Use Marriott Hotel + Air Packages to Get More Value From Your Points (2021)
Award Ticket Strategies, Step-by-Step Guide to Booking Award Tickets
Marriott Rewards is the only hotel program where it can worthwhile to transfer your points to frequent flyer programs (so that you can use them to book award tickets).
If you are are planning on converting Marriott points into frequent flyer miles, you can take advantage of Marriott's Hotel + Air packages to get a discount on a 7-night hotel certificate. When you transfer enough points for 100,000 miles, you can get a 7-night Category 4 certificate for the normal cost of 3 peak-season nights.
Or if you are already planning on a 7-night hotel stay, you can use the packages to convert additional points to airline miles at a substantially reduced rate. With a peak season stay, you can get acquire miles for 62.5% of their normal points cost.
Before Marriott changed the Hotel + Air award charts as part of unifying the Marriott and SPG programs, these packages were a tremendous deal. In some extreme cases, it actually cost fewer points to get a package (with the free 7-night certificate) than it did to just get the same number of frequent flyer miles.
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Get a discounted 7-night Marriott stay along with your airline miles
- When you redeem for a package, you get a 7-night hotel certificate—you can decide where you want to use it later. You can use the certificate anytime during the year following your points transfer and you can use the airline points whenever you want. You don’t need to have a definite plan to use the hotel certificate at the time you transfer you points.
- Marriott will usually extend your hotel certificate for at least one extra year. You'll need to call in, but you should be able to use your certificates for at least two years from when you buy the package.
- You can upgrade, but not downgrade, your hotel certificate. If you don't know where you want to use your certificate, make sure to start with one of the lower category options.
- Hotel + Air packages can still be a good deal, even if you don’t plan to stay the full 7 nights. Depending on the package you're interested in, the discount can still make the package worthwhile, even if you only need to stay as few as 4 nights. Unfortunately, you can’t split the certificate across two different hotels.
- The packages are a much better deal when you would need to pay the peak rate for the hotel. Certificates can be used regardless of whether the hotel is offering standard, peak, or off-peak award rates. Marriott has priced the packages assuming that you will take advantage of the certificate during peak travel times.
- Packages are a better deal on lower category hotels—you can get a 7 night certificate for the normal cost of 3 nights. Because the discount is fixed, it is a more significant discount on less expensive hotel stays. For example, saving 90,000 points on a Category 4 certificate represents a 50% savings, but saving the same number of points on a Category 8 certificate only represents a 15% savings.
- If you wind up using the certificate during non-peak dates, packages can actually cost more than the separate cost of the miles and hotel room. The packages still provide a discount at lower category hotels, especially for 100,000 mile packages, but they can be more expensive than the individual pieces in higher categories for the 50,000 mile packages. The calculations for off-peak dates are even worse.
- You get an extra 10% when you are redeeming for United Miles. United is a preferred partner of Marriott’s and you will get 10% extra miles when you purchase a package. But you get the same extra 10% on a regular points transfer, so it doesn't affect the value proposition of the packages.
If you use the certificate during peak stays, you'll save 90,000 Marriott points on a 100,000 mile package and 45,000 Marriott points on a 50,000 mile package, which can be a savings of up to 50% on the cost of 7-night hotel stay.
