Although it’s a hotel loyalty program, Marriott Bonvoy can be very useful as a means of collecting frequent flyer points or miles with overseas frequent flyer programs.

Marriott Bonvoy points can be earned in Australia by staying at hotels, transferring points from American Express Membership Rewards or even buying points directly from Marriott. Those points can then be either redeemed for hotel nights or transferred to the loyalty programs of 38 different airlines.

This offers Australians a “back door” into valuable overseas frequent flyer programs and makes it possible to (indirectly) convert Amex Membership Rewards points to the loyalty programs of certain SkyTeam airlines – something that is otherwise almost impossible in Australia.

Until now, this loophole has been particularly valuable because Delta SkyMiles members can access reward seats on Vietnam Airlines, which offers lots of Business Class award availability from Australia to Europe. A Business Class redemption from Australia to Europe through Delta SkyMiles is also very good value as this costs just 90,000 SkyMiles and minimal taxes, one-way.

Most transfers from Marriott Bonvoy to a frequent flyer program take place at a 3:1 conversion rate. For every 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points transferred to 20,000 airline points or miles, you would also earn a 25% bonus. So, 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points are generally worth 25,000 airline miles.

Unfortunately, from 31 October 2022, this 25% bonus will no longer apply to transfers from Marriott Bonvoy to Delta SkyMiles, American Airlines AAdvantage or Avianca LifeMiles.

At the time of writing, there was no mention of this change on the Marriott website. But Marriott Bonvoy has emailed members who have transferred Bonvoy points to any of these 3 airlines in the past.

“Marriott Bonvoy® remains committed to enhancing your travel experiences with our global airline program. Look for more information and additional program benefits in the future,” the email said.

One possible reason for this change could be that Marriott has an exclusive partnership with United Airlines. This involves reciprocal benefits for members of Marriott Bonvoy and United MileagePlus. It also means that United MileagePlus members get 10% extra miles when transferring from Marriott (i.e. the standard conversion rate is 3:1.1). American Airlines, Delta and Avianca could all be considered competitors of United, and therefore United might have requested that Marriott removes any added incentives to transfer points to those airlines.

Some commentators have expressed concerns that, while this upcoming change only affects transfers from Marriott Bonvoy to three frequent flyer programs, Marriott could decide to remove the transfer bonus to more airlines in the future.

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.