Marriott points. How to transfer to anyone

Because The Wiza is The Wiesn, and Oktoberfest brings out the kid in us all, and now you all finally accept the madness Flipper has touted for years, this is for all of you who wish to travel to places like the Le Meridien Munich and Oktoberfest in the future! Do you want to go in 2023? This will help you aside from credit card methods. Not sure yet? Book that sht anyway! Can cancel later if you must! 

Whether you plan to earn points for yourself or transfer them to friends who book rooms like Mike did with Fran or I did with Leo, etc, this will tell you some details. Since Leo is in the hotel industry he will know many things but even this company has baffled the mind of our great friend with his years of high-end hotel knowledge. He and I have laughed about it and rolled our eyes watching things unfold. But if you really want the hotel lingo, the resources of this friend are awesome. But Flipper knows all the customer miles and points stuff so both of us are valuable lol. 

Below is how it is done at this particular hotel chain. Some of this may not matter to everyone but since each hotel chain is different, you need to understand how they operate even if it is sort of like the rotary phone. As always, planning very early is the best:

Firstly, check to see if you have an account with Marriott Bonvoy. A little quick search and you might be surprised. Even if you have just a few thousand points in there. Even if your business or other loyalty is with another program.

If there is a profile page for you or a credit card on file, just make sure you update this and any email and phone contact and security questions. If you stayed at a property owned by or now owned by or managed by their program notate that last stay.

Any member can transfer up to 100,000 Bonvoy points in increments of 1,000 each to any member per calendar year. 2022 ends in like 2 months from now. The Next calendar year begins Jan 1. 

It is now almost October. Even a couple thousand points matter. 

Of course, ask Leo how they temp held his account just because he transferred points to an Indian/American woman in LA whose’ father I have known for 20 years! Leo, and that young woman had to make separate calls to fix this for weeks at no fault of their own but we all have busy lives so this sucked, so plan for anything! 

Oktoberfest 2023 is midday, Saturday 16 September 2023 to 22:30 (10:30pm) Tuesday, October 3, 2023. 

To start booking, they should open up around October 19, but you want to book based on date of last night, so if you stay 5 nights, that’s about October 23, 2022. That’s just under a month! I have historically grabbed and held rooms… to bank my Marriott points there, which I can always cancel. This year I believe our hotel allowed cancellation up to Sept 5 or 10. 

Yea, you may get lucky in Nov, Feb, April, but as of late these things have become too popular. The hotel can be about $250 a night but at Oktoberfest it’s up to $660 a night and stopped being available months out. 

Any member can receive up to I believe 500,000 points you can confirm this when you speak to an agent. 

To make a transfer you need to know the member’s full name to whom you are transferring, and their Marriott Bonvoy membership number. They may ask for more details we cannot know now as they change things for security reasons all the time, and every company does that. 

My Bonvoy number is: 202754693.

To initiate the process, you need a little bit of time to make a phone call to them. I have found early in the morning off and works but each person’s experience is different.

Call Marriott Bonvoy at +1-800-236-2427 and try to use the phone tree to say that you want to “transfer points.”(they could have other elite status lines)

Anyway, this will eventually trigger the system to put you through to a live agent and in my experience as a lifetime gold member right now, they are pretty good if one is patient. In my 10 year I had been super double-secret ultra platinum myself but things change with time and here we are today. Those of you that have higher status will have even better experiences. And those with no status will probably do OK because they ultimately want your business. I have a more liquid process than, say, Leo, on hotel stuff, but both our methods and knowledge combine and are of value. 

Marriott values

For me, I value based on how easy/hard it is for me to accumulate those points. My estimate is 10K M = 4K Hyatt = 7K Hilton.  (back in Summer, Stavis transferred me some Hilton - they allow this to be done easily online - and also cash was involved for his barn Essex event! Deals can always be had by the creative friend set. Have that mindset!)  

These fiat currencies have moved and enhanced and devalued over the years but this set of rates has been good for about 4-5 years now in most circles I subscribe to. Think of it like known weather models lol.

Note also, the value of one point is typically much less than a penny. I always strive to get a 1:1 value, which means 1 point is worth 1 penny

10,000 Mariott Bonvoy = $100.

As an example, Le Meriden Munich was 60k per night. 

4x60= 240,000. I had 962,000 points left when I booked. I had worked for years for this “$9,600+”

240,000 points = $2,400.

Typically, booking 4 nights consecutively gets you a 5th night “free.” 

Like with Oktoberfest table vouchers, all of this is supposed to be about equal trade and no profit intended by a bloke in my position, but one still must cover costs. 

As you know, VALUE for me is friends and fun, and also family. My family knows I am out of points for now but Hannie has faith my friends have compensated accordingly and I have assured her this is so. I told her we had the best time ever! (but it is still spent.) 

She wants to go again (we first did when dating in 2000) but we have to wait FIVE years for our youngest to be in College. Matt and Stavis are in my same timeframe. 

I have also tapped out on Amex and Chase sign up bonus, and many of the methods I have always used to make more points happen do not work anymore in bulk so we have to rally. Remember, Mike got that Chase this year. I had already done that 4 times in the past and now they and Amex limit you. Rules and times change. 

If you or anyone you know is feeling like “how do I give something nice to flipper that he could likely always use? Give them this page! I love surprises! 

If say, 6 blokes have say, 3,000 points each or say, 20,000 points each, they all have more muscle combined into one place!