Combining Marriott Points with Spouse for Award Booking

This post is geared for newbies in the miles and points hobby.

My upcoming trip to Asia is just a few short weeks away! The final detail I needed to nail down was accommodations for a one-night layover in Hong Kong. Hotel prices for that night weren’t outrageous, and I found a few options for around $100. However, since I’m not using hotel points for the majority of my nights in Thailand, I wanted to save as much cash as possible. Naturally, I turned to loyalty points to see what I could book.

Combining Marriott Points with Spouse

My top two hotel choices based on location were Marriott properties. My husband and I don’t have any Marriott credit cards, and it’s not a currency we accumulate regularly. But, both of us have accumulated some Marriott Bonvoy points over the past few years from organic stays.

However, neither of us had enough points to book an award night on our own. I’d have to combine our points to book the free night. Thankfully, Marriott makes it easy to do that.

It’s free to combine Marriott Bonvoy points with another member. There are a few restrictions:

• Transfer up to 100,000 points per year in increments of 1000
• Receive up to 500,000 points per year
• Both accounts must have been opened more than 30 days (if an active account) or 90 days (if inactive account)
• Maximum transfer frequency is twice per month or up to six times per calendar year
• Members don’t have to be related or live at same address

The process was quick and easy. In my husband’s account, we navigated to “Manage Points” and then “Transfer Points.”

He entered my Marriott Bonvoy account number and name. He did have to verify via text or email before proceeding. Although the transfer can take up to 24 hours, it was instant in our case.

And just like that, I booked an award stay in Hong Kong with a free airport shuttle.

Unfortunately, not all hotel and airline loyalty programs allow you to transfer points to another member for free. Out of the major hotel programs, Marriott and Hilton are the easiest and have the least restrictions for sharing points.