New! RewardsPlus Hotel + Air Package:

[inakarjr36]

I was just clicking through the "how to earn united status with Marriott" links and it seems there is an arbitrage opportunity to earn some free united miles. This method is limited by the rewards plus limit:

Convert miles to points: MileagePlus Premier members can convert MileagePlus miles to Marriott Rewards points at a 1:1 ratio - up to 50,000 miles yearly.

And would only help someone with a hefty marriott rewards balance and a plan to use a marriott hotel redemption.

https://www.marriott.com/rewards/usepoints/morepack.mi

You can convert marriott rewards to united miles straight up at a rate of (2.4 : 1).
Instead, you could convert 200000 marriott points to 7 nights and 55000 united miles.
If you first converted your united miles to marriott, before the nights and flights, you would use 150000 marriott points for 7 nights and 5000 united miles. 7 nights at a regular point redemption for this category is 150000 (pointsaver at 120000), so it's basically a free 5000 united miles. Of course converting an extra 50000 marriott rewards to 55000 united miles may be a better use if you have those points available.

One way to look at this is to take the 150000 for 7 nights as a base. In that case:
0 MR = 5000 MP
20000 MR = 27000 MP
50000 MR = 60000 MP
70000 MR = 82000 MP

Has anyone used this? I'm not very familiar with marriott rewards, are there relatively easy ways to earn them (seems like yes since they transfer to airlines at such a bad rate)

 

[Matt]

Post above merged ^^^^

Great clickbait title Its a very good part of the Marriott program, but not exactly free miles. I'll move this over to the Marriott forum.

Edit - didn't realize they had added this new bonus amount of miles - thanks for pointing it out!

 

[cal1152]

Has anyone used this? I'm not very familiar with marriott rewards, are there relatively easy ways to earn them (seems like yes since they transfer to airlines at such a bad rate)

I'm not real familiar with MR, but I did earn a quick 210,000 points by getting in on both the Marriott cc (1k spend) 70k bonus, and Ritz Carlton cc (3k spend) 140k bonus. Also, the RC card gives you instant Gold status for both RC and Marriott. I just had all of the points transferred over into my Marriott account.

 

[RamboAroundTheWorld]

You can convert marriott rewards to united miles straight up at a rate of (2.4 : 1).
Instead, you could convert 200000 marriott points to 7 nights and 55000 united miles.
If you first converted your united miles to marriott, before the nights and flights, you would use 150000 marriott points for 7 nights and 5000 united miles. 7 nights at a regular point redemption for this category is 150000 (pointsaver at 120000), so it's basically a free 5000 united miles. Of course converting an extra 50000 marriott rewards to 55000 united miles may be a better use if you have those points available.

Wait, I'm a little lost. You're saying transfer out of Marriott and into United, then back out of United and into Marriott?

 

[Matt]

Wait, I'm a little lost. You're saying transfer out of Marriott and into United, then back out of United and into Marriott?

It's a confusing post - I moved it a couple of times - maybe I still don't get it, but I think the 'news' here is the top bit (in red)



UA does transfer to MR but only at 50K per year, but if that cap wasn't there, and you theoretically transferred 200,000 in, you'd only get 55K back plus your 7 nights...

Maybe I am still missing something obvious here.

 

[RamboAroundTheWorld]

Those are the Travel Packages that have been there for a long time now. Nothing new on that front.

Here's the chart on the Marriott to United conversion:

https://mr.userewards.com/rewardsplus/



Where he lost me was on getting out of United and back into Marriott. Because using the Marriott points for the travel packages has nothing to do with United Miles. And there isn't any benefit that I can see from transferring miles from United and into Marriott

 

[inakarjr36]

I'll try to clarify...let's say you had 150k Marriott rewards and 50k United miles. You could simply book a seven night stay at a category 5 Marriott property for 150k and do nothing with the United miles. What you'd end up with is is 0 Marriott rewards, 7 night stay, 50k United miles.

Instead, transfer the 50k United miles to Marriott, then book a points and flights for the 200k Marriott points that you now have and you will get 55k United miles. You will have 0 Marriott points, 7 night stay, and 55k United miles.

So by transferring from United to Marriott and then redeeming back to United, you can use the bonus to get extra United miles.

 

[Matt]

I'll try to clarify...let's say you had 150k Marriott rewards and 50k United miles. You could simply book a seven night stay at a category 5 Marriott property for 150k and do nothing with the United miles. What you'd end up with is is 0 Marriott rewards, 7 night stay, 50k United miles.

Instead, transfer the 50k United miles to Marriott, then book a points and flights for the 200k Marriott points that you now have and you will get 55k United miles. You will have 0 Marriott points, 7 night stay, and 55k United miles.

So by transferring from United to Marriott and then redeeming back to United, you can use the bonus to get extra United miles.

Ahh, I see, thanks for clarifying! Yes, a better option in that scenario- good find.

 

[smittytabb]

Ahh, I see, thanks for clarifying! Yes, a better option in that scenario- good find.

Really familiar with Marriott but still found this whole thing super complicated. Interesting 50 to 55K option for United. Is this limited or always available?

 

[inakarjr36]

So I just did this for the first time and it was exactly as expected.

Starting points
280000 marriott points
133737 united miles

The hotel I wanted was a category 7 so I could use 280000 marriott points for 7 nights and 77000 united miles. My balances would end up:

0 marriott points
210737 united miles

Instead, I used rewardsplus to transfer 50000 united miles to marriott, which showed up in my account 2 days later.

Interim balances:
330000 marriott points
83737 united miles

Then I redeemed the 330000 hotel and air package which deposited 132000 united miles into my account.

Final balances:
0 marriott points
215737 united points

So, if you have united miles and marriott points, but are not redeeming the highest package for your nights and flights redemption, transfer up to 50000 united miles (limited to 50000 per calendar year) to marriott first, and then redeem for a higher nights and flight package (same hotel category level) to get bonus united miles. This is not a limited time deal (though the yearly amount is limited) but the partnership could obviously end. I imagine this might also be useful at the end of the year if you have a long planned marriott rewards stay for the next year. You can transfer 50k and then 20k in the new year and move your redemption from the lowest to highest in the same category. This would get you and extra 7k in united miles.

 

[kathynokes]

Great concept. We used a travel package a couple of years ago for a week in Kauai and flights from the Midwest for our family of four. Have enough points for another, just can't decide where we want to go!