American Express launches a Hilton Honors transfer bonus from Membership Rewards

American Express has just launched a 25% transfer bonus when you move your Membership Rewards points into Hilton Honors points.

Let’s see if this is enough to move the needle or not.

Which American Express cards offer Membership Rewards points?

The key cards we cover which offer Membership Rewards points, at a rate of 1 point per £1 spent, are:

What is the transfer bonus?

The standard transfer rate from Membership Rewards to Hilton Honors is 1:2.

Under this promotion, it is 2:5 (ie 1 to 2.5) as you can see here. This means that you are getting 25% more Hilton Honors points than you would usually get.

What are the terms and conditions?

Here is the small print from the Membership Rewards website:

“Minimum transfer is 200 Membership Rewards points and maximum transfer of 499,950 points. Points need to be transferred in increments of 50 points. Redeem for this exclusive offer from 04:00am GMT on 17 November 2020 to 11:59pm on 15 December 2020. Please note that your points will be transferred to your Hilton Honors account within five working days. Please allow up to two weeks for the additional Hilton Honors Bonus Points to be awarded. Hilton Honors Bonus Points do not count towards elite tier qualification.”

Looking at this, it appears that the offer is open to everyone. You will see it clearly on the Membership Rewards website:

Is it worth transferring?

In general, with any bonus, 25% should not be a game changer for you.

50%, probably. 100%, definitely. However, 25% shouldn’t be enough to persuade you to do something that you wouldn’t otherwise have done.

This is because your estimate of the value you will get from the points is always going to an educated guess, and you could easily be 25% off.

My standard valuations of hotel points are:

• Hilton Honors – 0.33p (I explain why here)
• Marriott Bonvoy – 0.5p
• Radisson Rewards – 0.33p

You can easily do a lot better and a lot worse than these numbers, but this is the cut off at which I am happy to spend points rather than pay cash.

Translating these to the standard Membership Rewards transfer rates, we get:

• Hilton Honors: 1 Amex point = 2 Hilton points so 1 Amex point = 0.66p

• Marriott Bonvoy: 1 Amex point = 1.5 Marriott points so 1 Amex point = 0.75p

• Radisson Rewards: 1 Amex points = 3 Radisson points so 1 Amex point = 1p

If you adjust the Hilton Honors figure to reflect the 25% bonus, the value jump from 0.66p to 0.82p per Amex point.

This is still poorer than a Radisson Rewards transfer. For most people, it is also poorer than a transfer into Avios or another frequent flyer programme at 1:1. Most HfP readers would value an Avios as 1p+.

If you have an Amex Businesss Gold or Business Platinum card …..

Until 31st December, Amex is willing to buy back (for want of a better way of putting it) your Membership Rewards points for 0.9p each – see here.

You’d get a better deal selling your points back to Amex than taking Hilton Honors points, even before you factor in the flexibility of cash vs points.

Conclusion

It’s always good to see American Express transfer bonuses.

They have been few and far between in recent years, but Amex just bought $1 BILLION of Hilton points at a massive discount as part of Hilton’s bailout. This is clearly how they intend to use them up.

If you tend to convert your Membership Rewards points to Hilton anyway, this is an offer to jump on. It may offer value for other people too, but you should have a specific high value redemption in mind first.

---

How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards (December 2021)

There are various ways of earning Hilton Honors points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Radisson Rewards Gold and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

Did you know that the Virgin Atlantic credit cards are a great way of earning Hilton Honors points? Two Virgin Points can be converted into three Hilton Honors points. The Virgin Atlantic cards are the only Visa or Mastercard products in the UK which can indirectly earn Hilton Honors points. You can apply here.

You can also earn Hilton Honors points indirectly with American Express Gold (20,000 bonus points), the American Express Rewards Credit Card (5,000 bonus points) and – for small business owners – American Express Business Gold (20,000 bonus points) and Business Platinum (40,000 bonus points).

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Hilton Honors points. 

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)