| Cat 4 | Cat 5 | Cat 6 | Cat 7 | Cat 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Package Cost | ||||
| 330,000 | 390,000 | 510,000 | 570,000 | 750,000 |
| Normal cost for 100,000 miles | ||||
| 240,000 | 240,000 | 240,000 | 240,000 | 240,000 |
| Points required for 7-night certificate | ||||
| 90,000 | 150,000 | 270,000 | 330,000 | 510,000 |
| Normal cost for 7-night peak stay | ||||
| 180,000 | 240,000 | 360,000 | 420,000 | 600,000 |
| Package savings | ||||
| 90,000 | 90,000 | 90,000 | 90,000 | 90,000 |
| Percentage discount on certificate | ||||
| 50% | 38% | 25% | 21% | 15% |
| Cat 4 | Cat 5 | Cat 6 | Cat 7 | Cat 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Package Cost | ||||
| 255,000 | 315,000 | 435,000 | 495,000 | 675,000 |
| Normal cost for 50,000 miles | ||||
| 120,000 | 120,000 | 120,000 | 120,000 | 120,000 |
| Points required for 7-night certificate | ||||
| 135,000 | 195,000 | 315,000 | 375,000 | 555,000 |
| Normal cost for 7-night peak stay | ||||
| 180,000 | 240,000 | 360,000 | 420,000 | 600,000 |
| Package savings | ||||
| 45,000 | 45,000 | 45,000 | 45,000 | 45,000 |
| Percentage discount on certificate | ||||
| 25% | 19% | 13% | 11% | 8% |
From another perspective, the 90,000 points you need to pay extra to get a Category 4 certificate with your 100,000 miles is the the same number of points that would normally be required for a 3 night peak stay. But the 510,000 points you would need to pay extra to get a Category 8 certificate is more than the cost of a 6 night stay.
| Cat 4 | Cat 5 | Cat 6 | Cat 7 | Cat 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points required for 7-night certificate | ||||
| 90,000 | 150,000 | 270,000 | 330,000 | 510,000 |
| Normal cost for 7-night standard stay | ||||
| 150,000 | 210,000 | 300,000 | 360,000 | 510,000 |
| Package savings | ||||
| 60,000 | 60,000 | 30,000 | 30,000 | 0 |
| Percentage discount on certificate | ||||
| 40% | 29% | 10% | 8% | 0% |
| Cat 4 | Cat 5 | Cat 6 | Cat 7 | Cat 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points required for 7-night certificate | ||||
| 135,000 | 195,000 | 315,000 | 375,000 | 555,000 |
| Normal cost for 7-night peak stay | ||||
| 150,000 | 210,000 | 300,000 | 360,000 | 510,000 |
| Package savings | ||||
| 15,000 | 15,000 | (15,000) | (15,000) | (45,000) |
| Percentage discount on certificate | ||||
| 15% | 7% | (5%) | (4%) | (9%) |
Cheap frequent flyer transfers when you are booking a multi-night stay
Another way of looking at these packages is from the perspective of someone planning a hotel stay.
If you are already planning a 7-night stay at a Marriott hotel, you can take advantage of Marriott's Hotel + Air packages to convert points to airline miles at discounted rates.
We don’t normally recommend transferring points into miles until you have a specific redemption in mind. However, the potential discount can be significant enough that it can be worthwhile to make a proactive transfer to a frequent flyer program.
The best discounts will be for a 100,000 mile package, where you were planning on a peak-period hotel stay.
| Cat 4 | Cat 5 | Cat 6 | Cat 7 | Cat 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Package Cost | ||||
| 330,000 | 390,000 | 510,000 | 570,000 | 750,000 |
| Normal cost for 7-night peak stay | ||||
| 180,000 | 240,000 | 360,000 | 420,000 | 600,000 |
| Points required for 100,000 miles (as part of package) | ||||
| 150,000 | 150,000 | 150,000 | 150,000 | 150,000 |
| Normal cost for 100,000 miles | ||||
| 240,000 | 240,000 | 240,000 | 240,000 | 240,000 |
| Package savings | ||||
| 90,000 | 90,000 | 90,000 | 90,000 | 90,000 |
| Percentage discount on certificate | ||||
| 37.5% | 37.5% | 37.5% | 37.5% | 37.5% |
With a 50,000-point package, used at a peak hotel, you are wind up paying 75,000 points instead of 120,000 points (for the same savings of 37.5%). Savings are significantly less if you are planning to use you certificates on standard-priced dates, and the packages can actually be more expensive than their components on 50,000 miles, non-peak packages.
