Marriott Travel Packages - What Airline Points to Convert to?

[kamchatsky]

Given the recent merger of Marriott and SPG, I am looking at their Marriott Travel Packages in detail. It does have some great deal. I am looking at converting Amex MR points to SPG then to Marriott reward points.

I am looking at staying for 7 nights at Tokyo later this year, I am looking at purchasing the travel packages which gives me 7-night reward certificate plus a whole bunch of airline points of choice:

Flight and Hotel Packages | Marriott Hotel Packages

I am looking at Cat 8 Marriott hotels (either Tokyo Marriott or The Price Sakura Tower Tokyo) so I am looking at 360000 Marriott points ( = 120000 Starwood Points = 240000 Amex Points). This would get me 7 nights free on Cat 8 hotels, plus the following option of airline miles:

- 132000 United Mileage Plus
- 120000 BA Avios, or AA Advantage Miles, or Alaska Miles, or Delta Skymiles, or VS Virgin Atlantic
- 85000 Qantas Points, or SQ Krisflyer, or CX Asia Miles, or EK Skywards Miles, or EY Etihad Guest Miles, or Avianca LifeMiles

At the moment I could not decide which airline miles to get, as I still have a large bunch of AA, QF and VA miles.

The question is, which one would you choose and why?

 

[foggy]

You can redeem 20K BA Avios for 1 * J NRT/HND-HKG on either CX or JL.

I paid 58 GBP for 4 tickets (2 adults and 2 child). Worked out about 14.5 GBP, or 23.55 AUD per person.

I would have preferred HND-HKG (especially my hotel is very close to HND), but JL only had 2 J available at 330 days out. So had to settle on NRT-HKG.

Yes I booked the ticket on British Airways Executive Club website. That is another good thing about BAEC, you can book JL online, much quicker than say AA, CX, QF etc where you will have ring up. You will beat just about anyone by booking it online.

Even 10K Avios for 1 * Y CX/JL NRT/HND-HKG is excellent value, consider that it is a 5 hour flight itself.

I intend to use Avios to redeem short haul flights from HKG or Japan in the future.

Damn asiamiles is 30k for one way J. Are avios miles valued at more than asiamiles? it would be hard to compare amex-spg-marriot-avios since its 1:0.5 spg, then the hotel value.. my brain would hurt trying to calculate the value per mile

 

[kamchatsky]

HKG-NRT/HND availability also opens up last minute too. In the last two weeks before a flight. At least that's my experience when redeeming Australia - Asia awards on AAdvantage.

That is generally true. Unfortunately I will be flying that route between Christmas and New Year. CX had no seats at all at those times on the first day that the award seats is supposed to be available. So for me it is better to lock it in, especially I have 2 kids so I just cannot book and fly within 2 weeks before departure.

 

[kamchatsky]

Damn asiamiles is 30k for one way J. Are avios miles valued at more than asiamiles? it would be hard to compare amex-spg-marriot-avios since its 1:0.5 spg, then the hotel value.. my brain would hurt trying to calculate the value per mile

Whilst I do not want to go Off Topic, but I am going to do it. BAEC Avios is more valuable for very short to short-medium routes than anything else I have come across:

Have a look at the table below (courtesy from Prospero from FT):



The above table came from the awesome thread here in FT:

Selecting redemption destinations on the edges of the pricing bands - FlyerTalk Forums

Now what you need to focus is the Zone 1, 2, 3 in the table above, and see the possibilities below:

So just to give you some examples:
Zone 1 (4500 Avios for Y, 9000 Avios for J one way):
CX/KA HKG-TPE/KHH/CAN/WUH/SYX/DAD/HAN
QF SYD-MEL/BNE/OOL/CBR

Zone 2 (7500 Avios for Y, 15000 Avios for J one way):
CX/KA HKG-OKA/PVG/XIY/KMG/CTU/CKG/BKK/CEB/MNL/REP/SGN etc
QF SYD-ADL

Zone 3 (10000 Avios for Y, 20000 Avios for J one way):
CX/KA HKG-ICN/PEK/KUL/SIN/KTM/CCU etc
CX/KA/JL HKG-cough/KIX/HND/NRT/HIJ
S7 HKG-VVO (Yep, to Russia!);
QF MEL-PER;

Zone 4 is only good for Y (12500 Avios) as J costs 3 times more than Y (37500 Avios):
CX HKG-CTS/MAA/DEL/KHI/MLE/DPS;
QF SYD-PER

Due to the points table, there are some "quirks". For example, QF J SYD-PER is 37500 Avios one-way. However, QF J SYD-MEL-PER is ONLY 29000 Avios one-way.

