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Get a 25% Bonus When You Convert Marriott Points to United Miles

Zach Honig
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Zach Honig is Editor-at-Large at TPG, with contributions ranging from articles digging deep on loyalty programs and credit cards to delivery flight coverage to drone photography and much more.
Feb. 29, 2016
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3 min read
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Get a 25% Bonus When You Convert Marriott Points to United Miles
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Update: The text below has been updated to reflect a cap of 25,000 bonus miles in Marriott's terms and conditions.

Through March 31, 2016, you can earn a 25% bonus when you transfer Marriott Rewards points to United MileagePlus — this is on top of the regular 20% bonus you'll receive when converting Marriott points into United miles, as part of the duo's RewardsPlus partnership. This bonus is especially valuable when paired with Marriott's Hotel + Air packages, including the recently discovered 5-night option, though when "purchasing" a package you'll receive a 10% base bonus, rather than the usual 20%.

To maximize this promo, you'll want to redeem 235,000 Marriott Rewards points for a 5-night stay at a Category 1-5 property plus 132,000 United miles. With an additional 25% bonus (capped at 25k miles), you'll walk away with 155,000 United miles plus five nights in a Marriott hotel or resort — that's enough for two one-way United BusinessFirst awards to Europe, and nearly enough for three!

You can fly United BusinessFirst to Europe for 57,500 miles each way.
You can fly United BusinessFirst to Europe for 57,500 miles each way.

That means for 235,000 Marriott points, you'll have enough to fly you and a companion to Europe in business class and book a five-night stay at many Marriott properties, including a few options in cities like Paris, Rome or Tbilisi. While that may sound like a lot of Marriott points, you can earn 80,000 bonus points after you spend $3,000 in the first three months with the Marriott Rewards Premier Credit Card.

Assuming you're able to find PointSavers availability for a Category 5 hotel, you'd normally need to redeem 80,000 points for a five-night award stay (100,000 points with regular availability). That means with this redemption, you'd be adding 155,000 points to get 155,000 United miles, which is a no-brainer considering TPG's valuation of Marriott points (0.7 cents each) and United miles (1.5 cents each). If you're short on Marriott points, it may even make sense to transfer Ultimate Rewards points, earned with a card like Chase Sapphire Preferred, which currently comes along with its own bonus of 50,000 points after you spend $4,000 in the first three months.

H/T: One Mile at a Time

Will you be transferring Marriott points to United?