Update: This article contains mentions of the Hilton Honors Surpass card whose terms have expired and are in the process of being updated. All other offers reflect accurate offer terms. Learn more about the current offers here.
The US American Express Membership Rewards program has just launched a transfer bonus that has the potential to be valuable.
Transfer Amex points to Hilton Honors with 50% bonus
Through April 14, 2020, the Amex Membership Rewards program is offering a 50% bonus when you transfer points to Hilton Honors. Points ordinarily transfer at a 1:2 ratio, meaning that during this promotion points transfer at a 1:3 ratio.
You can expect points to generally transfer instantly. See this post for the best credit cards for earning Amex points.
Should you transfer Amex points to Hilton?
Personally I value Amex points at ~1.7 cents each, while I value Hilton Honors points at ~0.5 cents each. A 1:3 transfer ratio makes this a nearly “even” transfer by my valuation of points.
It’s worth noting that my valuation of points is intended to be conservative, and there’s always ways to get hugely outsized value by using points properly.
Hilton does often sell points for 0.5 cents each, and I’ve written about some of the best ways to redeem Hilton Honors points. If you don’t otherwise have easy ways to earn Hilton points, I think there are lots of circumstances where it could make a lot of sense to transfer Amex points to Hilton with a specific use in mind:
- The Waldorf Astoria Maldives and Los Cabos can be booked for 125K Hilton points per night, which is ~42K Amex points per night
- The Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills and Amsterdam can be booked for 95K Hilton points per night, which is ~32K Amex points per night
Those are just a couple of examples. I don’t think this will always be worth it, but with a specific use in mind, and after crunching the numbers, I do think this promotion has the potential to be worthwhile.
Earn points with Hilton Amex Cards
There are so many great uses of Amex points, so personally if at all possible I’d try to earn Hilton Honors points through other methods. In addition to being able to buy points outright, it’s worth being aware of the co-branded Hilton Amex credit cards, including the:
- Hilton Honors American Express Card (review)
- Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card (review)
- Hilton Honors American Express Business Card (review)
- Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card (review)
Those are some great ways to rack up Hilton points.
Bottom line
For the next several weeks, Amex is offering a 50% bonus when you transfer points to Hilton Honors, meaning the transfer ratio is 1:3.
This has the potential to be a good deal with a specific use in mind, though personally I’d rather acquire Hilton points in other ways, and save my Amex points for something else.
Do you plan on transferring Amex points to Hilton with a 50% bonus?
Somewhat related – in your most recent Hilton Surpass post, many readers said they put $15,000 of dining/grocery spend on that card to earn a weekend night, plus Hilton points. This transfer bonus underlies the risk of that strategy. If someone where to put $15,000 of dining/grocery spend on an Amex Gold instead, you get 60,000 MR points. That translates to 180,000 Hilton points under this transfer bonus (which Amex runs reliably once a year). I would rather have 180,000 Hilton points (don’t expire, can be used any day of the week) than 90,000 Hilton Points plus an expiring weekend certificate. The math changes if Hilton starts introducing more 125,000 per night properties.
@Anthony You make a good point, but I’m not sure you can reliably expect to get a 50% transfer bonus annually. Hilton seems to target many of these bonuses.
I agree, the 50% appears to be unique? Other transfers have a targeted range of 10-50%.
I realize the redemption for airline transfer are huge, but I have a lot of MRs. Last year, I got the Ameriprise Plat with 60KMRs for $550. If I transfer, I get 180K Hilton points or 0.003 per point (Plat AF. Not to include perks) which is better than Hilton best sale of 100% or 0.005.
I completely disagree. No one should ever do this. Valuing Hilton points at 0.5 cents each is really aggressive — it highlights a handful of niche use cases. You’re not going to get 0.5 cents of value regularly. The median redemption is 0.4 cents each. Seriously. This is valuing your Amex points at 1.2 cents each. Ick.
@Stvr
Not true at all. Don’t forget about 5th night free on points! I’m eyeing a property that will get me about 2.4cpp (per MR) with this bonus for a 5 night points stay. And that’s comparing against the lowest non-refundable rate, whereas points are flexible.
I’m not sure why people are so against this when you can get almost as much value as UR to Hyatt. You can only get more than that when flying international business or first anyway. I understand that Hilton point is cheap to buy but if you already have MR and don’t wand to spend cash. Those that argue earning HH point on Hilton Amex is easier than MR, so is earning Hyatt point on Chase World of Hyatt card.
I think overall this bonus is really good for people who are eyeing top hotels where you can get around 1.8c redemption, especially at Conrad or Wardolf Astoria. Otherwise, for easy fixed value redemption, I’d wait for one of those Delta vacation sales in the summer when 1 Skymile can be redeemed for 2c
I’d happily exchange my 40k MR points for 120k Hilton points. Unfortunately I’m in the UK so I will just live vicariously through you guys instead.
Moving to Singapore soon though, where the market is more interesting.