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Travel Tuesday: Transferring Points Between MGM Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy
Last year, MGM Resorts announced that it was breaking off its long-standing partnership with Hyatt… but then nearly immediately revealed a new deal with Marriott Bonvoy. At the time, I was hopeful that pact would mean enticing status matching as it did with Hyatt, but that sadly turned out not to be the case (MGM Rewards members can match to Marriott Bonvoy but not the other way around). Following that news, I’d pretty much forgotten about the partnership — until this week when another feature of the deal emerged: the ability to transfer points between MGM Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.
So how does this ability work and is it worth it? Let’s jump into the details as well as why (spoiler alert) I decided to give it a shot.
How to Transfer Points Between MGM and Marriott Bonvoy (and Vice Versa)
Details and exchange rate
MGM Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy members now have the option of transferring points between the two programs. However, there’s a bit a of a “tax” associated with this option.
The catch is that, regardless of which direction you’re sending points, you’ll essentially be losing some in the exchange. Rather than retaining a 1:1 exchange ratio, MGM Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy can be transferred at a rate of 1:0.8. So, 1,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points sent to MGM Rewards would result in 800 points while 1,000 MGM Rewards points sent to Marriott Bonvoy would also result in 800 points.
On that note, there is a 1,000 point minimum required to initiate a transfer and transfers can only be in increments of 100. There’s also a 30,000 point transfer limit per calendar year.
My experience (and why I decided to transfer from MGM to Marriott)
The thing about MGM Rewards points is that they’re fairly limited in terms of use. Moreover, you’ll need to be at an MGM location to use them. Most inconvenient of all, if you don’t have status, your points expire six months after you earn them — unless there’s activity in your account.
All of those reasons are why I decided to take the first opportunity to turn my leftover “Express Comps” (as MGM Rewards points are called in the app) into Marriott Bonvoy points. Actually, I briefly considered holding off since I wasn’t sure when my points would expire. But, seeing as I lost my Gold status in February, I figured I was close to time running out — and a bit surprised I hadn’t already lost them, to be honest.
I was able to find the transfer option pretty easily by logging into my MGM Rewards account and going to my profile. In fact, there was a banner located just below my various balances. All I needed to do was enter the number of points I wanted to transfer and provide my Marriott Bonvoy account number.
Since I had 2,778 points (worth $27.78 in Express Comps at MGM — some of which was left over from my Resort Hopping Bonus I earned earlier this year) and, as I noted, transfers need to be done in increments of 100 points, I ended up transferring 2,700 points. Given the exchange rate, this meant that I received 2,160 points in my Marriott Bonvoy account.
In my experience, this transfer happened near instantly as my Bonvoy balance updated within a few minutes of my clicking the button on MGM’s end. That said, even though my balance reflected the transfer right away, it took a little bit for it to gain an entry on my Account Activity tab.
Funny enough, a few hours after my transfer, I got an email from MGM Rewards showing my “current” balance (this was apparently processed beforehand). This email also stated that my rewards were set to expire on September 25th. With no Vegas trips on the horizon, I guess it’s a good thing I decided to transfer my points out now.
As for why else one might want to transfer MGM Points to Marriott despite the exchange rate, I came across another reason while talking to a friend of mine. His situation is basically the opposite of mine as he’s often in Vegas and has racked up plenty of MGM Points in the process. However, because of this high roller status, his casino host already comps much of his entertainment and dining spending, leaving him with no use for his Express Comps. Now, he’ll finally be able to turn those points into something by transferring them to Marriott Bonvoy instead — although I bet he’ll hit the 30,000 points per year transfer limit quite quickly.
Even though this MGM Rewards-Marriott Bonvoy transfer option may not be a good deal overall, as I learned, there are some positive use cases. For me, this feature popped up just in time and helped me avoid letting my MGM Points go completely to waste. Meanwhile, my high roller friend will now get some extra value from his points that he wasn’t getting before. As for transfers in the other direction, I can’t imagine this would be a good move for most — unless you have Marriott Bonvoy points you want to burn on a nice Vegas dinner. Still, it’s always nice to have more options when it comes to your loyalty points.
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