Marriott Rewards Deceives Members On Points To Miles Conversions

Several readers have contacted us regarding issues they have with Marriott Rewards points to airline miles conversions that used to work without a glitch with both legacy Marriott and SPG programs (like many other things).

Seems that now these transfers can take weeks and Marriott Rewards shortchanges members on number of miles that are actually moved to airline accounts.

You can access Marriott’s page to points to miles conversions here.

Here’s an email from a reader Marriott Rewards to Alaska:

Is there any kind like a consumer protection board for me to submit complaints regarding Marriott Rewards?

I transferred 60,000 Marriott points to my Alaska account on 4 September 2018. I found out that I only received 24,998 miles in my Alaska, whereas I should received 25,000 miles according to Marriott points to airlines miles transfer guidelines.

I submitted complaints to Marriott via email a few times, none of my complaints get responded from Marriott side.

I tried to reach Marriott via Twitter, but up until now I am not receive any assurance that my issue would be solved anytime soon.

Perhaps lost of 2 miles isn’t a big issue for some. But for me it is, I can’t satisfy my desired redemption because of this issue. And it’s my right as a customer I guess.

I would really grateful if you can help me out or perhaps advising me what to do in this situation.

And here’s another experience from a transfer to Aeroplan:

I originally wrote you on October 7, 2018. I thought I should update you that Marriott Rewards finally transferred points to Aeroplan as of today. It took about 3 weeks since September 17. So if you get any more questions about this, it looks like the Marriott “Transfer Desk” finally came through. Interestingly instead of 20000 points being transferred I got 19998???? I am not alone, as others members on Flyer talk also had the same odd number of points transferred to Aeroplan. Not about to quibble over 2 points, but it would be interesting to find out what happened to all those points which could add up over time?

Go figure??? Now I just have to wait for Aeroplan to give me the 35% bonus points. after contacting Aeroplan, they have said it will take 4-6 weeks. Not sure if that is from September 17 or from today October 9, 2018.

You would say that normally couple of miles is not huge deal but:

1. Members often convert exact number of miles needed for an award like the member had tried to do on the Alaska MileagePlan example and now is 2 miles short.

2. There are often conversion promotions that may require member to hit certain thresholds or there won’t be any bonus. Those two miles may mean whether you get another 10,000 miles from the airline program or not.

I forwarded one of these emails to Marriott spokesperson but didn’t hear anything back.

UPDATE: We received the following statement:

There was a transfer issue for four airlines that was corrected last month. I’ve asked to our call center to quickly respond to the member.

Here’s what readers should do if they defrauded by Marriott Rewards:

1. Open a case with the Attorney General of the state you are living in (United States) against Marriott

2. Contact consumer ombudsman in your country and ask them to open a case against Marriott International in your jurisdiction.

Conclusion

There is no excuse why Marriott Rewards is not transferring the exact promised number of miles to partner programs. The difference is not huge but can make difference for many due to issues mentioned above.

Marriott has mostly given up on customer service and only way to get their attention at the moment unfortunately is to get regulator involved.