For me, Zone 1, 2, 3 intra-Asia travel is the best way to use BAEC. But have a look at that FT thread for possibilities.

 

[futaris]

Slightly OT, BAEC are running a 35% bonus for converting Avios into hotel points:

https://www.britishairways.com/travel/ba18.jsp/2017-q1-hotel-points-to-avios/public/en_gb?
Convert Hotel Points Into British Airways Avios With A 35% Bonus - One Mile at a Time

 

[tizey]

Oooh. This is interesting as I am looking at making 3 Marriott Flights & Nights redemptions in the very near future. Flights & Nights redemptions definitely get the bonus 35%?

My knowledge about BA program is about to grow exponentially as this could be a boon as oneworld is playing a significant part in upcoming travel plans (not RTW).

 

[foggy]

[FONT=&quot]To put this into perspective, seven nights at a Category 1-5 property plus 120,000 Avios will run you 270,000 Marriott Rewards points.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]If you did that, you’d receive a total of 162,000 Avios (including the 35% bonus through this promotion), plus seven nights at a Category 1-5 property.[/FONT]
Are they sure it will trigger the bonus? would that promotion be "converting" hotel points to avios?

 

[zainman]

[FONT=&amp]To put this into perspective, seven nights at a Category 1-5 property plus 120,000 Avios will run you 270,000 Marriott Rewards points.[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]If you did that, you’d receive a total of 162,000 Avios (including the 35% bonus through this promotion), plus seven nights at a Category 1-5 property.[/FONT]
Are they sure it will trigger the bonus? would that promotion be "converting" hotel points to avios?

It should definitely trigger the bonus I would say.

 

[kamchatsky]

Slightly OT, BAEC are running a 35% bonus for converting Avios into hotel points:

https://www.britishairways.com/travel/ba18.jsp/2017-q1-hotel-points-to-avios/public/en_gb?
Convert Hotel Points Into British Airways Avios With A 35% Bonus - One Mile at a Time

Oh why they did not have this promo a week ago? I would have gotten extra 42000 Avios! That's like 2 * J NRT-HKG awards!

On the positive note, I had to use those Avios to book my flights ASAP as it was pretty much booked out after 1 day .....

 

[kamchatsky]

Now before everyone start jumping towards BAEC bandwagon, I want to let you know the following issue with BAEC:

Looks like BAEC is blocking redemptions on CX 1 week prior to departure online. So if you are not using Avios to redeem last minute getaway, you will be fine. It is reported here in FT:

CX blocking HKG-TPE when it's close to departure? - FlyerTalk Forums

Cathay and Dragon Air avail? - tons of seats...then no seats - FlyerTalk Forums

Similar issue for booking on S7:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/bri...c-redemptions-no-longer-available-online.html


If you need last minute getaway, try to call up BAEC call centre to see if you can book over the phone. Otherwise use QF, CX, AA miles instead.

 

[tizey]

Unless I'm missing something obvious (quite possible), I cant see the value in Avios... they seem like pretty horrible value from MEL-Asia (SE or Japan), and MEL-Europe looks like horrendous value compared to say, United Miles, without the bonus.

Why I ask, is I need to convert to redeem 3 Flights & Nights stays but for the trip I'm planning (Tier 5, Cat 8 & Cat 8), but dont actually require any airline miles straight away - would be probably 2 years or so from now that I'd need to travel on these points, so I'm trying to future proof myself with most likely trips we'll make.

Is there something blatantly obvious that I'm missing for trips into Asia or Europe using Avios? No interest in domestic flights - can cover these with QF/VF points easy enough.

Eg. Avios deal (120k + 42k) compared to standing United deal (132k):

3 x 162k avios = 468k avios, which buys me 6 one way J trips MEL-HKG on CX.
3 x 132k united miles = 396k united miles, which is literally 13 One way J trips MEL-SE Asia on TG, or 2 pax J return to Europe (TG/Swiss/LH), and almost 1 pax return to SE Asia (TG). I believe SQ redemptions using United miles is all but impossible?

