(UPDATE 5/13 – This offer is expiring on Wednesday May 15th so if you were interested, you only have a few days left to take advantage)
With the recent integration of the Marriott, Starwood and Ritz-Carlton in one Bonvoy program, I’ve been wondering if the new combined program would offer points sales, discounts or bonuses. Historically, Starwood did sell points while Marriott did not. The wait is over and it does look like Marriott is selling points. Their first points offer is out, and it comes with a 25% off. This offer is not as high as past point sales in Starwood, but let’s examine it to see if / when it might make sense. The 25% off offer expires on May 15th
Normally, Marriott points cost $12.50 to purchase 1,000 points (tax included), for a purchase price of 1.25 cent per point. That might seem cheap, but remember, Marriott points are only worth about 0.7 – 0.8 cents each, so at the normal rate, you’re paying a premium on the value. At the normal rate, it doesn’t make sense to buy Marriott Bonvoy points.
What about with the 25% off sale? This time the bonus is tiered –
- Buy fewer than 5,000 points – no bonus
- Buy 5,000 – 50,000 points – get 25% off
If you buy the full 50,000 points, it will cost you $468.75 with the 25% discount, which brings the purchase price to 0.9375 cents per point, which is closer to the normal redemption value, but still slightly higher.
While I’m generally against buying points speculatively, if you need some points for your next redemption, it could be worth topping up your account.
(SEE ALSO: When is buying miles worth it? Only in these 3 instances)
If you do that, I recommend buying at least 5,000 points so you earn some bonus miles (2,800 in that case). You can find the link to this promotion here
Generally if you’re looking to get a lot of points in a (relatively) short period of time, it’s better / cheaper to sign up for a new Marriott credit card, if you’re eligible. There are a total of three new products available:
- Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Visa – 100,000 points after making $3000 in purchases within the first 3 months; $95 annual fee
- American Express Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant (not an affiliate link) – 100,000 points after making $3000 in purchases within the first 3 months; $450 annual fee
- American Express Marriott Bonvoy Business – 100,000 points after making $5,000 in purchases within the first 3 months ($125 annual fee, waived 1st year)
(SEE ALSO: 5 questions to help you decide which Marriott Bonvoy card to apply for)
Will you buy Marriott points with 25% off? Or will you wait for a better offer to come back?
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What if you buy these points at this discount and then transfer them to Aeroplan which has a promotion of 35% more miles. I wonder, will that be a cheap way to earn Aeroplan miles?
Run the numbers and see if it would be worth it to you. Let us know what you end up doing!
Depends on how much you value Aeroplan miles. I’ll go thru the math for you.
To get max value, you will want to transfer 60K Marriott points to get the 15K kicker transfer bonus. This is the old SPG 5K kicker. The transfer rate from Marriott to Aeroplan is 3:1. However, if you transfer 60K points you’ll receive the aforementioned 15K transfer bonus. This means transferring 60K Marriott points will actually be like transferring 75K points which will then equal 25K Aeorplan Miles. Then you add the 35% current transfer bonus to 25K which equals 33,750 Aeroplan miles.
Cost per point is $0.009375 as indicated in the post so buying 60K Marriott points will cost $562.50.
You would be buying 33,750 Aeroplan miles at ~1.7¢ a piece. It is possible to get better than 1.7¢ of value if redeeming Aeroplan miles, but it’s not always possible for sure. It really depends on how you intend to use them. I definitely would not classify this offer as a steal, but if you know how to find Aeroplan sweetspots, you can come out ahead.