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The Offer
- United is offering a 30% transfer bonus when you convert hotel points to United miles, up to a maximum of 25,000 bonus miles. Club Carlson & Choice hotels are offering other bonuses as well:
- Club Carlson: Earn 100% more miles than usual. Normal transfer rate is 10:1, so this makes it 10:2
- Choice Hotels: earn 3,250 United miles for every 5,000 Choice Privileges points
The Fine Print
- To qualify for this offer, members must register for the promotion between October 9, 2016 and 11:59pm EST November 30, 2017 (“Promotional Period”).
- During promotion, Choice Privileges points will convert to 2,500 MileagePlus miles each transaction instead of 1,000 miles; at the conclusion of the promotion, all miles earned from Choice Privileges conversions will be multiplied by 30% (for a total of 3,250 miles for every 5,000 Choice Privileges points converted).
Our Verdict
Club Carlson still isn’t a good deal. SPG normally converts at a rate of 2:1 (compared to 1:1 with other airlines) so that is also a bad deal. The most interesting option is to get a Marriott flight + hotel package. Normally 7 nights at a category 1-5 property and 132,000 United miles would cost you 270,000 Marriott points, with this promotion you’d receive a total of 157,000 United miles (keep in mind the 25,000 mile cap on the 30% bonus). You could also redeem a smaller amount of Marriott points for less United miles to ‘maximize’ the 30% bonus but that doesn’t make a lot of sense as the packages with more miles are better value (e.g 20,000 extra Marriott points = 22,000 United miles). United also had a similar bonus last year, but it was only for 25%.
Hat tip to readers James33
Just got my bonus points for Marriott travel package of 5 nights and 132k United points. Was able to call Marriott reservation number ask for 235k 5 night and 132k United points package and get it without a singe question. Not a member of a timeshare club. Today 25k United bonus points posted as well. Great deal.
FYI – my 30% bonus just posted on my Choice Points to United transfer. 12/15
Mine just posted as well (through same Choice-United transfer). Thanks for the alert, Sami!
Always a great feeling to actually see the points instead of imagining them arrive.
Has anyone received the bonus points yet? I am still waiting for mine.
Have not received my bonus yet either. Wonder what’s taking so long.
How long does the transfer from Marriott to United take?
I want to make sure that I won’t be missing the window.
Thanks
Did you end up doing the bonus? I didn’t realize the transfer had to go through by 11/30 so was going to transfer tomorrow. Looks like it’s risky though.
HI Tom,
it took one day. I did Travel package transfer from Marriott to United. on the next day I saw points in United. but bonus points are not yet showing. they may show after Nov30.
The website seems not working any more, so meaning no more registration? And any one knows if Marriott transfer to united through the travel package can actually get the 25000 bonus?
I transferred points from SPG TO Marriot and then bought United package. As of now still only received 132 000 miles, will be calling them next week to find out why wasn’t I rewarded an additional 25k points.
Roman – I’m not positive this applies to Marriott, but I know for the other programs, the 30% bonus is supposed to kick in at the end of the promotion, which is November 30. I think that’s when you would get the rest. (For example, I haven’t gotten my 30% bonus from Choice transfer either).
I’d still call Marriott, though, to make sure. Good luck!
Did anyone choose the marriot flight package and got 157k united miles successfully? Was thinking about transferring but thought of checking any actual data points here
Still waiting on the DP for this
me too!
I am so excited to see this. Was just about to to book the nights and flights for an LA trip and convert to United miles! Great news! Never hurts to get an extra 25K miles!
I have nearly half million Marriott points including SPG, if I buy 1 package for 270k Marriott = 157k united points can I cancel my 1 week cat 5 certificate for a 45k refund? I have no use for that certificate, I rather have some points back to buy another 270k package for 314 united miles then top off with chase points for 5 business tickets home.
My concern is only 1 bonus per account, after max bonus back to regular transfer rate on the 2nd, I’m hoping per transaction
Please advise, any help is welcome!
Make Marriott and SPG accounts for your partner/friend whatever and have the same address on file. Transfer 90k SPG to them which is allowed as long as you did not purchase the points. Move it to Marriott and buy the travel package. Only downside is that you will have the United miles split between 2 accounts which may or may not be ok with you.
Choice transfer actually seems like a pretty solid deal — anything reason why it wouldn’t be?
If you value Choice points at 0.6 cents each (I know there are exceptionally good redemptions in Scandinavia, but let’s just assume a standard rate). And United at roughly 1.4 cents.
Then, by simple math:
5,000 Choice = $30
3,250 United = $45.50
This seems like a fantastic deal, right?
It is! I have 64k Choice points that I plan on transferring over to get 41k United miles on top of the Marriott travel package with United 30% promo!
Totally agree, James! I just initiated my transfer of 34,000 Choice for United with no regrets.
One thing you should double-check: It looks like the 30% additional promotion only works up to 25,000 United miles, so you may not be able to transfer all of your 64k Choice. For that reason, I think you can only do this with upper 30,000s of Choice.
Also, I would make sure the 25,000 United limit is per transfer partner or total (you might be limited to that for Choice + Marriott).
Just want to make sure you get the most value and don’t waste some of the transfer.
Oh you’re right!
I was getting a little ahead of myself. It looks to be accumulative. So I will stick with the Marriott only. Thank you!
Just remembered the wife has 44k parked in Choice as well. So I will convert her Choice 44k to United.
I think your math is a bit off. The conversion promo is 5k choice to 2,500 United. This portion is not part of the 30% 25k cap limit. And then you get an the extra 30% bonus on the 2,500 which totals to 3,250.
So 30% of 22k converted United miles (from 44k Choice) is only about 7k so I would get all of that on top of the 2:1 initial conversion ratio.
44k Choice = 22k United + 30% promotion = 28,600 United total.
Good catch, James. I was wondering about that, actually.
So you think the 25k is on 30% BONUS only, not on the overall transfer. Sweet!
Also — that’s fantastic that your wife also has Choice. Congratulations!
yeah, choice is pretty good if you don’t value the choice points much.
So really what you’re saying is…
If you don’t like Choice, it’s an easy choice. Choice words, Will!