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Got a stack of unused hotel rewards points and itching to book that next trip? Through November 30, 2016, United MileagePlus is running a promotion offering 25% bonus miles when transferring hotel points to United miles. You can earn up to 20,000 bonus miles through the promotion (which would require a minimum transfer earning 80K miles).
Promotion Details
Between October 12 and November 30, 2016, convert points from your hotel loyalty program to United MileagePlus award miles and receive 25% bonus miles, up to a maximum 20,000 miles.
- Register to earn 25% more miles
- Convert hotel points into MileagePlus miles by November 30, 2016
- Earn 25% bonus miles on all points-to-miles transfers, up to 20,000 bonus award miles
Transfer Points from Hotel Loyalty Programs to United MileagePlus
Most hotel rewards currencies have unfavorable transfer rates to United, with the exception of Marriott Rewards through its reciprocal agreement with United, RewardsPlus.
“With RewardsPlus, all MileagePlus members can convert Marriott Rewards points into award miles at a 20% discount compared to other airline partners.”
Transfer Rates to United MileagePlus:
- Starwood Preferred Guest – 2:1
- Hilton Honors – 10:1
- IHG Club – 5:1
- Club Carlson – 10:1
- World of Hyatt – 2.5:1 with 5K bonus when converting 50K points
- Choice Privileges – 5:1
- Wyndham Rewards – 5:1
- Golden Circle – 1:1
Marriott:
- 8,000 points to 2,000 miles
- 16,000 points to 5,000 miles
- 24,000 points to 10,000 miles
- 56,000 points to 25,000 miles
- 112,000 points to 50,000 miles
When to Transfer Hotel Points to United MileagePlus Miles
There are a few different scenarios in which a points-to-miles conversion with United could be worthwhile.
- If you need to top off a MileagePlus account to reach a specific redemption. Transferring points from a hotel loyalty program to United is an easy and free solution to getting extra miles in a hurry.
- If you have small balances spread across multiple hotel rewards programs from previous signups or promotions that you can’t see yourself adding to, and the balance is too low to redeem for anything of real value. Combining the points from all your dormant hotel accounts into MileagePlus with a 25% bonus would be an excellent way to make sure you get some value from those points before they expire.
- Credit for this third example goes to Shawn Coomer over at FrequentMiler and is an example of leveraging multiple transfers/conversions and receiving cumulative value. Taking advantage of the recent addition of points transfers between SPG and Marriott Rewards at a 1:3 ratio. If you transfer 90K Starpoints to Marriott Rewards, you’ll receive 270K Rewards points, which you can redeem for a 7-night Marriott Hotel & Air Package and select the Rewards Plus package which earns an additional 10% miles. You’ll earn 7-nights at a Marriott Category 1-5 property and 132K United miles, which with the addition of the maximum 20K bonus miles from MileagePlus will give you a total of 152K United Miles. Judge that by anyone's standards, and I think you’ll come out on top.
Final Thoughts
If you’re lucky enough to have 90K Starpoints in your SPG account, this would be a fantastic way of maximizing the value of your balance. Bear in mind that points transfers are final and there are no refunds so do your homework and have a redemption planned before pulling the trigger.
As United has shown in recent days with another unfavorable adjustment to its rewards program, stockpiling points in any program without a specific plan to redeem them is a risky business.
If you’re looking to take advantage of United’s latest points transfer promotion, let us know in the comments.
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