Best Use of Marriott Points
 

Hi all, I am unsure if this topic has been crossed but I have accumulated over 250,000 Marriott Points and have never used them. I was wondering if anyone has analyzed what the best use of the points are. The 7 nights including airfare for 2 seems pretty nice for 200,000 points but can I fly to say Austrailia? The Hawaiian Island Hopper where they provide 3 certificates, 2 for 2 consecutive nights each and 1 for 3 consecutive nights to be used at 5 different Marriott properties seems nice as well but can I also stay at just one property? Any thoughts on this?

Yes to both questions. The 200k award is really something if you consider the cost of two tickets to Australia as well as a week's lodging. The gotcha, though, is that the airfare is handled by Marriott giving you frequent flyer miles on United (United is the partner that flies to Australia); you then have to find a time when seats are available. Plan ahead!

Thanks for your reply, Travelover. Do you mean that Marriott is purchasing seats on United using a pool of frequent flyer miles owned by Marriott? and thus the probability of black out dates and limited capacity controlled seats?

No, actually what happens is that if you have a UA MP account, Marriott credit your a/c with enough miles for 2 people to wherever you want to go from your place of residence.

You can use any partner airline which flies to where you want to go.

Sorry, meant to add that the blackout dates, availability is dependent upon the airline you are trying to use.

With UA for example, get the miles from Marriott then try and get the flights from UA once the miles are in your a/c.

Does Marriott do this with all partner airlines? Is that how free tickets are given? (With way over a million lifetime Marriott points, I should know these things, but I have used my points only for hotel stays! I have close to 500,000 unused points and have been contemplating what to do with them.)

Which airlines participate with Marriott?

Bruce

I'm sure you can find a list at http://www.marriottrewards.com of all their airline partners.

If one good thing will come of the US/UA merger is that I will be able to take deposited United miles from Marriott, combine them with my 'new' United miles and then fly on Air New Zealand.. possibly http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

dg1: can you explain how you can combine the Marriott rewards certificate with your United miles for an Air NZ award. I had asked United about trying to upgrade a Marriott award using United miles and was told that this was not upgradeable. I am curious if you have some other information on combining these two.

bdschobel: Little publicized feature of Marriott Rewards, but yes, that's how they give air travel awards.

I was short 60,000 miles for 2 RT business class tickets to Australia last year and ordered two US domestic coach tickets, plus a 10,000 mile award from Marriott. The miles were deposited in my UA Mileage Plus account within a couple of weeks and then I ordered the Australia tickets from UA.

With respect to redeeming for Marriott's 200k point award (which includes two coach air tickets pretty much anywhere their partner airlines fly), how many miles does Marriott put into your frequent flyer account? What do they deem to be the value of the two air tickets that come with this award?

And I wonder if they're consistent in plugging in the same amount of mileage in each case. Do they input different amounts of miles depending on the airline one chooses? Or does it differ depending on which portion of the world one mentions when redeeming?

Does anyone have any experience with this for Marriott redemptions, particularly those that utilized United or American? Any insights will help.

Thanks,

TravelDave

As far as I am aware Marriott only offer this facility with UA.

They credit your MP account with how many miles you need for the journey you will take with United on a saver award...based on your residence...

So for USA residents, getting a 200k award for 7 nights, in say OZ, you get 120k. That is 60k x 2 people.

If you went to HNL you would get 70k (35k * 2).

Remember you have to have a MP a/c to do it and UA have to fly to where you want to go.

In this way you can add your own miles to those from Marriott and fly first or biz.

It is really quite simple but it has to be through MP - although you can always use those miles on a partner award with say Air New Zealand.

Thanks Pitbullik. You seem to be quite knowledgeable on this topic which has been very unclear to myself and my colleague who is a loyal Marriotter.

That seems unfair that only UA miles are credited in this manner. I don't fly UA at all.

From the information provided, it seems the best use of the points would be the 200,000 award where the frequent flyer mileage is "expensive".

It also works with AA (I have done it twice already). I got 120,000 miles for my 200,000 point award (plus the coupon for 7 hotel nights and the other minor stuff).

Thanks for that info on AA - something to bear in mind at least, if I wanted to fly BA!

Thanks Sbrower on that info on AA. For the 120,000 miles, did you cash in the 200,000 points for a trip faraway?

Also, what if you cash in for the AA miles and decide not to go as far as you stated. Can you then use the miles instead for say Hawaii where the miles are only 35,000 in coach per person? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Will Marriott provide mileage on AA to be used on AA partners such as Qantas?