New 35% Transfer Bonus from Amex Membership Rewards to Marriott Bonvoy

American Express has just released a new transfer bonus allowing you to transfer your Amex Membership Rewards points to Marriott Bonvoy with a 35% bonus.

Here are the details of this new transfer bonus offer, along with some redemption details, to help you decide if it is worth it.

Transfer Bonus Details

The standard transfer rate from Amex Membership Rewards to Marriott Bonvoy is 1:1, but the 35% transfer bonus elevates this transfer rate to 1:1.35 through December 31, 2024.

The duration of this transfer offer gives you through the end of the year to help maximize your Marriott stays. That said, you might want to think twice before transferring your hard-earned Amex points to Marriott — let’s break down why.

Is It Worth It?

While any opportunity to get a transfer bonus might feel like good value, especially if you have upcoming holiday travel in which you were planning to stay at a Marriott, this isn’t always the case.

For starters, we value Amex Membership Rewards points at 2.2 cents per point, thanks to the extensive list of Amex transfer partners, through which you can often get that redemption value or higher.

Marriott points, on the other hand, we value at just 0.7 cents per point. This means if you were to transfer 1,000 Amex points (worth $22 based on our valuation), you would end up with 1,350 Marriott points (worth $9.45 based on our valuation), which is a net loss of 57% on the original value of the Amex points — not a great deal.

Here is a redemption example to further illustrate the point:

Many of the best properties in the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio start at 85,000 points for an award night redemption. This means you would need to transfer 63,000 Amex points, accounting for the 35% transfer bonus, in order to make the 85,000 Marriott point redemption.

Alternatively, with those Amex points, you could book a one-way Air France business class between the U.S. and Paris for as low as 50,000 points when transferred to the Air France-KLM Flying Blue program, or up to 5 round-trip economy tickets between the U.S. and London when transferred to the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program.

Final Thoughts

Put simply, this transfer bonus is likely worth skipping for the vast majority of award travelers. One exception is if you need to top off your Marriott account with a small amount of Amex points to have enough Marriott points for an upcoming award stay.