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With the SPG/Marriott Rewards changes now fast approaching, I suspect that I’m not the only one hastily ordering a final Marriott Travel Package or two. These packages offer a 5-7 night stay and a bucket load of airline miles – eg. 120,000 American or Alaska Miles + a 7 night Category 1-5 Marriott hotel stay for 270,000 Marriott Points.

One of the biggest frustrations with points/miles in general, is spotting the perfect award space for flights you want to book, transferring points across into airline miles, then seeing the award space get snapped up before the miles hit your account. When it happens to you, it really does sting!

Therefore, anything you can do help make these sort of transfers happen as quickly as possible is worth knowing about – and fortunately there is a simple little tip to speed up transfers from Marriott Rewards.

When you ring, all you have to do is ask the agent if you can pay a fee to expedite the transfer and they should answer that, for the princely sum of $20 (~£15.50), the process will be completed within 3 working days. 3 days obviously isn’t ideal, but it’s an awful lot better than the “up to 2 weeks” that standard transfers can take!

This is particularly useful if you are transferring to American AAdvantage, because you can put awards on hold for up to 5 days, even if you have no Miles in your account at the time. Simply call AA to put your award on hold first to secure the space, then ring Marriott to make the transfer and pay to expedite it. If all goes to plan, your freshly minted Miles should be in your AA account with time to spare – at which point you just call AA again to confirm and pay for your award.

Bottom line

I made use of this option myself late last week – hope it helps someone!