jsloan

I agree. In general, United miles are more valuable than Marriott Reward points; sometimes, much more so. Therefore, the travel package is a great deal; if you subtract the cost of the 7-night certificate*, you find that you're getting a value of 1.1 United miles for every marginal Marriott Rewards point. Also, there are occasional promos to add an extra 20-25% to the miles awarded (usually capped at 20K or 25K), which makes it an even better deal.

This example aside, transfers are usually not a good deal for the customer. The reason is simple -- it costs a company less to give you something free from their own inventory than it does to buy you something from another company. There are times that it might make sense -- e.g., because you're a few miles short of a valuable award redemption -- but, usually, you're best served by using hotel points for hotels, airline miles for flights, etc.

The corollary to that is that collecting United miles for a hotel stay, rather than Marriott Rewards points, is usually a poor proposition unless you're a very infrequent Marriott guest. Even if you don't expect to earn enough points to redeem a travel package -- an entirely reasonable concern -- you should still earn Marriott Rewards points. Marriott will give you 10 points** per dollar, plus elite bonuses -- or they will give you 1-2 miles per dollar (depending on the type of hotel), with no elite bonuses. The cheapest transfer redemption is 8,000 MR points for 2,000 United miles. The 4:1 ratio there is much, much better than the 10:1 ratio you'd get by earning United miles directly at, say, a Courtyard. So, provided that you stay at enough Marriotts to get to 8,000 before your points expire, that's definitely the way to go.

(For other airline programs, it'd be better to transfer through SPG first, because of the 1:1 starpoint:airline miles ratio. However, the ratio for United is 1:2, making MileagePlus a terrible place to move starpoints).

Hope this helps!

* Assuming you're not looking to book a Category 1-4 property, Ritz tier 1, 2, or 4. Basically, for the awards that are grouped together, the price is based on the highest level in the group, so that's your best value from a redemption standpoint.

** Excluding Residence Inn, TownePlace Suites, and the Executive Apartments, which only earn 5 points per dollar. However, those are also 1 mile per dollar properties, so it doesn't change the calculation.

Duck1981

Thanks guys for your detailed answers!
I love this forum already

NoStressHere

Yes, check out the Marriott forum here as well.

I have miles and points across many programs and when I am not sure, I find the following works great. Using google, type something like "Marriott to United transfer" or "united vs marriott" and it will find some great stuff.

If you add flyertalk.com to that search, you then get stuff from here.

In general, transfers between programs are not that available, but there are a few. Even so - NEVER, EVER transfer anything without an end goal in site.

uastarflyer

Just did a small MP-->Marriott transfer. It said it takes 7-10 biz days. Any recent experience with this timeline? Really takes that long?

uastarflyer

answering my own question - it posted 2-3 biz days later.

goaeiou

The Marriott website says up to six weeks for the transfer to take place?
What is the typical time? How much to call and get them transferred sooner?

It seems that I can only transfer up to 112,000 Marriott points for 50,000 UA miles.
Can I transfer more at one time or make two transfers so that I can get to 60,000 miles? That is the amount we will need to fly to Copenhagen.

DJ_Iceman

It has never taken more than a day or two for me. Take a look at booking a Marriott travel package reward (includes a week in a hotel in addition to the United miles), because the redemption is generally considered the best use of points in the entire program. It may also be a way around the 50k mile transfer limit--do one travel package and one straight-up mileage rewards (I just did this last month, by the way, on the website and had no issues).

Kacee

+1
Here's the link to the Rewards Plus chart: Rewards Plus.

For 220K Marriott points, OP can get 77K UA miles plus a 7 day Cat 1-5 cert. Price goes up to 330K Marriott for a Cat 8 cert, which will include many desirable resort properties.

writetorich

caseminole

One benefit of RewardsPlus program is the ability to move miles from MP to Marriott Rewards at a rate of 1-to-1

Got me thinking. I dont really ever get to use my Marriott points often, so wondering if its a good idea just to transfer the miles to my UA account?

Whats the industry standards for point value for air miles and hotel miles - and do these values vary across airlines?

jsloan

You can convert MileagePlus to Marriott Rewards at 1:1 but not vice-versa.

Most of the time, MileagePlus miles are substantially more valuable than Marriott Rewards points. That's why the Marriott Rewards travel packages are so popular -- those are when you can get the best transfer rate from MR points to MP.

Kacee

A standard valuation would be .9 cpp for Marriott and 1.5 cpm for UA. I believe those are ballpark (though some value Marriott points lower).

One big difference is that Marriott is much more generous with award availability, so Marriott points are considerably easier to redeem.

EWR764

Conventional wisdom is that the Marriott Flight and Hotel packages are the best value if redeeming UA miles straight to Marriott, as it returns a portion of the miles which are converted to points.

Flight and Hotel Packages | Marriott Hotel Packages

aacharya

Agree on the Package. But I would advise to wait until the 25% bonus offers are made.

mahasamatman

Only if you are booking an award stay of seven nights or longer. Since the OP states that he doesn't use MR points very much, I suspect he (a) won't be doing that, and (b) may not have enough points to redeem one anyway.