ZBigFam

Really can't stand the program anymore and with Hyatt growing it's footprint through alliances they are much more appealing. I have a few hundred thousand points what's your advice on how best to use those or transfer those? Want to use them to help my elite qualification at either Hyatt or United.

Thanks for your help!

myperks

JfromTheBay

I agree the best would probably transfer to airline.. But I love food and special events...

https://moments.marriottbonvoy.com/m...egory/culinary

JfromTheBay

Or do the inclusive

https://www.marriott.com/travel-deal...s/caribbean.mi

EdofFX

But it says "Marriott Bonvoy Points cannot be redeemed for All Inclusive Packages or Stays." right on that page.

JfromTheBay

It's bookable with points... I can do it. I think you wont be able to do all the options but some packages you can book.

I think I like the experiences better then the all-inclusive though

Duke787

I'll take them

Only way I can see them helping for your UA status qualification is if you can find a good mileage run that requires a positioning flight, you can transfer the miles over to another airline (UA or other) to book the positioning flights with miles.

Specifically thinking if there say a good UA MR that's ex-Asia, you could book that and then use Marriott ---> Airline to book the US ---> Asia flights in J

Or if MR requires overnight stays (which wouldn't make a true MR but similar thought) -- you can use MR to cover hotel.

And even if you are done with Marriott -- they still have a ton of very nice hotels and if you have a few hundred thousand points, why not pick a nice one and go enjoy yourself. Don't sweat the loyalty side of things -- but you can still go blow them on a nice property.

escape4

I realize I am unfortunately not answering your question, but would you book an SLH property on hyatt.com just to get night and points credited to your Hyatt account, if it costs 20% more to do so on hyatt.com than booking it on SLH.com? The SLH alliance might be less useful than you think on the surface so you might want to look into it in more detail before definitely pulling the plug on Marriott, particularly in case SLH was one of the main triggers for you to yank Marriott in the first place.

ZBigFam

With Slh, alila, thompson as new hotel partners Hyatt is much more appealing. Plus as an elite I can apply ONE suite upgrade award to a seven night stay. I have used this benefit many times. Lastly the fact that I can get free lounge access for myself and family is a huge draw.

So I guess the best option I have is to book a flight on United using bonvoy points? That should help my qualification.

nexusCFX

Award flights won't really help your United status qualification.

JBord

This...pretty sure you'll get the most value using for a nice Marriott hotel rather than transferring. You'll get exactly ZERO qualification credit for using them on a United flight. Buy a United flight to get you to a nice free booked-with-points Marriott, and you'll be meeting both your goals.

If you not only hate the loyalty program (which I might understand), but also hate every single Marriott hotel (very odd), then I guess just transfer them.

craigthemif

Use them at Marriott hotels. Don't pay cash at any further Marriott hotels.

Unless you're miles poor and points rich, you don't really want to transfer them to miles... Otherwise you just end up with more miles that you can't really use because you're paying cash to chase airline status.


There is no way that Hyatt can cover every single possible place you might visit. So you should keep a nice stash of Marriott points to cover those nights where you need one.

Boraxo

Umm, you kind of missed the boat as the ideal time to redeem your points was from August 2018-February 2019 when the award prices were temporarily lowered for some of the top SPG properties. At this point bargains are hard to find. I would not be in a rush to use them as I expect there will be a pause before further deval. So as others have suggested, use them when you can't find a Hyatt (which is often enough, given the limited footprint).

bigshooter

You could also donate them to charity. You can rid yourself of these pesky Marriott points as well as help someone in need.

craigthemif

I don't have anything against giving to charity. But when a hotel chain lets you "donate your points to charity", all they are doing is donating a cash amount that is far less than the value of your points, and then taking a tax write off. There isn't a whole lot of "helping someone in need".

You would be doing much more by actually staying in hotels and donating to your preferred charity some or all of what you saved...