MRP Travel Package - UA conversion

So I am clear as mud. Recently I converted 320K Marriott Reward Points for 1 week stay (I think it was a 40K per night hotel) and it transferred 132K UA points.

From my math, if it had been a non-travel package, it would have cost me 240K MRP for my 1 week stay. So I really only used 80 MRP to get 132 UA points.

I THINK on United Airlines website it says it will convert 1 miles to 1 hotel point. If that is the case can I transfer 132K UA points back to MRP to get 132K MRPs?

Did I misread or is there a catch in this?

In looking at the 7 day packages HERE (you said 1 week stay, so I am assuming that is a 7 day package), and if your assumption of a 40K per night hotel award is correct, that makes it a category 8 hotel, so per the grid for United, you would have paid 360K MR points for that package.....so I think you used 120K of the MR points exchanged to get the 132K United points, which makes sense because of the 10% bonus (additional 12K in points).

Remember, the fifth night is free when using points straight up for a hotel stay. So only count 6 nights for the hotel cert portion of a travel package.

If UA is indicating that you can transfer UA points to hotel points for 1 to 1 ratio, then there is a gain in MRP in going back.

sptung said:

If UA is indicating that you can transfer UA points to hotel points for 1 to 1 ratio, then there is a gain in MRP in going back.

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If that is possible, then true, you would pick up 12K in MR points, BUT in approaching the transaction in such a boomerang fashion, you have also restricted the use of the 240K MR points that you converted into a hotel certificate, which are now locked into a 7 day usage and the certificate has an expiration date, where before you purchased the travel package, your points did not have an expiration date on them and you could use them as you wish (not limited to 7 nights only). That AND the fact that most will agree, the true benefit in the travel packages is the value of the airline miles in using them to book high end first or business class airfare.

All that said, only you can determine what has value to you and what does not.

sptung said:

So I am clear as mud. Recently I converted 320K Marriott Reward Points for 1 week stay (I think it was a 40K per night hotel) and it transferred 132K UA points.

....

Did I misread or is there a catch in this?

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If the hotel is 40K/night, OP has the price of a five night package -- 40K x 5 nights = 200K + 120K for airline tickets = 320K. The 120K of airline points is subject to the 10% bonus.

There is no free hotel night on an MRP five night stay (there is on a 7 night stay).

I went back and looked at it, it was 360K for the 7 night package. But my point is about MRP to UA points getting a 10% bump but UA allows transfer back to Marriott at 1:1 ratio, hence the gain. We have gotten tired of UA poor customer service and difficulty in booking first class/business class tickets that we might as well transfer our UA points to Marriott account. I have about 300K UA points currently.

vacationtime1 said:

If the hotel is 40K/night, OP has the price of a five night package -- 40K x 5 nights = 200K + 120K for airline tickets = 320K. The 120K of airline points is subject to the 10% bonus.

There is no free hotel night on an MRP five night stay (there is on a 7 night stay).

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The OP confirmed in post 7 that my assumptions in post 2 were correct, so it was a 7 night package for 360K points.

That said... regarding your comment about no free night on a 5 night package. That is totally true I believe with a category 9 hotel package at 120K airline miles, but the "free 5th night" becomes a partial free night for some of the other hotel category levels. As an example, for a category 8, you get the 5th night for half price and for a category 6 you get the 5th night for only 33% of the normal points. That would of course be looking at it from the perspective that the airlines points are valued at a 1:1 ratio.

It is odd that the 5 night packages have differing "values", or "premiums" paid, based on the hotel category.

sptung said:

We have gotten tired of UA poor customer service and difficulty in booking first class/business class tickets that we might as well transfer our UA points to Marriott account. I have about 300K UA points currently.

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Value is in the eye of the beholder. As I said, only you know where the value lies for you. All I am saying is going forward, I personally would not bicycle the points into a package and then move the airline points back out as an ongoing strategy to pick up 12K MR points, as I personally feel the restrictions of locking up your points in the 7 day hotel certificate are not worth the 12K MR benefit you received. Just my two cents....and strictly speaking regarding using this as an ongoing strategy. As for taking care of your short term issue of having too many UA points, not liking UA's service, and not seeing a use for them, it may make sense for you.

Fasttr said:

Value is in the eye of the beholder. As I said, only you know where the value lies for you. All I am saying is going forward, I personally would not bicycle the points into a package and then move the airline points back out as an ongoing strategy to pick up 12K MR points, as I personally feel the restrictions of locking up your points in the 7 day hotel certificate are not worth the 12K MR benefit you received. Just my two cents....and strictly speaking regarding using this as an ongoing strategy. As for taking care of your short term issue of having too many UA points, not liking UA's service, and not seeing a use for them, it may make sense for you.

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I would agree. The problem comes if you can't end up using that hotel certificate. If you try to cancel it, Marriott will recalculate that hotel portion and give you back only a tiny portion of the points. They essentially recalculate the cost of the miles to 3:1.

I have already used my 7-night stay at Singapore JW Marriott in Sep of this year. My Marriott gold status allowed my use of the executive lounge and the food and service were amazing, as good as Hong Kong's JW Marriott that I was having access to for years when I was on business trips.

Fasttr said:

The OP confirmed in post 7 that my assumptions in post 2 were correct, so it was a 7 night package for 360K points.

That said... regarding your comment about no free night on a 5 night package. That is totally true I believe with a category 9 hotel package at 120K airline miles, but the "free 5th night" becomes a partial free night for some of the other hotel category levels. As an example, for a category 8, you get the 5th night for half price and for a category 6 you get the 5th night for only 33% of the normal points. That would of course be looking at it from the perspective that the airlines points are valued at a 1:1 ratio.

It is odd that the 5 night packages have differing "values", or "premiums" paid, based on the hotel category.

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It is not odd if you know the history. When Marriott made many changes (most negative) to the MR program about 6 or so years ago, they added a 5-night package for vacation club owners with the same total point values as the 7-day packages previously had. Thus, if you do the math, it is not a clean 1 point per 1 mile conversion with a 5 night package and the relationship between the hotel portion and the airline portion differs somewhat based on level. Previously there was no 5th night free and longer hotel stays had declining points per night requirements for each incremental night up to seven.