United has just launched a promotion, offering a bonus when you convert hotel points into United MileagePlus miles. This is an offer we tend to see from the program once per year. I won’t bury the lede — I’d argue there are few situations where this is worth taking advantage of, though everyone can make their own decision.
In this post:
Transfer hotel points to United MileagePlus with 25% bonus
For the month of June, United MileagePlus is offering a 25% bonus when you convert hotel points into airline miles. The bonus applies for transfers made between June 1 and June 30, 2026, and you receive a flat 25% bonus, with limited restrictions (noted below).
You can earn up to 25,000 bonus MileagePlus miles through this promotion. Registration is required prior to making a transfer, and you can earn bonus miles for any combination of MileagePlus hotel partner transfers, so it’s not just that a single transfer qualifies.
Bonus miles through this promotion should post by January 31, 2027. That strikes me as an absolutely absurd timeframe for miles posting, so hopefully they post much faster than that. I almost wonder if that might be a typo in the terms & conditions.
Eligible hotel partners for this promotion include the following:
- Accor Live Limitless
- Choice Privileges
- IHG One Rewards
- Marriott Bonvoy
- Radisson Rewards
- Shangri-La Circle
- World of Hyatt
- Wyndham Rewards
Should you transfer hotel points to United?
Let me start by saying that generally speaking, converting any of the above points currencies into airline miles isn’t a good deal, with the exception of Marriott Bonvoy. So let’s crunch some numbers.
Marriott points ordinarily convert into airline miles at a 3:1 ratio. Thanks to a a special partnership between Marriott and United, you receive 10,000 bonus miles for every 60,000 points transferred, meaning that transferring 120,000 Bonvoy points ordinarily earns you 60,000 MileagePlus miles.
With this offer, you’d receive a 25% bonus, though that bonus is only on the base amount, and not on the 10,000 bonus miles per 60,000 points transferred. That means transferring 120,000 Bonvoy points would earn you 70,000 MileagePlus miles.
So you’re potentially looking at earning 0.58 United miles per Marriott point, which is… not great, but also not terrible. I still wouldn’t proactively transfer points, though.
United miles are fairly easy to earn thanks to United’s partnership with Chase Ultimate Rewards, which allows you to earn United miles with lots of credit cards. Furthermore, there are other ways to efficiently redeem on Star Alliance, including through Air Canada Aeroplan and Avianca Lifemiles. Meanwhile it’s a lot harder to efficiently earn Marriott points.
Bottom line
United MileagePlus is offering a 25% bonus when you convert hotel points into miles, and you can earn a maximum of 25,000 MileagePlus bonus miles with this promotion.
The catch is that there are few circumstances where it’s efficient to convert hotel points into United miles. The only potentially good deal is Marriott Bonvoy, given the preferred partnership between the two brands. However, even that doesn’t provide outsized value, in my opinion.
Does anyone plan on taking advantage of United MileagePlus’ 25% bonus on hotel points transfers?
Wouldn't it be 85,000 United Miles and not 70,000 (120,000/3 = 40,000 + 25,000 promo + 20,000 (10,000 for every 60,000) = 85,000?
It's not a 25,000 promo, it's a 25% bonus off of the 40,000 "base" miles you'd get from the transfer (before the 2x 10k bonuses). So that's an extra 10,000.
What about converting Amex Rewards to Marriott Bonvoy, and then transferring these to United? Would that make sense? Is that even allowed / technically possible?
I don't see why not, but better off buying Marriott points for that purpose, notwithstanding the 20% bonus transferring Amex to Marriott right now.
If you transfer 100k amex points to Marriott for 120k points, and then convert the 120k Marriott points to united you’ll get 70k united miles (40k from the transfer, 2x extra 10k (10k united per 60k Marriott transferred) plus united’s current promotion that you have to register for getting you an...
I don't see why not, but better off buying Marriott points for that purpose, notwithstanding the 20% bonus transferring Amex to Marriott right now.
If you transfer 100k amex points to Marriott for 120k points, and then convert the 120k Marriott points to united you’ll get 70k united miles (40k from the transfer, 2x extra 10k (10k united per 60k Marriott transferred) plus united’s current promotion that you have to register for getting you an extra 25% on the 40k – although as Ben notes, when those ‘bonus’ 10k miles post, who knows).
That’s… still not great, but if there is a targeted redemption at united you are looking at where you’re getting over 2.15cpp with united and are over 5/24 with chase and out of united miles… it’s a pathway.
That said, if you have the cash, still better to just buy Marriott points outright and then transfer those over. With the current Marriott points buying bonuses, will have to come out of pocket ~$1,100 to get the 120k points (depends on whether you get the 30% discount or 40% bonus miles deal), but that’s still a better value than transferring 100k amex miles that at 1.7cpp (OMAAT value) would be worth ~$1,700.
Wow - thanks a lot.
Thanks for the reminder that this was possible and the notification about the 25% bonus. Just registered and then transferred 120k points over from Marriott. 60k united miles immediately posted, and then immediately redeemed those for 4x 15k economy saver awards at 1.6cpp. So even valuing the bonus 10k united miles at OMAAT's ~1.1cpp valuation (whenever they arrive...) doing ~$200 better than a Marriott point at OMAAT's ~0.7cpp valuation. Quick boring win.
Not sure I'll...
Thanks for the reminder that this was possible and the notification about the 25% bonus. Just registered and then transferred 120k points over from Marriott. 60k united miles immediately posted, and then immediately redeemed those for 4x 15k economy saver awards at 1.6cpp. So even valuing the bonus 10k united miles at OMAAT's ~1.1cpp valuation (whenever they arrive...) doing ~$200 better than a Marriott point at OMAAT's ~0.7cpp valuation. Quick boring win.
Not sure I'll check every day to see when the bonus 10k miles post, but booked too early to select a seat apparently (said the United agent), so I'll check back in a few days when seat selection opens up.