American Express Membership Rewards is currently offering a 30% transfer bonus when you transfer points to Hilton.
The Deal
- American Express Membership Rewards is offering a 30% bonus when you transfer points to Hilton Honors. Ordinarily, the transfer ratio is 1,000 Membership Rewards points to 2,000 Hilton Honors points. With the bonus, 1,000 Membership Rewards points becomes 2,600 Hilton Honors points.
Key Terms
- Redeem for this exclusive offer from 12:00 a.m MT on 9/1/2024 to 11:59 p.m MT on 9/30/2024, to receive 30% additional Hilton Honors Bonus Points.
- Please allow up to eight weeks for the additional Hilton Honors Bonus Points to be awarded.
- Hilton Honors Bonus Points do not count towards elite tier qualification.
Quick Thoughts
In the past, I had been pretty lukewarm on Hilton transfers since Hilton so frequently sells points for just 0.5cpp. Even with a transfer bonus, you’re not getting great value for Membership Rewards points. Keep in mind that it doesn’t matter if you’re redeeming for a hotel that costs $1,000 per night — if you could have purchased the points for half a cent per point, then a transfer from Amex is saving you the cost of purchasing the points, not the cost of the cash rate. For instance, if you transfer 100,000 Membership Rewards points to get 260,000 Hilton points, it usually makes more sense to consider the value as the cost to purchase that quantity of points ($1,300 when on sale, which happens frequently) rather than the cost of the room for which you redeem. In other words, you’re getting around 1.3c per point with the bonus, which is neither great nor totally unreasonable.
That said, there are limits as to the number of points you can purchase per year and if you’re primarily focused on keeping cash in your pocket, a transfer to Hilton with a transfer bonus can be reasonable enough. I like Hilton Honors points even more now than in recent years given the partnerships with Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) and AutoCamp and the ability to use points for standard rooms and get a 5th night free when redeeming points, etc.
If you have a specific near-term use in mind, a transfer bonus like this could be appealing.
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The way I think about transfers is, can I purchase the points I want for less than 1.2 cpp. I can cash out Schwab at 1.1 cpp and if I buy points, I would buy them on a card I’m earning a sign up bonus on, which provide conservatively a 10% return on spend. Those two combined get me to right around 1.2 cpp. Yes, I know I can game either the Chase Aeroplan or CSR to effectively cash out at higher returns but I don’t like gaming the purchase/return/pay yourself back stuff.
This Hilton bonus tips above my 1.2cpp mark, so if I needed Hilton, I’d buy some.
Nick, do you think transferring MR points to book a high-end SLH property (with 5th night free) makes sense here?
Reminder that Aeroplan points have been on sale several times this year for <1.3 points… so transferring straight up to Aeroplan ( or Lifemiles is) just ok when you could have bought hem on sale cheaply? Or is there a reason the cost of a poinr comparison just applies to Hilton in this situation?
Thanks
Woah I know Stephen Pepper for sure would disagree with your valuation of “1.3c per point” by using the cost to purchase the quantity of points as a metric of “value”. I like your way of thinking, Nick.
Assuming you have not already purchased the maximum points per year as you stated in the next paragraph.
Even if you maxed out on purchasing Hilton points for the year, you can create a second Hilton account, buy the points, and then transfer the points for free to your main Hilton account.