United is offering a new promotion with its hotel partners and there’s some great potential to maximize value via Marriott Hotel + Air packages. You can now exchange hotel points for United miles and earn 30% bonus award miles but only up to 25,000 miles.
- To qualify for this offer, members must register for the promotion between October 9, 2016 and 11:59pm EST November 30, 2017 (“Promotional Period”)
All of the United hotel partners are available for this promotion including programs like SPG, Marriott, IHG Rewards Club, Hilton, Hyatt and others. Anytime you see a hotel bonus transfer promotion, you always want to consider SPG since they offer a 1:1 transfer to so many different airlines. Unfortunately, SPG is a 2:1 transfer partner with United so they are not a good option for a direct transfer.
Instead, a great option would be to transfer your SPG points to Marriott at a 3:1 ratio and then utilize a Marriott Hotel + Air package since the 30% bonus would still be factored in.
Marriott Hotel + Air packages allow you to redeem Marriott points for packages that offer you United miles and 5 or 7 nights at a Marriott property. The more Marriott points you convert, the higher the category of Marriott property you can stay at but the most popular sweet spot is the 7 day package that gives you 7 free nights at a category 1-5 property and 132,000 miles in exchange for 270,000 Marriott points.
With this United promotion, you could net 157,000 United miles from 270,000 Marriott points/90,000 SPG points (since the bonus is capped at 25,000 miles). Plus, you get the 7 free nights (note: the 7 free nights must be used consecutively). The Marriott Hotel + Air packages are already good deals so with this promotion they are even more worthwhile.
Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned travel expert covering destinations along with TSA, airline, and hotel policies. Since 2014, his content has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and CNBC. Read my bio.
