Marriott Bonvoy Ending Transfer Bonus for Some Airlines

Amidst a series of recent devaluations, Marriott Bonvoy points have always held a baseline value. No matter how many points per night a hotel requires, you can always transfer Bonvoy to airline miles at a fixed ratio of 3:1, with a bonus of 5,000 airline miles thrown in if you transfer at least 60,000 points.

Marriott Bonvoy is ending the 5,000-mile airline bonus whenever you transfer at least 60,000 points for three airlines: American Airlines AAdvantage, Avianca LifeMiles, and Delta SkyMiles. 

Marriott Ends 5,000-Mile Transfer Bonus for Select Airlines

On top of the regular transfer ratio of 3:1, Marriott usually throws in a 5,000 mile bonus if you transfer at least 60,000 points, making the optimal transfer ratio 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points = 25,000 airline miles. Effectively, that brings the transfer ratio to 2.4:1 if you transfer in chunks of 60,000 points.

As of October 31, 2022, Marriott Bonvoy will no longer be providing a transfer bonus of 5,000 airline miles for mileage transfers to American Airlines AAdvantage, Avianca LifeMiles, and Delta SkyMiles.

This makes effective transfer ratio 3:1 at all times to American Airlines AAdvantage, Avianca LifeMiles, and Delta Skymiles, which is a clear devaluation of the program if you’ve been meaning to convert Bonvoy points to one of these three airline programs.

Marriott appears to have communicated this change to select members via email yesterday, and only to those who have made transfers to the affected frequent flyer programs in the past.

There’s no landing page explaining these changes and the page on the Marriott website about transferring points to frequent flyer miles makes no mention of these changes.

Death by a Thousand Cuts

This 5,000-mile transfer bonus has stuck around as long as the old Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) days, and this is the first time that Marriott Bonvoy is devaluing this feature since the merger took place in 2018. This sets a bad precedent going forward, as we’re now led to think about which other frequent flyer programs’ conversion bonuses may be at risk.

As mentioned earlier, we’ve long considered Marriott Bonvoy points to have a stable baseline value despite continuous year-over-year devaluations in hotel redemption prices. That’s because no matter how much the cost increases to book hotel nights, we can always transfer points to airline frequent flyer programs at a somewhat…