This is a great deal for those with access to a chunky Starwood Preferred Guest balance, for example transferring points over from American Express Membership Rewards.

Marriott Travel Packages have been around for a while but the recent ability to link Starwood and Marriott accounts enables a new opportunity to move points to Marriott from New Zealand American Express cards.

In the case of Amex Membership Rewards, 272,800 points can be leveraged into great value for a Marriott Hotel redemption AND 120,000 AAdvantage miles.

Featured photo courtesy of Bangkok Marriott Hotel Sukhumvit’s Facebook page.

Points Transfers between SPG and Marriott

Thanks to the takeover of Starwood by Marriott, a new way to redeem your American Express Membership Rewards has opened up.

Membership Rewards points can be earned on a number of cards including the Platinum Edge and Platinum Charge Card, and then transferred at a rate of 1 Membership Rewards points = 0.33 Starpoint.

Starwood and Marriott are now allowing members of each program to link existing accounts and transfer points to each other. If you don’t already have Starwood or Marriott accounts, it only takes a few minutes to create one of each.

Once your accounts are linked, Starpoints can be transferred to Marriott Rewards Points at an attractive conversion rate of 1 SPG = 3 Marriott Rewards. So for every Starpoint you transfer, you get 3 Marriott Rewards Points.

This means that 1 Membership Rewards point = 0.99 Marriott Rewards points.

What’s the seven night accommodation certificate for 270,000 Marriott Rewards points all about?

If going for this redemption option, you’ll receive a certificate for seven nights accommodation at a Marriott Category 1-5 property.

Seven nights hotel at a Marriott property around the world is fairly self explanatory – with the caveat that it needs to be a category 1 to 5 property.

The sweetener is the bonus Advantage miles. Other frequent flyer currencies are available, such as United MileagePlus, but my focus is on AAdvantage.

Personally, I’m aiming to use these to redeem a one-way flight from Australia to Europe in Etihad First Class or Apartment – for 115,000 AA miles.

You can read Keith’s review of Etihad’s award winning business class here.

Alternatively, you can use those same miles to redeem Qantas First or other oneworld partners to Europe for 115,000 AAdvantage miles.

Marriott does not have a limit on the number of Hotel + Airline packages you can redeem, so if you have 545,600 Membership Rewards points, you could redeem for 2x seven nights certificates at a Marriott hotel Category 1-5 and two one-way flights – so in other words a return flight.

Here are a some examples of category 5 Marriott hotels:

Lobby at Bangkok Marriott Hotel Sukhumvit, Bangkok. Photo courtesy of Marriott.com.

Suite at Marriott Hotel Downtown, Abu Dhabi. Photo courtesy of Marriott.com

Suite at Renaissance Bangkok Ratchaprasong Hotel, Bangkok. Photo courtesy of Marriott.com

Waltham Abbey Marriott Hotel, Essex. Photo courtesy of Marriott.com

Is this really a good deal?

I think so, and here’s why.

For the sake of this guide, we will assume you want to redeem a flight on Qantas from Auckland via Sydney, on the wondrous dream that they’ve added a First Class cabin Trans-Tasman. So let’s compare what you can do with 272,800 Membership Rewards points otherwise.

As you can see below, 272,800 points is not enough to redeem a Qantas First Class flight with Qantas or Asia Miles from Auckland to London.

And if you weren’t interested in Qantas First Class, you could redeem the AAdvantage miles for other flights. Take a look at some other comparisons:

Steps to Redeem

Here goes.

1. If you haven’t signed up for a Starwood or Marriott Rewards account, sign up now here and here.
2. Log into your American Express account and request a transfer of 272,800 points for 90,024 Starpoints. You request the transfer online or via the telephone. If you have trouble adding your Starwood account online, call American Express.
3. If you want to redeem more than 1 Hotel + Airline package, just double that amount – and so on.
4. American Express say that they can take up to 14 business days to transfer to Starwood, although mine only took 1 business day.
5. Once your points have transferred into Starwood, if you haven’t created your Marriott account do so now and link both accounts.
6. Once you are logged into your Starwood account, click this page and head to ‘Transfer Starpoints‘. Follow the prompts.
7. The transfer is instant and you can log into the Marriott account to confirm the points have moved across.
8. Call Marriott Rewards Support in Sydney, +612 8298 5250 and inform the call centre agent you want to redeem a Hotel + Airline 7 nights and 120,000 Miles Category 1-5 package, and credit to American Airlines, providing them your AAdvantage account number.
9. Some Marriott agents will suggest that you book your hotel immediately, but that is not required. Simply ask for the agent to issue you with the hotel certificate.
10. You can book your flights and hotels separately. You don’t even need to book them on the same trip.
11. Once the miles land in your AAdvantage account, you can redeem anytime you want.

The hotel certificate will sit in your account and expires 12 months from the day of issue. You must redeem the 7 nights stay between the creation of the certificate and the expiry date.

Upgrading your category 1 to 5 certificate

It’s logical that the higher the category, the more expensive the hotel. And whilst some category 5 Marriott hotels are nice, not all of them are.

And in some cities, there are only category 7, 8 or 9 hotels.

But you say, my certificate is only 1-5 category hotels!

Don’t despair, because Marriott allows you to upgrade the certificate by paying the points difference.

This can be done in a number of ways:

1. Transfer more points from Membership Rewards to SPG to Marriott
2. Buy Marriott Rewards Points
3. Buy Starwood Starpoints and transfer to Marriott at 1 = 3 conversion rate.

Starwood often have points sales ranging from 25% – 50% discount, and you can buy up to 30,000 Starpoints.

Here’s how you find out your hotel category. Simply use Marriott.com to search for seven nights accommodation in your desired city and tick Use points.

Scroll down and on the right hand side you will find the “HOTEL REWARDS CATEGORY” and click on the + sign and a menu will drop down, where you can select different categories.

For this example, we selected Category 8.

For this example, we selected the Renaissance New York Hotel 57. Then call Marriott Rewards Support in Sydney, +612 8298 5250, to book the hotel.

Summing Up

This isn’t a simple hack, and requires research and understanding of both Marriott Rewards and American Airlines AAdvantage program to ensure you know what you’re getting into.

You’ll need to have an idea of how you’ll use both the Marriott 7 night certificate and the AAdvantage miles – or at least have an idea on what they are worth to you – before you decide to jump in.

But if you do, there’s potential for some particularly outsized value on offer.