Marriott Bonvoy Ends Another Points To Miles Conversion Bonus, Korean Air SkyPass From December 1st 2022
Another one bites the dust: Just a week after Marriott Bonvoy ended the 5000 miles conversion bonus when transferring points to three partner airlines (AA, AV, DL), now Korean Air SkyPass is being axed as well.
Marriott has confirmed that they will end the 5000 miles conversion bonus when transferring Bonvoy Points to Korean Air SkyPass effective December 1, 2022.
This was first reported yesterday by FrequentMiler and we have contacted Marriott to confirm that the bonus will indeed end very soon for Korean Air as the fourth airline.
We covered Marriott’s initial cuts to the airline conversion program last month:
Marriott Bonvoy Points To Miles Conversion Bonus Ends With Three Airlines October 31, 2022
With this, three airlines were initially taken off the list of carriers for whom a 5,000 miles bonus will be provided when converting 60,000 Bonvoy points: American Airlines AAdvantage, Avianca LifeMiles and Delta SkyMiles.
With Marriott now taking off Korean Air SkyPass as well, they’re dealing another blow to the program feature.
You can access the Bonvoy website here to follow up on the current conversion options.
The Korean Air SkyPass withdrawal has now yet been made public on this site and there are only three weeks to go.
You can still convert points to miles at a 3:1 ratio with most airlines. When you convert 60,000 points, Marriott has bonused these conversions with 5,000 bonus miles (a total of 25,000 miles per 60,000 points).
Marriott Airline Partners
Previous Marriott Email To AAdvantage Members:
I’m quite concerned about further “enhancements” that Marriott is hinting about with its global airline program. It could very well be that Marriott doesn’t find it financially rewarding anymore having to buy 25,000 miles for every 60k Bonvoy points a member transfers to airline partners.
For sure, that’s much more expensive for Marriott than reimbursing their own properties for award night redemptions and therefore there isn’t really any motivation for them to entice members transfering points to miles. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see the 5,000 mile bonus go away entirely or even some more drastic changes.
Conclusion
Marriott Rewards used to have a great redemption option called Travel Packages that allowed you to redeem a reasonable number of points (270,000) for a week in a hotel combined with 120,000 airline miles. These were first devalued after the program merger with SPG and then killed off altogether.
It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if the mileage transfer award option were soon to be further significantly “enhanced” and moved to something other than the generous 3:1 conversion ratio (Hilton has 10:1).
We have previously (just three weeks ago) confirmed with a Marriott spokesperson that this change only affects three partners (AA, AV ,DL) but now another airline (KE) has been axed.
