn:
- 30,000 bonus points when signing up for the $0 annual fee Marriott Bonvoy Bold™ Credit Card
- 3 Free Nights bonus points when signing up for the $95 annual fee Marriott Bonvoy Boundless™ Credit Card
- 75,000 bonus points when signing up for the $450 annual fee Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card (Rates & Fees)
Our Take
We love American Express Membership Rewards for their value and versatility. But at a 1:1 base transfer rate, it rarely makes sense to transfer points to Marriott Bonvoy. And even with a 40% bonus, it still doesn't make sense for most cardmembers to transfer their valuable Membership Rewards points.
With that said, this promotion helps sweeten the pot if you need to top off your Marriott account for a redemption, and with travel starting to open up again, perhaps now is a good time to take advantage of this deal.
Will you utilize this Marriott transfer bonus?
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card (Rates & Fees)
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.
Maldives is a destination that opened first after the start of the pandemic and it looks like they are getting along with it. It is a good offer, as stated, for specific needs.
How come even with the transfer bonus, it is still not a good idea to transfer to these hotel programs. It seems like it is never a great idea to transfer unless you have an immediate need for the points.
Very rarely do I see Hilton having a better earn/burn ratio than Marriott, but with these Amex promos Hilton is the far better choice…
Other topping off your balance, this offer is not very compelling. Love the Bonvoy program though….stayed in the Renaissance Paris La Defense for over a week on points and loved it. Also stayed at theSheraton Grand Sukhumvit for 5 days in Bangkok – there’s great value with the right redemption opportunity.
*** To any conservatives — just a heads up that Marriott is one of the companies you may not wish to continue supporting. ***
Why
Do we know for sure that transferring AMEX MR points to Marriott counts as an activity that prevents Marriott points from expiring? Marriott’s Terms and Conditions (https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/terms/default.mi) lists these as examples of activities that do NOT count toward maintaining an active status:
A. Gifting or transferring Points; however, converting Points to Miles or Miles to Points does count toward maintaining an active status;
B. Receiving Points as a gift or transfer
I think they mean transferring Marriott points from one account to another, but it’s not clear. They did clarify that converting points to MILES and vice versa do count, but that only addresses conversion between Marriott points and miles, not between Marriott points and non-Marriott points.
I’m not a 100% on this (although I dug around as much as I could), but it seems like transferring Amex MR to Marriott counts as earning activity. That makes sense when you think about it. Marriott doesn’t want members to be able to transfer points between each other to avoid expiration, but any outside activity (transferring points from MR/UR or transferring points out to airlines) should count.
With that said, Marriott has paused expiration through July 31, 2021 (https://awardwallet.com/blog/airlines-hotels-suspended-point-expiration/). So, there are other ways to generate activity by then!
I may do just the minimum 1000 miles to keep my marriott points from expiring.
Not a bad idea! Just keep in mind that Marriott has extended points expiration pause through 7/31/2021 (https://awardwallet.com/blog/airlines-hotels-suspended-point-expiration/). So, your points are set for a while anyways right now.
This is the only good reason to do a transfer at this rate.
This site is so informative on the blog. I am a Marriott Lifetime Titanium after 25 years of road-warrior travel but do not stay much anymore as my career has changed, limiting points accumulation now. This is a great opportunity to add additional points to my Bonvoy account so we can plan for a big resort stay in the future. Thanks.
I redeemed points from Marriot rewards once and it was a pleasant one. Their computer system is a main source of the problems; redemption booking can get lost. And as a result of the temporary ‘loss’ of booking, I could no longer book that hotel because it was recategorized upward while they were looking for my ‘lost’ booking.
I am not sure if this is a good deal, but if you can use your Marriot point in other Marriot hotel perhaps it works…
How can you make it to Maldives from North America these days with extra health and safety precautions?
Who else will soon join the Membership Rewards transfer bonus?
Can membership rewards be change for AA mileage too?
Membership Rewards can’t be converted to AA directly. However, you can transfer Membership Rewards to Marriott and then from Marriott to AAdvantage. However, you’ll need to do the math to see if it’s worth it for your situation.
Hmm, I would’ve assumed transferring from MR to Bonvoy to American (with the AA bonus for certain threshold transfers) would be a better deal than a straight MR to American transfer. Not worth it w/ that strategy?
Unfortunately, you can’t transfer Membership Rewards straight to AA. That would be an awesome addition!
MR points transfer to Bonvoy at a 1:1 rate and Bonvoy to AA at a 3:1 rate with a 5k bonus for transferring 60k Bonvoy. So, the best you could get with this 30% bonus would be:
1. Transfer 47,000 MR to 61,100 Bonvoy (after 30% bonus)
2. Transfer 61,100 Bonvoy to 20,367 AA + 5,000 bonus = 25,367 AA
With this, you’re almost getting a little better than a 2:1 transfer ratio from MR to AA during a 30% transfer bonus. But that’s probably not worth it for most points collectors.
This would be worthwhile if travel out of the country was made easier. The 2 week quarantine rule here in Canada makes it rather unworthwhile to leave the country.
Although I consider Marriott points to be flexible points, I don’t see myself transferring truly flexible points to Marriott unless I had a very specific redemption…like an overwater bungalow. But that is still a dream for now.
Hope i can get MR in China, but seems i can’t apply AE card , This is a good promo.
is 40% the highest bonus amount, or does amex sometimes provide an even higher bonus?
We looked back and found that there hasn’t been a Marriott transfer bonus (as far as we could find) since Marriott was added as a Membership Rewards transfer partner (https://awardwallet.com/blog/amex-membership-rewards-transfers-to-marriott-rewards/)
And, a quick search of past AW articles suggests there has actually never been a bonus over 40% with any partner. That’s been as good as it gets with anyone.
That’s not true. Amex had a promo of MR to Hilton at the rate of 1000 —> 3000, that’s 50%, within the past two years.
All of us have too many things to keep track of. If it wasn’t for AwardWallet, my airline miles would have expired. AwardWallet notified me in an email that I had airline miles that were going to expire soon if I didn’t take action. I have used AwardsWallet for years, and unlike other web sites, it does not inundate me with irrelevant emails. I have recommended it to my entire family.
I saw this! I was looking through the deals yesterday on my Amex card and saw this. I will have to make sure I always look at the deals before transferring anything from MR just in case there are bonuses. To me this would be a good deal if I am planning a trip soon to take. Right now I am now planning anything so I don’t believe that it would be worth it.
Such great deals out there now that I don’t think it makes sense to transfer points unless its a 100% Bonus!
I guess this is better since they are giving a better transfer rate. However, as the article states, there are better options for your points.
I remember pre-pandemic when AMEX had a transfer bonus for a different partner it seemed like every week. Glad to see AMEX have one again, even if it’s just Bonvoy.
What’s a great news! It’s a very good price to transfer MR and get good bonus here. But there have small place i can go hope Covid-19 vaccine coming soon and then i can go anywhere i want to go.
Not as bad as Hilton but still, this is one of those currencies that need a 100% bonus to even start to be worthwhile.
I also agree that a 100% bonus should be launched to actually stimulate the demand.
That would just devalue existing points.
Wouldn’t make sense for many people