Today, I received dual emails, one from Dividend Miles and the other from AAdvantage, letting me know that I can earn a 20 percent mileage bonus when transferring Marriott Rewards points to either program through October 31, 2014. Twenty percent sounds good, but in all but a very few instances, I can’t think of any reason to do this. For example, you’d need to transfer 70,000 points to earn 25,000 miles. Not a good deal as I’d probably be better off using those points for a room somewhere. Though to be fair, if you make that transfer during the promotion period, you’ll get an additional 5,000 bonus miles.
The travel packages might represent a slightly better deal. For example, you can redeem 200,000 Marriott Rewards points for 7 nights in a Cat 1-5 hotel and receive 50,000 miles plus a 20 percent mileage bonus. I haven’t dithered with the packages in a long time, but I seem to remember a devaluation some years back that made these less attractive than they once were.
As it stands, about the only reason I can think of to do this would be if I never intended to stay at another Marriott and had a few orphan points to offload. Even then, there might be better ways out there to handle that.
-MJ, October 3, 2014
