American Express is once again offering a 40% bonus when transferring Membership Rewards to Hilton Honors. The offer doesn’t appear to be showing in everyone’s accounts, something that Hilton and Amex have done more and more over the last couple of years.
The Deal
- Get a 40% bonus when transferring Amex Membership Rewards to Hilton Honors
- Promo is currently targeted
Key Terms
- Expires May 31, 2024.
- 1000 Membership Rewards points =
20002800 Hilton Honors Points
Quick Thoughts
This 40% transfer bonus means every 1,000 points you transfer becomes 2,800 Hilton Honors points. Hilton sometimes sells its points for 0.5cpp, so if you were to buy 2,800 points during one of those sales, it would cost you $14. So, if you were to transfer while this bonus is being offered, it effectively means you’re getting ~1.4cpp of value from your Membership Rewards based on what you could pay for those points. That’s not incredible value (as you can often get much better value by transferring to airline partners), but it’s not bad. If you need Hilton points for a high value redemption, this is a decent good option…assuming that you’re targeted.
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The HH site says you can only buy 80k points per year.
When I have a lot of points I like to top off my account to 360k during a transfer bonus. That way I’m ready to use a 5th night free on a 90k property if there’s an opportunity.
I don’t have the offer but I see the following on my account, “Select Platinum Card Members eligible for a 40% Hilton Honors transfer bonus may experience a delay in receiving the additional bonus points. Points will be issued, and we apologize for this delay.” So they’re just rubbing this in my face now.
How do I tell if I am targeted? This might actually be good for me
I think this one is for all holders of the personal platinum.
No, it’s not.
https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/newsroom/articles/products-and-services/american-express-celebrates-40-years-of-the-platinum-card–by-gi.html
“Platinum Card 40% Point Transfer Offer: Platinum Card Members get 40% more Hilton Honors™ Points when you transfer Membership Rewards® points through from May 9 to May 31. Offer is only available to current Platinum Card Members on a Platinum Account opened on or before April 20, 2024. Terms apply.”
I spoke with Amex and they confirmed that it’s available to all personal platinum accounts and they are working on fixing the issue of it not showing up for everyone. If you go ahead and transfer without seeing it on your account, they will award the bonus points later (but expect some delays).
I just want to know what happened to Avios transfer bonuses. It used to be offered at least twice a year. They just suddenly stopped. I have been waiting and waiting!
I appreciate these updates and find them useful. However, I find the editorial bias towards airline transfers vs. hotels to be… interesting?
For example in this Post “it effectively means you’re getting ~1.4cpp of value from your Membership Rewards based on what you could pay for those points. That’s not incredible value (as you can often get much better value by transferring to airline partners)“
and yet: Buy Air Canada Aeroplan points with an 85% bonus (1.38c each)By Tim Steinke –
May 3, 2024
and would note that a Podcast was dedicated to best uses of American Express Membership Awards points sited Aeroplan and ANA miles as “the best”. Why the double standard? Are you valuing the offer again what you could buy the points for or something else? I don’t understand why one Amex transfer is really great and the other one Meh”, when they cost virtually the same when you purchase them on discount. I think it really comes down to the way you are considering one transfer ( transfer vs. buying the points– Hilton) vs. another where you do not (e.g., Avianca /Aeroplan, etc.).
Air Canada points can have incredible value – 75k for a 5k business class ticket. The same value cannot be had with Hilton, even with the transfer bonus
Nah, no one’s here is paying they much for a biz ticket, so that cpp valuation is meaningless. Plus, aeroplans change and cancellation fees are terrible
I’m not arguing against the value of HAVING Aeroplan points or other airline points, or that they can be put to great value. My point is (no pun intended) once you’ve decided a programs points are worth HAVING, and the price you pay in $$ is essentially equal to another prgrams same, why would transferring points to program represent “the best use of…” and the other get dinged because you can purchase them for .05c and represents only a 1.4 c value… the cost value is virtually identical. I’m calling out a mixed metaphor between pointing out the cost of
ACQUIRING vs what you can get once you have them. Of course if you can’t get much for your points or you don’t value the offering so much, then they are not worth HAVING– for you, which has nothing to do with the cost of acquiring them.
Finally, I’m sure I’m not the only one (and Greg just wrote a lengthy post on the value of Hilton honors points) on placing/finding good to great value at Hiltons higher end properties ( which just like your Aeroplan 75K points for a 5k flight, takes some effort to find).
I don’t look at these as an either/or proposition; I look at it as they both have a place in my travel points toolkit.
This is a really intriguing point. If Aeroplan points could often be bought for 1.4cpp then, arguably, Aeroplan should be considered just an “ok” transfer option since you’d only be getting 1.4 cents per point value vs. buying points. A big difference from the Hilton situation, though, is that Aeroplan point sales aren’t as common as Hilton 0.5 cpp sales. So you can’t count on being able to buy Aeroplan for 1.4cpp. Now Lifemiles is another story since they frequently sell their points for less than 1.4cpp…