money Worth It to Transfer Chase Points to Marriott With a 50% Bonus?
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If you have a Chase credit card that earns Ultimate Rewards®, such as the Sapphire Preferred® or Sapphire Reserve®, you can take advantage of a new promotion to earn a 50% point bonus when you transfer your Ultimate Rewards points from your account to your Marriott Bonvoy
account through August 19, 2022.
However, just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
Chase Ultimate Rewards points get a flat rate of 1.25 cents per point for Chase Sapphire Preferred cardholders and a rate of 1.5 cents per point for Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders in the Ultimate Rewards portal. Alternatively, cardholders have the option to transfer points to partner loyalty programs. Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partners include:
Aer Lingus AerClub
Air Canada Aeroplan
Air France-KLM Flying Blue
British Airways Executive Club
Emirates Skywards
Iberia Plus
JetBlue TrueBlue
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards®
United MileagePlus®
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
IHG® One Rewards
Marriott Bonvoy
World of Hyatt®
Transferring points to transfer partners can often yield a greater redemption value than using the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. For example, the Andaz® San Diego, a Hyatt hotel, can cost more than $400 per night, but if you transfer 15,000 Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt and book a room with points, it yields a cents per point (CPP) valuation of $400/15,000 = $0.027 or 2.7 cents.
Related: Maximize Your Points: Credit Card Transfer Bonuses to 5 Airlines and Hotels
Whenever I use Chase Ultimate Rewards points towards flights or hotels, I am aiming for a cents per point valuation of at least 2 cents, so I consider the Andaz San Diego redemption example good.
The Points Guy values Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.8 cents per point, and View from the Wing values Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.6 cents per point. I am stingy on my Marriott Bonvoy points and try to reserve them for stays where I can squeeze out close to 1 cent per point.
For example, I booked a few nights at the Hotel Luc in Berlin using Marriott Bonvoy points. The standard flexible member rate was $352 for a “Little Luc” room, which can also be booked for 31,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night. Using points yielded a CPP valuation of $352/31,000 = $0.011 or 1.1 cents per point.
Should You Transfer Ultimate Rewards Points to Marriott Bonvoy for the Bonus Offer?
Even with my highly conservative use of Marriott Bonvoy points valued at 1 cent per point and a 50% transfer bonus, I would not recommend transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Marriott Bonvoy for this promotion. Transferring 1,000 Chase points would result in 1,500 Marriott Bonvoy points. I value 1,000 Chase points at $20 (2 cents per point) and 1,500 Marriott points at $15 (1 cent per point). Therefore, this transfer would result in a loss of value for each transferred point.
While it would not make sense to transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards to Marriott Bonvoy for most cases, there are some exceptions. One example is if you want to take advantage of Marriott’s fifth-night free benefit, where you can book five nights with points for the price of four. For example, that would yield a cents per point valuation at Hotel Luc of ($352 x 5)/(31,000 x 4) x 1.5 = $0.021 or 2.1 cents per point, which is higher than the 2 cents per point I aim for with Chase Ultimate Rewards redemptions.
Overall, I recommend skipping this transfer bonus unless you find a rare redemption where you earn more than 2 cents per point of value with Marriott.
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