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Marriott points transfer to United Plus. 6 weeks?


TomBeckCruise
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If you are set on using Marriott Rewards points to get UA miles, you are best with the straight Marriott redemption. As for the time, I suspect it is faster than that but I have never converted Marriott points to miles.

 

One thing you should check out is the arbitrage opportunities with Starwood. You can convert Marriott points to Starpoints at a ratio of 3:1. Then, you have Starwood's 25% bonus for transfers of blocks of 20,000 Starpoints. However, the Starpoints to UA exchange rate is a terrible 2:1. So for UA, you are better staying from Marriott. However, if considering other carrier's programs, you should do the math. For those with one to one conversion, it works out this way:

 

50,000 miles costs 40,000 Starpoints.

40,000 Starpoints equals 120,000 Marriott Rewards points.

 

Also, look at the redemption bonuses with Starwood "Nights and Flights", where you get an extra discount when converting Starpoints into a combination of miles and hotel nights. That is for five nights hotel. Marriot has a similar redemption, but for seven nights plus airline miles. They call that "Travel Packages".

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If you are set on using Marriott Rewards points to get UA miles, you are best with the straight Marriott redemption. As for the time, I suspect it is faster than that but I have never converted Marriott points to miles.

 

One thing you should check out is the arbitrage opportunities with Starwood. You can convert Marriott points to Starpoints at a ratio of 3:1. Then, you have Starwood's 25% bonus for transfers of blocks of 20,000 Starpoints. However, the Starpoints to UA exchange rate is a terrible 2:1. So for UA, you are better staying from Marriott. However, if considering other carrier's programs, you should do the math. For those with one to one conversion, it works out this way:

 

50,000 miles costs 40,000 Starpoints.

40,000 Starpoints equals 120,000 Marriott Rewards points.

 

Also, look at the redemption bonuses with Starwood "Nights and Flights", where you get an extra discount when converting Starpoints into a combination of miles and hotel nights. That is for five nights hotel. Marriot has a similar redemption, but for seven nights plus airline miles. They call that "Travel Packages".

 

I have the spg American Express card, and I converted 50,000 points to Marriott 3 to 1. At the moment UA has the best flights using miles. Things change though. KLM might in a few months.

We haven't flown UA in many years, and I was surprised to see the 2:1 exchange rate for Starwood.

Thanks for the suggestions.

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I have done it several times. It has always taken 3 days or less.

Yes no issue doing it twice or even tree times. 112K points equal 50K miles.

Advantage is that if you have a Chase card and do a lot of Marriott spending you get 5X points.

When my Marriott points get too high -- I generally them into UA MP as you are doing.

Edited by PaulMCO
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