The Guide to Marriott Airline Partners

Marriott is one of the largest hotel chains in the world, offering travelers plenty of options to redeem Marriott Bonvoy points for award nights. However, a lesser known feature of the rewards program is the ability to transfer Bonvoy points to Marriott's airline transfer partners.

What's more, Marriott has dozens of airline transfer partners to pick from — and the Marriott transfer conversion ratio is better than the transfer ratios from many other hotels to airlines. That makes Marriott one of the best hotel chains for travelers who want to use hotel stays to earn free flights.

In addition, several of the airlines that are transfer partners of Marriott aren't transfer partners of the major transferable point programs, offering a unique opportunity to obtain airline miles with specific carriers.

So if you’ve got Marriott points and want to be aware of all your airline transfer options, here’s what you need to know, including how long transfers take and if you can move points around between different Marriott accounts.

Marriott points can be transferred to nearly all of the chain's airline partners at a 3:1 ratio. That means 3,000 Marriott Bonvoy points become 1,000 airline miles.

There's just one exception: Air New Zealand AirPoints convert at a transfer ratio of 200:1.

Marriott also rewards you for transferring in bulk. For every 60,000 Marriott points transferred, you'll typically receive a 5,000 airline point bonus. Given that, you should almost always strive to transfer in 60,000-point increments. When you do, transferring 60,000 Marriott points will result in 25,000 airline miles for most of the airlines with a 3:1 ratio — transferring 60,000 points to United, however, will get a 10,000-mile bonus, for a total of 30,000 points, which translates to a transfer ratio of 2:1.

Note that American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Avianca do not qualify for this transfer bonus.

How much are Marriott points worth?

Marriott Bonvoy points are worth 0.8 cent according to NerdWallet’s valuations. Compare those against NerdWallet’s airline program valuations to understand what sort of value you get in the conversion process.

The best Marriott transfer partners

Generally speaking, though, the best Marriott transfer partners are:

• Atmos Rewards (previously Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan).

• American Airlines AAdvantage.

• Virgin Atlantic.

• Etihad Guest Miles.

• United MileagePlus.

Transferring Marriott Bonvoy points to United

As noted above, the United MileagePlus ratio of 3:1 isn't unique, but thanks to the RewardsPlus partnership program between Marriott and United a transfer of 60,000 Marriott points will yield a 10,000-mile bonus, or 30,000 United MileagePlus miles total, which, in effect, makes the transfer ratio 2:1.

That's one of the better Marriott airline transfer partners. But even still, understand that your Bonvoy points are usually most valuable when redeemed for Marriott hotel stays. Given Nerdwallet's valuation of a Marriott point at 0.8 cent, that makes 60,000 Marriott points worth $480. Compare that with NerdWallet's valuation of a United mile at 1.2 cents, and the equivalent transfer, even with the bonus, is worth $360.

Sure, United is one of the better Marriott transfer partners, but if you envision booking a Marriott stay on points, keep your Bonvoys as Bonvoys.

The worst Marriott Bonvoy transfer partners

The weakest ratio (200:1) is with Air New Zealand — a transfer of 200,000 Marriott points will get you 16,000 Air New Zealand Airpoints.

Other Marriott Bonvoy transfer partners to avoid include Southwest Rapid Rewards, Frontier Miles and Qatar Airways Privilege Club. If you’ll truly never use your Marriott points again — and you solely fly one of these airlines — then you might as well make the transfer. But if you’re picking between airlines, skip one of these to maintain as much of your points’ value as possible.

One of the most standout features of the Marriott Bonvoy program is that it has landed airline partners that no other transferable points program — AmEx, Bilt, Chase, Citi ThankYou or Capital One — has.

Among the airline partners exclusive to Marriott include:

• Aegean Airlines.

• Air China.

• Air New Zealand.

• China Southern Airlines.

• Copa Airlines.

• Frontier Airlines.

• Hainan Airlines.

• LATAM Airlines.

• Saudia.

• Virgin Australia.

• Vueling.

Given how difficult it may be to collect points and miles in these programs, a Marriott point transfer could be a good value if you have a redemption in mind.

» Learn more: The best and worst Marriott transfer partners

Log in to your Marriott Bonvoy account and navigate to the Transfer Points page.

Select the frequent flyer program you want to transfer to from the dropdown, input your frequent flyer number, and enter in the number of points you want to convert.

You must transfer a minimum of 3,000 points at a time, and you can transfer a maximum of 240,000 points per day.

Once a Marriott point transfer is initiated, it may take up to one week for the airline miles to post.

When transferring Marriott points to an airline, the names on both accounts must match. In other words, you cannot transfer Marriott points from your account to an airline frequent flyer account of someone else; the names on both programs must be identical.

Even the best Marriott airline transfer partners will cause your points to lose some of their value — at least most of the time.

With that in mind, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to when it makes sense to transfer Marriott points to an airline. The value of your Marriott points and/or airline miles depends not only on the valuation of the points, but also on what type of redemption you want to use it for.

Beyond finding a great redemption on airline miles, other situations where you might consider making a Marriott points transfer, even if it’s slightly subpar, include:

• You need just a few more miles (usually less than 1,000) to book a flight with miles (in which case transferring the minimum of 3,000 Marriott points, worth about $20, could get you there).

• You never intend on staying at a Marriott, or at least using your points before they expire (Marriott Bonvoy points expire if your account doesn't have qualifying activity for 24 consecutive months).

» Learn more: Your complete guide to earning Marriott Bonvoy points

Accumulating Marriott points could be useful strategy to earn points with the airline you’re focusing on in a few instances:

1. You don’t need Marriott points, but you’ve exhausted all of your mile accumulation options with a specific airline. This can happen if you already hold an airline-specific credit card and cannot apply for another one.

2. You need airline miles with a carrier that’s not a transfer partner of AmEx, Chase, Citi ThankYou or Capital One. Marriott points transfer to dozens of airlines, providing ample opportunities to accrue miles with numerous airlines.

3. There are no mileage earning options (other than flying) with a specific airline that's a transfer partner of Marriott and you need more miles, but cannot fly to earn them. For example, if you need miles with a foreign carrier and there is no co-branded credit card available for the U.S. market, consider transferring points from Marriott.

4. The value of the airline award is significantly higher than what you would get if you used those Marriott points for a hotel stay. If you see a sweet spot award ticket and the cash cost of the airline ticket is significant, a transfer could be worthwhile, especially if you don’t have a Marriott stay coming up.

If you need a Marriott point infusion and know someone who is willing to transfer the points to you, you’re in luck because Marriott allows for point transfers between accounts.

You can transfer up to 100,000 Bonvoy points per year to another Marriott account and receive up to 500,000 Bonvoy points per year from other accounts as long as both accounts are in good standing and have been open for 30 days or more (with qualifying activity) or 90 days without qualifying activity.