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The Offer
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- You can currently receive a 30% transfer bonus when you transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Hilton Honors points. Normally you can transfer 1,000 MR points and receive 2,000 Hilton Honors points, during this promotion you’ll receive 2,600 Hilton instead (1:2.6)
The Fine Print
- Valid through 12/31/2023
Our Verdict
American Express points are even more valuable than Hilton points even at a 1:2.6 rate so I don’t think this is worth considering.
Just booked 5 days in Boston. 2.5 cents per point! amazing
With the last 2 years devaluation of points, I’m surprised there are good spots like others have pointed out, but I’ve never seen an all inclusive hilton in the US/Canada, unless people are finding them in PR/Mexico? please share if you know any in the US. I’m sitting on some Amex points and was thinking of just transfering to Marriott bonvoy as I use them more.
The end of this article suggests this isn’t more valuable than MR points, but think that always depends on the situation. If you have a Hilton stay in mind, definitely consider it.
For instance, I had already booked a Hilton hotel for $335, but after taxes and fees it finished at $440. I was able to cancel that just now and instead I transferred 28k MR to redeem the very same room for 72k hilton honors. No fees. No taxes. That’s a 1.6 cent redemption rate and it is real money straight back into my pocket. Not some inflated redemption rate based on a business class flight price that I never would have bought anyway.
While I agree with the sentiment (and you have a GREAT name!), I think the math is a little off???
$335 / 28,000 = $0.0119 (ie, almost 1.2 cpp)
Lemme know if I missed something!
What you missed is that in this case there’s no taxes or fees charged on the points stay, so you have to divide the $440, which is the total with taxes and fees, not the $335, which is pre-tax/pre-fee cash cost, to validly compare the cash cost to the points cost.
You have to use $440, as you also save paying the taxes.
The room is advertised at $335 but they added on resort fees and taxes that brought the total to $440. Those taxes and fees are not charged when using points, so I got $440 back in my pocket by cancelling the cash reservation and changing to points. That’s why I used the $440 number.
I just got 5.4 cents per amex point out of this transfer by redeeming for Waldorf Los Cabos which goes for $2500 per night early next year and on points is 120k hilton points per night. Could have purchased hilton points at the current rate of .5 cents per point but have already maxed out my purchase limit for the year. This 120k redemption would basically be a matter of either buying the points for $600 (120k * .005)10000 or transferring about 46k amex points plus the 30% bonus (46k * 2.6). Its debatable what iss better option to do here.
Lol, it never worth to stay in a expensive hotel during travel, u can always find $100 level one and spend ur money on admission tickets or so.
Lol your general statement when depends on kind of trip your doing. Yes expensive hotels aren’t worth it for visits to explore London or Paris but in this case it’s just a nice resort trip for a couple days relaxation and only point of the “travel”.
Your statement would also imply that for cruises should take the cheapest one over a high quality one
There’s no “never” and no “always” about this. There are places in the world where ALL the hotels are expensive on a particular date. This is especially common in more isolated places near major attractions, but far from major cities.
Maybe wherever YOU go you can always find $100ish hotels, but that isn’t always the case. And many of those ultra-cheap hotels don’t have amenities that some people want or even need for a particular stay.
Let me point out that in my travels, which are mostly either to national/state parks or friends/family (who don’t live in expensive places), finding an expensive Hilton to redeem a free night at, at great value, is a challenge. But that’s because most of my travel is to inexpensive places.
But a couple years ago, I wanted to hike a coastal trail in a protected area, Torrey Pines Nature Reserve in the San Diego area, to get photographs at sunrise, for which the parking lot is closed at that hour in winter (when the angle of the sun is best) and the only way to get to the trail before sunrise is from two hotels, one of them an expensive Hilton (the other an expensive non-chain hotel). So of course that’s where I used my award night that year. Because of the parking lot for the trial being closed, there were no other options given that my whole goal for the visit was to get daybreak photographs.
However, that’s a rare situation for me, to have ONLY expensive hotels and yet one of them being a Hilton.
So it always depends on the situation, and that’s why saying things like “always” and “never” makes no sense. You should change your wording to words like “usually” and “rarely”.
This works really well on higher end hilton properties. Combine it with 4 night redemption with fifth night free you cant beat the value from it.
FYI: This deal does not show up on my wife’s account. She has Amex Savings & Checking with an MR points balance, but no MR points credit cards right now. Just a Hilton card.
I am sitting at all inclusive zHilton right now thanks to this. Upgraded to oceanfront high floor thanks to Diamond, it was 500k for 6 nights. Basically one biz platinum bonus plus spend.
What hotel are you at?
Amex transfer to Hilton is underrated for those conscious of out of pocket spend. Yeah, Biz Class to Europe is pretty sweet but comes with a ton of other out of pocket expenses. As a cheap churner with a family, a beach Embassy Suites in Florida or PR where with no taxes on flights and some meals covered while getting 1.5+CPP on the original amex points is pretty nice.
What are better ways to use Amex points?
Laziest way is Delta basic economy flights, very straightforward and ok redemption value.
Best would be international flights with transfer partners.
Virgin or FlyingBlue are good.
+1 for flying blue. Took the family of 6 to Europe one way in KLM business for like 59.5k points each (only 48k Amex points as there was a transfer bonus). Even coach would have been several hundred bucks so I was happy to burn some Amex points. If you’re flexible on the day of the week, Flying Blue has great economy or business class redemptions. Downside is taxes are higher on biz, like $200 something.
How does everyone get the best redemption value for MR points? I’ve read all the popular sites’ valuation estimates, but the sweet spots that get to these 2.0 to 2.8 cent valuations are typically airline transfer partners and/or specific flight routes. If I don’t have a Platinum card and am not in need of more airline miles, what’s next best redemption? I am a hotel heavy traveler (lots of weekend getaways within driving distance), so this doesn’t seem terrible. I’m not a Hilton fan due to their historically poor valuation, but even if you see them as worth only 0.4 to 0.5 cents each, this 2.6X multiplier at least puts them over the 1 cent threshold.
Usually biz class airfare. Last i did airfrance to/from CDG – Singapore for 60-70k
Yes Flying Blue (KLM and Air France) have great redemption rates and Amex frequently gives a 25-30% bonus on transfers.