Finally, Some Good News From Marriott/SPG

Finally, some good news out of the merger between Marriott and Starwood. One of the perks of the old program was that you could transfer points to dozens of airlines AND get a 5,000 mile bonus when you transferred 20,000 points. 
But United Airlines was one of the few that didn't participate. In fact, under the old Starwood program, the transfer rate was actually 2:1. Boo! 
But now under the new program, United Airlines is actually rewarding you with an additional 10% bonus when you transfer points to miles. 
For example, if you transfer 60,000 points (remember when the merger occurred, all points were tripled so this is the same 20,000 points from the old program), you get a bonus of 15,000 points (same 5,000 bonus from before) AND a 10% extra bonus. That's another 2,500 miles. 

Marriott/SPG 60,000 points + 15,000 bonus + 10% United bonus = 27,500 United miles

Now that's finally some good news! My old trick was transferring Starwood points to Singapore Airlines to book a United flight. But sometimes Singapore Airlines can get you on the taxes. United does not charge the same taxes AND you get the 10% bonus. Woohoo! That's how we do it at almostFREEfamilytravel!