I read that TG isnt seen as the greatest J product out there, but its got to be a hell of a lot better than Y no matter what?

 

[foggy]

Unless I'm missing something obvious (quite possible), I cant see the value in Avios... they seem like pretty horrible value from MEL-Asia (SE or Japan), and MEL-Europe looks like horrendous value compared to say, United Miles, without the bonus.

Why I ask, is I need to convert to redeem 3 Flights & Nights stays but for the trip I'm planning (Tier 5, Cat 8 & Cat 8), but dont actually require any airline miles straight away - would be probably 2 years or so from now that I'd need to travel on these points, so I'm trying to future proof myself with most likely trips we'll make.

Is there something blatantly obvious that I'm missing for trips into Asia or Europe using Avios? No interest in domestic flights - can cover these with QF/VF points easy enough.

Eg. Avios deal (120k + 42k) compared to standing United deal (132k):

3 x 162k avios = 468k avios, which buys me 6 one way J trips MEL-HKG on CX.
3 x 132k united miles = 396k united miles, which is literally 13 One way J trips MEL-SE Asia on TG, or 2 pax J return to Europe (TG/Swiss/LH), and almost 1 pax return to SE Asia (TG). I believe SQ redemptions using United miles is all but impossible?

I read that TG isnt seen as the greatest J product out there, but its got to be a hell of a lot better than Y no matter what?

Avios only good for short trips, thus the example given by kamchatsky.

Depends what you need them for..

 

[Radio8tiv]

<snip>

would be probably 2 years or so from now that I'd need to travel on these points, so I'm trying to future proof myself with most likely trips we'll make.

if your not using the points for two years just watch the expiry of them
United have a 18Month expiry, just needs activity to keep them alive
Avios have 36Month expiry, also just needs any activity to keep them alive
AwardWallet will help keep an eye on things

 

[Irishbazz]

Think I am going to go with the cat 7 hotel with 120k +35% Avios offer at the moment.

Travel all booked up for this year with redemption's to PER/ORK/INV/JFK/HKG/Per later this year

The seven nights are for a stay in NYC and the Avios will work well for two J seats on Per-Mel-Per and Per-Syd-Per for myself and Mrs.Bazz early next year.

Had looked at Asia miles but the Avios offer, seems like good value at the moment.

Any Perthonians with a view on a potentially better value Marriott package for domestic use?

 

[foggy]

could anyone tell me if it is possible to redeem a flight from syd to queenstown with avios?

 

[kamchatsky]

Think I am going to go with the cat 7 hotel with 120k +35% Avios offer at the moment.

Travel all booked up for this year with redemption's to PER/ORK/INV/JFK/HKG/Per later this year

The seven nights are for a stay in NYC and the Avios will work well for two J seats on Per-Mel-Per and Per-Syd-Per for myself and Mrs.Bazz early next year.

Had looked at Asia miles but the Avios offer, seems like good value at the moment.

Any Perthonians with a view on a potentially better value Marriott package for domestic use?

For J seats on PER-SYD-PER (37.5K one-way), it is cheaper to redeem as PER-MEL-SYD-MEL-PER (29K one way) on Avios. One of the quirks of redeeming 2 shorter segments than 1 longer segment.

 

[kamchatsky]

could anyone tell me if it is possible to redeem a flight from syd to queenstown with avios?

QF121 SYD-ZQN.
QF122 ZQN-SYD

10K for Y, 20K for J.

 

[annielee]

hello experts,

new to this flight and hotel package, and trying to get the most out of it..with the current Avios promotion, most likely i will be opting for that..
anyone can share once redeem, how does the airline points (with bonus) and hotel cert be 'delivered', im guessing the points will take few days to be in the Avios account and the hotel cert will be in the email ??

thanks

 

[nightelves]

can someone link me to the avios promo? Might convert points to there also. Think someone mentioned that with Avios you have to wait 90 days before you can transfer points to and from. Is this correct?

 

[futaris]

Slightly OT, BAEC are running a 35% bonus for converting Avios into hotel points:

https://www.britishairways.com/travel/ba18.jsp/2017-q1-hotel-points-to-avios/public/en_gb?
Convert Hotel Points Into British Airways Avios With A 35% Bonus - One Mile at a Time

There you go

 

[nightelves]

Does your account need to be active for 90 days in order to get the bonus points? Also is it easy to find availability with Avios?