Transferring Marriott Bonvoy points to a variety of airline miles is one of the best values the program still provides but there has been an ongoing problem to utilize the online tool for transfers to American Airlines.
This issue persists for over six months and for whatever reason nobody appears to be interested in fixing the malfunction, all while emails to Marriott result in nonsensical answers.
You can access the Bonvoy points transfer page here to have a look at the partners.
Marriott points can be transferred in a 3:1 ratio to airline miles with an additional bonus of 5000 miles for each 60k transfer most airline programs (with the exception of American Airlines, Avianca Lifemiles and Delta SkyMiles). United Mileage Plus actually receives a 10,000 mile bonus due to the partnership with Marriott.
Now, these transfers all work perfectly well when you try to execute them on the website.
Not so with American Airlines as the transaction simply won’t process, the continue button prompt no reaction:
I have contacted Marriott and had the following email exchange with them:
Thank you for your email.
I am sorry to learn that you were unable to transfer the Marriott Bonvoy® points to American Airlines. I would like to share the details of your experience with our development teams. If you would like to reply to this e-mail when convenient with the following information:
- URL where the issue was identified
- Session ID. You will find it at the bottom left of the screen (scroll all the way to the bottom), copy & paste the Session ID. This will begin with prod##
- Please include any details about the steps you took and the screenshots that will allow us to see what you were seeing.
I look forward to hearing from you.
I clearly told them what the issue was, yet still they come back to me with a generic reply.
Then they messaged me this:
Thank you for your reply.
I have reviewed your account and did not find any airline transfer record. You may contact us for further assistance if you initialed the transfer but did not receive the miles after seven days.
Please let us know if any further assistance is required for this case.
At that point my blood pressure was slowly starting to rise.
I then sent back screenshots and again emphasized what the issue was.
Another reply:
Thank you for providing more details and I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.
I tried to call you but understand it may not have been a good time. I have submitted your feedback to the technology team for further review and will inform you once there is an update. If you have any airline transfer requests during this review, I would be happy to submit them via our system directly.
If you need my assistance with the airline transfer, please reply with a convenient time to discuss further, as we need to verify account ownership before submitting the request. Alternatively, feel free to respond with any further questions or concerns you may have.
If you simply do a google search, this problem is documented all over the place. Reddit, Flyertalk, travel forums and social media groups. I remember a friend of mine had the same issues last September.
There is no way that I’m the only one who has brought this to Marriott’s attention. I’m sure hundreds if not thousands of people emailed and called them to complain. The result? Nothing!
Something is up with Marriott and American Airlines as far as these mileage transfers are concerned. Back in 2022, Marriott stopped the 5,000 miles bonus when transferring a 60,000 points lot:
Marriott Bonvoy Points To Miles Conversion Bonus Ends With Three Airlines October 31, 2022
Now the online transfer doesn’t work at all anymore and you have to call in to get it done.
There have also been other technical issues with the transfer tool in the past:
I can’t help but wonder if Bonvoy will devalue these points transfers at some point the same way they did with the redemptions for their very own hotel rooms. It’s almost impossible to get great value when redeeming for rooms these days and at least for mileage transfers there are significant benefits.
Conclusion
I have forwarded the issue about Marriott Bonvoy to American AAdvantage transfers to an executive customer care contact who emailed me a few weeks ago after I escalated a complaint about the United Airlines silver status benefit to Marriott.
She promised to update me when there are any findings about the issue. Of course, I have not much expectation that anything will happen. This can’t be a coincidence, there must be clear intent with a deliberate reason why they disable these online transfers.
