Marriott Bonvoy & MGM Rewards Add Points Transfers

Marriott Bonvoy and MGM Rewards have just expanded their partnership, to allow points transfers between the two programs. Surprisingly enough, this could actually be a decent deal.

Transfer Marriott & MGM points at a 10:8 ratio

Marriott Bonvoy and MGM Rewards have a partnership. With this, Marriott Bonvoy members can earn and redeem points, and can even take advantage of select elite benefits, at eligible MGM properties. The next aspect of this partnership has just been rolled out.

Members who have linked their Marriott Bonvoy and MGM Rewards accounts are now able to transfer points between the two programs:

• The transfer ratio is 10:8, regardless of the “direction” in which you transfer points, so 1,000 Marriott Bonvoy points could become 800 MGM Rewards points, or 1,000 MGM Rewards points could become 800 Marriott Bonvoy points
• You can transfer a minimum of 1,000 points, and can transfer up to 30,000 points per calendar year
• You can only transfer points between accounts belonging to the same member (however, you can always combine Marriott Bonvoy points between the accounts of different members)
• Transfers can be made through the Marriott Bonvoy or MGM Rewards online transfer sites

Are Marriott & MGM points transfers worth it?

It’s not uncommon to see points transfer opportunities between programs, though in a vast majority of situations, they don’t represent a good deal. So, how worthwhile is it to transfer rewards between Marriott Bonvoy and MGM Rewards?

Suffice it to say that there are a lot more Marriott Bonvoy points in circulation than MGM Rewards points, so I suspect the Marriott to MGM transfer opportunity will be more interesting to people.

MGM Rewards points can be redeemed for one cent each toward all kinds of spending with MGM, from hotel bills to dining. Since you can convert Marriott Bonvoy points into MGM Rewards points at a 10:8 ratio, that means you can potentially get 0.8 cents of value per Bonvoy point toward MGM spending.

That’s actually a pretty solid deal, and personally I value Bonvoy points at 0.7 cents each. So that’s a better transfer ratio than I would have expected. That being said:

• The major limitation here is that you can only transfer 30,000 points per year, so that limits the potential upside
• While I value points currencies conservatively, there are definitely ways to redeem Marriott Bonvoy points for more than 0.7 cents each

So personally this isn’t how I’d redeem my Marriott Bonvoy points, though it’s still a better value than I was expecting.

What about transfers in the other direction, from MGM Rewards to Marriott Bonvoy? Given that MGM Rewards points are worth one cent each, plus the 10:8 transfer ratio, this would only make sense if you could get over 1.25 cents of value per Bonvoy point. There might be limited circumstances where it makes sense, but I don’t think it’s the best option for most.

Bottom line

It’s now possible to transfer points between Marriott Bonvoy and MGM Rewards. The transfer ratio is 10:8, regardless of which direction you go, and you can transfer up to 30,000 points per year. While I wouldn’t consider this to be the most exciting opportunity on earth, it is a way to redeem Bonvoy points for 0.8 cents each toward MGM spending.

What do you make of this Marriott & MGM points transfer opportunity?