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Through November 30th, United is offering a transfer bonus on hotel points converted to United miles. The transfer bonus is being marketed as a 30% bonus, though in truth it’s 30%….or maybe more….or maybe less.
The Deal
- A 30%-ish bonus on points-to-miles conversions from hotel points to United MileagePlus
- Maximum bonus is 25,000 miles
- Ends 11/30/17
- Direct link to promotion
Quick Thoughts
If you’re like me, when you hear “transfer bonus on hotel points to airline miles”, the first 3 words into your mind are “Marriott….Travel….Packages”. And for good reason — those packages provide great value on their own; transfer bonuses often provide the chance to get really outsized value. And as you may remember, Marriott offers a more generous chart for Travel Packages in conjunction with United. Here’s the chart:
The most commonly compared tier is the top right corner of the chart, where you could redeem 270K Marriott points for 132K United Miles + a certificate for a 7-night Category 1-5 stay. A transfer bonus would stack on top of those miles. However, this time around, United is capping the maximum bonus at 25K miles. That means that if you were to redeem for that particular package, you would receive 157K United miles. That’s not a bad deal, but it’s not a 30% bonus on 132K (it’s only about a 19% bonus).
Of course, you could get closer to the “maximum” bonus percentage with a 7 night + 77K mile package. In that case, you would end up with a full 30% transfer bonus good for 100,100 United miles. Whether or not this makes sense to you likely depends on many factors (your stash of Marriott points, how you’ll use the certificate, your plans for the miles, etc).
Any way you look at it, the Marriott Travel Packages are usually the only transfer option to consider from hotels to United (since SPG has such a poor transfer ratio to United….and you could instead transfer SPG->Marriott–>United).
Higher transfers from Club Carlson and Choice
In addition to the 30% transfer bonus, Club Carlson and Choice are sweetening the pot a bit further. From the terms of the promotion, the bold print is mine for emphasis:
(b) Club Carlson – At the conclusion of the promotion, all miles earned by each member from Qualifying Activity with Club Carlson will be multiplied by 100%, instead of 30%, to determine the eligible bonus up to a maximum of 25,000 Bonus Miles. The incremental bonus shall be provided by Club Carlson, and MileagePlus shall have no liability for any bonus in excess of 30%.
(c) Choice Privileges – During the Promotional Period, Choice Privileges will allow their members to convert Choice Privileges points to MileagePlus award miles at a ratio of 5,000 Choice Privileges points to 2,500 MileagePlus award miles (instead of 5,000 points-to-1,000 miles). The increased conversion ratio shall be provided by Choice Privileges, and MileagePlus shall have no liability for such conversion offer. The award miles earned as a result of such a transfer will be eligible for a 30% bonus, if all other offer terms are met. For example, 5,000 Choice Privileges points would convert to 3,250 award miles if both the increased conversion ratio (resulting in 2,500 miles) and 30% bonus (resulting in 750 miles) are applicable.
(d) Bonus Miles will be credited into the member’s account on or before January 30, 2017.The maximum bonus miles that can be earned by a member under this promotion is 25,000. MileagePlus will not be responsible for technical problems with partner miles postings, or failures or delays in miles postings by hotel partners, that would render any points to miles converted as ineligible under this promotion.
As you can see, you’ll earn a 100% bonus on miles earned from Club Carlson conversions and you’ll earn 3,250 miles for every 5,000 Choice points. The normal Club Carlson-to-United ratio is 10:1 (and only with increments of 2K/10K/50K/100K), so the double here probably won’t entice most people to transfer. On the other hand, the Choice ratio might be more intriguing for those flush with Choice points.
Bottom line
Converting hotel points to airline miles yields poor value in most instances. There are two general exceptions: transfers from Starwood (but not to United) and Marriott Travel packages. In this case, the transfer bonus is a bit less valuable with the top-tier packages, but may still be worth it to some. We have added this to our resource page for Current point transfer bonuses.
H/T: Reddit
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I did not get the correct conversion for the choice to united, instead i got the conversion of 5000 to 1000 points. At the time that I converted the points the site is down and I called choice for them to convert it, reassuring me that the conversion rate of 5000 to 2500 points will be applied. I am very disappointed to Choice now. I do not know how I can remedy this, I ended up with 16900 points instead of 42250 points I called Choice and they said that my redemption does not qualify since I called rather than did it online. I am still to hear from them again
Any suggestion on how to remedy this?
Ouch, that really sucks on Choice’s part. You can try their Twitter team to see if they can help.
I also registered and transferred for the Marriott hotel + air package with United Mileage Plus. Called MP to see why the bonus points had not posted and was told they will post in 6-8 weeks. We’ll see.
Anyone know how long the bonus points take to post? I successfully registered for the offer (and took a screenshot of the this) then transferred via the Marriott hotels + Air package – base points have posted, but almost a week later no sign of the bonus points.
I called mileageplus and they told me the bonus will be posted by the end of Jan 2018…what a long wait…
[…] Transfer bonus to United: 30%, more or less […]
Sorry. Just read the other posts and realized this has already been brought up. Can anyone confirm that a certain status level is required to be eligible for the 30% bonus?
Thanks
Do you know what status level is required from United to allow the transfer bonus? I was unable to take advantage due to lower level status. Might be good to mention that.
Thanks
Really enjoy your site!
[…] now tack on the current United Airlines hotel to miles transfer bonus promo (details here). With that promo (don’t forget to register!), you can transfer 5,000 Choice points into […]
Same issue here, link appears to be broken with the 30% not showing and it say my Mileage Plus number is ineligible. I contacted the Mileage Plus center through the contact form on the website, usually that does not provide much results though.
When I click the link it looks inactive because the 30% off is no longer showing and when I submit my membership number it’s showing as not eligible…. anyone else getting the 30% to not show on the page?
Same story for me. I swear I clicked thru and registered on this yesterday :/
I’m hoping that the website is a little broken for right now. I see the BONUS_VALUE tokens as well
Thanks for confirming it’s not just me. I registered a while back but today when attempting to sign my wife up for the promo I ran into that message and I wasn’t sure if it was because she had a new account.
I’ll wait it out and see what happens. Might even be worth emailing support to let them know.
if you figure out a good support contact to go through, lmk.
seems to be working now (i had registered before)
@ phat
Thanks! I read your message in my email inbox and sure enough it worked and I’m now registered.
When entering my milegeplus number for the offer it said I am not eligible for this offer. Anyone else?
Are also noticing the following verbiage when clicking the link?
“Enjoy {{BONUS_VALUE}}% bonus award miles when you convert hotel points
For a limited time, your points-to-miles conversions can earn you a special bonus. Exchange hotel points for miles and earn {{BONUS_VALUE}}% bonus award miles, up to {{BONUS_VALUE_MAX}}.”
Yes I got the same verbiage.
[…] United 30% bonus article […]
[…] you’re not looking to use these for stays, they can still be valuable in conjunction with the current United MileagePlus transfer bonus. Through that bonus, you can convert 5,000 Choice points to 3,250 United miles. See Greg’s […]
Is there a limit on how many travel packages you can get from the same Marriott account to the same UA account?
Also, can you confirm that the 30% bonus UA miles will get poosted after Nov 30? It looks like they were posted within a week of transfer for some folks (not the case for me, my transfer was done more than 2 weeks back)
[…] deals happen… As we reported last week, through November 30th, United is offering a 30% bonus on points transferred from hotel programs […]
The Choice bonus is totally great! I will receive 3250 miles (normally just 1000 miles) for just 5000 points. Sweet deal!