Using Marriott Points for Airline Tickets (2019)

Credit Card Reference, Introduction to 'Transferable' Reward Points

While it is a hotel program, Marriott has very attractive transfer rates to dozens of different frequent flyer programs, and therefore can be used like the big three transferable credit card point programs (Chase’s Ultimate Rewards, Amex’s Membership Rewards, and Citi’s ThankYou Rewards).

Marriott partners with (by far) the most airline partners and provides a 25% bonus when you transfer blocks of 60,000 points at a time. You can often get more value by transferring your Marriott points to use for frequent flyer tickets, than you would by using them for free hotel rooms.

However, it is significantly harder to earn Marriott points, than it is to earn Membership Rewards, Ultimate Rewards, and ThankYou Rewards points.

The other potential drawback of the program is that transfers to frequent flyer programs can take a couple of days, and sometimes much longer. This delay can cause you to miss the opportunity to book available award space, and in the worst case, strand your points in an airline program you no longer want to take advantage of.

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Airline transfer partners
Transfers basics

You'll receive 1 mile for every 3 points, with a 25% transfer bonus for blocks of 60,000 points. This is the same conversion rate as the old SPG program (as each SPG point transferred into 3 Marriott points), and is a better conversion rate than the old Marriott program.
You can transfer between 3,000 - 240,000 points per day (for 1,000 - 100,000 miles). Once you've exceeded the 3,000 point minimum, you can transfer the exact amount of points you need. If you need more than 100,000 miles, you can transfer points on subsequent dates.
Most airline transfers take a few days or longer. Some transfers can take a few weeks, or in rare cases, even longer. According to the official terms, transfers can take up to six weeks. This makes it difficult to take advantage of limited award availability, when compared to programs like Ultimate Rewards, where transfer happen instantly. By the time the points make it to the partner, the award space may no longer be available. Your miles can become stranded with the partner program, because you can’t transfer the points back to Marriott. You can try to put a "hold" on your tickets, but this isn't always possible,, especially for so long.

For the best available information on transfer times, check out this article from The Points Guy.

You can only transfer to your own frequent flyer account. From there you can usually purchase a ticket for someone else.
With Marriott's Hotel + Air packages you can get a discounted 7-night hotel certificate along with your miles. You have up to a year to use your certificate—you don't have to make the hotel reservation when you transfer your points. Under the old Marriott program these packages were incredibly lucrative. Now, they are only interesting if you can get good value from the hotel certificate. Use Marriott Hotel + Air Packages to Get More Value From Your Points.
You probably don't want to use a Marriott credit card for your spending. Base earning rates are 2x Marriott points per dollar. Even if you can take full advantage of the 25% transfer bonus, you'll need to spend $30,000 to earn 25,000 miles (.833 miles per dollar). With the Ultimate Rewards combo or the Amex Everyday Preferred card, you can earn 1.5 Ultimate Rewards or Membership Rewards points per dollar. At that rate, you'd only need spend $16,667 to earn 25,000 miles. And you'll have many more opportunities to earn even higher reward rates on bonus category spending.

While you probably don't want to generate points by using these cards for spending, transferring your Marriott points to a frequent flyer program can be a great use of points you earn from signing up for the cards.

On the other hand, you can transfer your Marriott points to many more frequent flyer programs. If you need to accumulate miles in a program that isn't associated with the main credit card programs, Marriott may be your only option. However, even then, you might be better off earning cash back with another card and simply purchasing the airline miles or Marriott points you need. For example, if you can earn 2.5% cash back or value the points you earn from other credit card at 2.5 cents per dollar, buying airline miles at up to 3 cent per dollar is a better deal than earning 2 Marriott points per dollar.