KrisFlyer miles can now be transferred to Marriott Bonvoy points

One general rule about loyalty programmes is that it’s much easier to convert hotel points to airline miles than the other way round. Mind you, it’s typically not good value, especially since it’s so hard to earn hotel points in Singapore compared to airline miles.

But here comes an interesting opportunity: it’s now possible to convert Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles into Marriott Bonvoy points.

While this could have been an exciting development, the transfer ratio unfortunately comes pre-nerfed.

Convert KrisFlyer miles to Marriott Bonvoy points

KrisFlyer Miles	Marriott Bonvoy Points
3,000	1,500

KrisFlyer members can now convert KrisFlyer miles to Marriott Bonvoy points at a ratio of 2 miles to 1 point, with a minimum transfer of 3,000 miles. 

A maximum of 180,000 miles can be converted per calendar year, and points conversions take up to eight weeks (though hopefully in practice it’ll be much faster).

Unlike other partner programmes, there is no need to link your KrisFlyer and Marriott Bonvoy accounts prior to making a transfer. 

If you are a member of the Link Rewards or Marriott Bonvoy programmes, your partner account will be linked to your KrisFlyer account automatically upon the first successful conversion of KrisFlyer miles to the respective partner points.

-Singapore Airlines

Simply visit this link, scroll down and click on the Marriott Bonvoy option.

You’ll then be directed to a dialogue box where you can fill in your Marriott Bonvoy membership number, as well as the number of KrisFlyer miles you wish to convert. 

Is it worth it?

As I mentioned at the start, it’s generally difficult to earn hotel points in Singapore. Only American Express, Citibank and Standard Chartered have hotel transfer partners, and the conversion rates make it a bad choice compared to airline miles. 

Even so, I don’t think this is something miles-rich-points-poor individuals should consider. I value a KrisFlyer mile at 1.5 SG cents apiece, while a Marriott Bonvoy point is worth about 0.7 US cents apiece (0.93 SG cents). By converting KrisFlyer miles to Marriott Bonvoy points, you’re taking a haircut of nearly 67%!

Put it another way: you get around 0.5 SG cents per mile when converting KrisFlyer miles to Marriott Bonvoy points. There are much better uses for them!

Moreover, Marriott Bonvoy points periodically go on sale at around 0.8 US cents apiece (1.06 SG cents). That’s a lower price than “paying” 3 SG cents by converting 2 KrisFlyer miles for 1 point. 

Now, you can certainly get more than 0.93 SG cents per Marriott Bonvoy point, but given the conversion ratio, it would have to be much higher in order to justify transfers. For example, a room at the Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel would cost S$658 nett per night, versus 41,000 points (we compare nett rates because points reservations are exempt from taxes and service charges). That gives a value of 1.6 SG cents apiece- still a haircut of 47%.

You’d basically need to get 3 SG cents per Bonvoy point to be indifferent. Remember: Marriott Bonvoy uses dynamic pricing for hotel rooms, which means the number of points will vary with the room rates (though it’s important to emphasise that a point does not have a fixed value). This makes it more difficult to get outsized value from redemptions. 

In any case, since you can only obtain a maximum of 90,000 Marriott Bonvoy points a year from KrisFlyer miles conversions, this isn’t going to be a rich source of points for most people. 

Converting Marriott Bonvoy points to KrisFlyer miles

Marriott Bonvoy Points	KrisFlyer Miles
60,000	25,000 (includes 5,000 bonus miles for every 60,000 points transferred)

As a reminder, it’s also possible to convert Marriott Bonvoy points to KrisFlyer miles at a 3:1 ratio, with a 5,000 miles bonus for every 60,000 points transferred. A minimum transfer of 3,000 points applies, and a maximum of 240,000 points can be transferred per day. 

I’m still not crazy about the idea, since 60,000 points are worth S$558, versus 25,000 miles worth S$375. If I had to convert Marriott Bonvoy points to miles, I’d pick a more “exotic” frequent flyer programme that’s hard to earn miles with in Singapore. 

Since Marriott Bonvoy points can be converted into 30+ frequent flyer programmes, it does follow that you could, theoretically, convert KrisFlyer miles into 30+ other frequent flyer currencies. But the loss in value would be insane, given the 6:1 ratio (6 KrisFlyer miles = 3 Marriott Bonvoy points= 1 airline mile).

Conclusion

KrisFlyer members can now convert miles into Marriott Bonvoy points, though the 2:1 ratio makes it fundamentally unattractive. I mean, if you really wanted to use your points for hotels, even KrisFlyer vRooms would be a better option, especially since it opens up many more hotel options as a general OTA. 

Unfortunately, earning hotel points without staying remains elusive for now. 

Is there any use case for transfers I’m not seeing?