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American Express to Marriott 35% transfer bonus
Just a super quick heads up that American Express is currently offering a 35% transfer bonus through 12/31/24 to Marriott Bonvoy. Usually this is a 1000:1000 transfer, but with the bonus, for every 1000 Amex points you move to Marriott Bonvoy you’ll get 1350 points.
Is transferring Amex points to Marriott a good idea?
Ordinarily I would say that Amex points are worth close to 2 cents a pop while Marriott are worth less than a penny ( about 8/10 of a cent ). So, no, under normal circumstances I would advise against such transfers…but there is a always a caveat. You should also take into consideration the fact that Marriott no longer uses a fixed award chart and their rates are dynamic. So… you could find a sick deal, but it could be a terrible one as well. For instance…
The New York Edition has been pricing as low as 50k per night since Marriott went dynamic. As you can see, rates were $945 night. So this could present an excellent deal with an Amex to Marriott transfer.
With the current transfer bonus, you’d only need to move 40k Amex points per night to get roughly $1k worth of value. That’s almost 2.5 cents per point and definitely worth the transfer.
Marriott offers 5th nights free…
As long as you are a Marriott Bonvoy member, you get a 5th night free. In the above scenario, if you found 5 continuous award nights, you’d get a 5th night free. That’s 5 nights for just 160k Amex points. That’s $5k worth of nights for 160k points. Over 3 cents.
Is this is the highest we’ve ever seen?
No…I believe we’ve seen 50% in the past.
Crunch the numbers, the transfer bonus ends 12/31/24
If you’re sitting on a healthy balance of Amex points and looking to take an experiential trip at an expensive property…this could be a wonderful time to get more bang for you buck. If you’re looking at run of the mill hotels – personally I wouldn’t advise using your Amex points unless you’re getting more than 1.5 to 2 cents per point in value.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.